How does Alcohol effect your weight loss?
 

Every time I"m up when I visit my COD, even if it's 0.5 of a lb. The counsellors always blame it on that 1 glass of wine I had, like up 3 days prior.
I'm wondering if this is true and if it can really hold me back that much.
What are your experiences?

Sarah:)

Alcohol doesn't really affect my weightloss unless I consume a lot of it - it's fairly high in calories and is completely empty of any nutritional benefit (except maybe those handy anti oxidants they like to tell us about in wine lol) and we tend to drink a bit of it sometimes.

I lose more consistently when I don't drink as much but I have never stopped having my glass of wine entirely and I've not stalled. I think with me its just the added calories more than anything with alcohol that contribute to the slower loss.

Alcohol tends to make me retain water because it dehydrates me...so that DOES produce an increase on the scale. It's water weight though and goes away the next day or two.

Oh Alcohol! How I love thee! HA! Seriously through Alcohol has been my biggest obstacle to over come on this weightloss journey. I haven't seen any problems with my Wine consumption lately although I cut alcohol our completely my first like 40 days and then after that it was very minimal. lately I have been drinking 1 or 2 glasses of wine every night of the week. My Weightloss does seem slower but I don't know if I can blame that or the way that I have been eating. So I guess I would need to be perfect on plan to test my theory. I guess where I am getting at is I drink at least every weekend and I am still losing. I am not losing at a 2 lb per week rate maybe closer to 1.5 but that's good enough for me so that I can also enjoy the social gatherings I attend and of course the bar! HA HA! Hope that helped. It's sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me! HA!

What does wine count as?

3 oz is 1 fr... not very much. So at the very least one real glass of wine is 2fr. Sad I know.

Yeah..I really didn't take her too seriously. It's like I'm up 0.6 and they have to come up with a reason for it. Maybe there is no reason..just bodily fluctuations. Oh well, hopefully I'll be down on Thursday. Thanks for your input. Cecil, I'm jealous that you are able to drink 2 glasses a night!! that's awesome.

Sarah:)

Of course Cecilia and I will be chiming in here……this is our favorite topic.

I drink. Often. I also plan for it by setting aside starches and fruits. If I go over, I’ll cut down on the starches the next day to even out. I still lose weight consistently. The counselors ALWAYS give me crap about it. I don’t care. I know that if I don’t allow myself some drinks here and there, I won’t stay on track b/c I’ll feel isolated from my friends and deprived.

Alcohol is an obstacle for me. First and Last. Without a doubt in my mind. See.. I'm 22 years old.. I like to go out and have a good time on the weekends. LOL...and then come Monday when I have to weigh in- UH OH!! I know I could lose weight soooo much faster if I just didn't drink but if I didn't drink- I couldn't stay on plan otherwise. This is (i know this sounds really bad) my splurge... my way to stay on track.. my life. LOL! The counselors are always on me for it.. but what the heck? It's my body... Some people will go on a diet and like can't give up chocolate, or ice cream, or their favorite coffee... me? I can't give up alcohol. I prolly sound like an alcoholic right now.. which I'm not. I have cut myself down to drinking only once a week now. :D lol

So enough rambling.. my advice is that you can drink. Just monitor what your drinking and don't overdo it. Good luck! :D

:lol: girl.....you are cracking me up!!!
XOXO

In the beginning I would see fluctuations on their scale when I weigh in, my scale would show consistently dropping, but my weigh ins would be inconsistent. I fixed that by weighing in at the same time of day every time and stopping all food and liquids at a certain number of hours before weigh in. I don't know if this is bad or good, but it makes me feel better that they don't have to make excuses for my gain because that would always make me get on the defensive... On one occassion I was told that I eat out too much - when all I was having was a salad with grilled chicken and a DROP of dressing - no cheese, no croutons, just lettuce and chicken! Another time the counselor told me that I was having too many frozen dinners - when I had only had 1 frozen dinner in the past 2 weeks! Anyway, I weigh in at 5:30 MWF and I stop all eating and drinking at 3pm, no exceptions! Just gum between 3 and 5:30.

Julie

Oh, and on the alcohol topic - I skip fruits and starches as well to have a little more wine... it seems to work and having lost some of the weight already and being on a limited food intake, a little more wine is all I can handle!

Heck, I have had them blame my carrot and pear consumption for my weight being up! So it does not surprise me that they would pick on wine too. Very short term it probably does cause some fluctuations, since alcohol does dehydrate you. Long term the calories are what counts. So 1 glass of wine is about 100 calories, give or take, so if you are tacking on an additional 100-200 calories a day, of course it will slow your weight loss. Probably not stop it though.

Of course I would chime in too! I like to have a drink now and again. Not that I'm an alcoholic, although it was really hard giving it up for Lent this year. It seemed as soon as I did everyone and his brother wanted to buy me a drink.

Hi Cecil,

Alcohol has always been my biggest obstacle with my LA dieting. The reason why I fell off the wagon a few years ago. I'm back on now but I'm really trying to limit drinking for one day a week and not overdo it. I'm wondering though, can I ask how many drinks you have when you go out on the weekend? I'm trying to stick between 3-5? So that'll at least cover my starches and fruits :S lol

Hi Jill,

Your post is reassuring. So you don't think alcohol consumption will in the long run slow down your metabolism? I'd love to be able to do as you say without it affecting my weight loss. But I think more damaging to weight loss success is the guilt the counselors make you feel when you have been drinking. This is probably worse than the actual drinks if you have them count as some of your servings.

I went up 2 lbs this week, they blamed the 3 vodka/clamatos I had on the weekend (that I saved up my starches and vegs for). They have never said anything about how I have my 6 baby carrots every day though. I do the carrots because 3 veg is way too much for me considering a serving of lettuce is 3 cups, are you kidding me? And apparently it is very important to have not too little/not too much but exactly one serving.

I also eat (diet) cheese and on the occasionally list salsa every day. And I ramble and go off topic on threads. LOL!