Alcohol
 

Last night, I went out to a club kinda depressed, and I ended up drinking my weight in alcohol. Needless to say, come tonight, I'm up 4 pounds from usual. I know probably some of that is water retention since alcohol depleats your body of water, but will the actual damage be that bad?
I probably had about 7 shots...

That's hard to tell, but it should less than 1 pound of actual damage.

I hope today is a better day for you :hug:

Thanks :-) It went pretty well. I did have pizza for dinner (oops!) but I stuck to one small slice and had salad and veggies instead of a few slices.
It's good to know the actual gain won't be THAT bad. I was nervous that I undid 2 weeks of work for one stupid night, lol

Hey! Ouch... You can use a rough estimate of 100 cals. per "shot" of alcohol. A beer (12 oz) has about 150 depending on type and brand, and a glass of red wine (3.5 oz) about 70.

Four pounds, although a scary number, is probably water weight, as Suzanne 3FC says. Take it easy for a couple of days--it should come off again. :)

Jay

...and keep drinking lots and lots of water to flush those toxins out!!

Alcohol is the number one killer of a healthy diet (IMHO)!!

I can relate to your dilemma. One of the reasons my weightloss stalls is because I still drink alcohol. I would probably do a lot better if I didn't drink, but I love my wine! Hang in there, I think everyone here has given you great advice.

my vice is cider, i think i should stop drinking it, theres a ridiculous amount of cals in it!! Ive been laying off the booze recently but im dreading when i start university again, my associates are complete alcoholics!

Originally Posted by ih8diets:
my vice is cider, i think i should stop drinking it, theres a ridiculous amount of cals in it!! Ive been laying off the booze recently but im dreading when i start university again, my associates are complete alcoholics!

I can SO relate to that. My roommates would make fun of me INCESSANTLY in college when I said I would not drink alcohol every night because I was dieting. They'd say they'd rather starve and drink than eat healthy and take some time off.
But you know what? I had fun anyway.

Why is everybody looking at me? :shrug:

GARY WHAT DO YOU MEAN... WHY WOULD WE BE LO"OKING AT YOUUUU. :eek:

Jay

Hey, just thought I'd list some of the effects of alcohol on fat loss!

If you're really serious about losing fat, try to keep alcohol consumption to a minimum at all costs.

Alcohol is possibly the worst substance when trying to lose fat. One night of drinking could easily set you back a whole week, especially if you end up eating any junk food before/after you drink.

Alcohol is very calorie-dense. Shots of hard liquor can run anywhere from 60 to over 100 calories per shot, depending on the alcohol level. Beer contains refined carbs in the form of maltose, which is considered to be worse than table sugar! And wine coolers or other alcoholic drinks are loaded with sugar on top of the alcohol.

Alcohol causes dehydration, which slows down fat loss. When the body is dehydrated, toxic wastes build up in the kidneys because they cannot be flushed out by water. At this point, the liver steps in and helps to rid this buildup of wastes from the body. When the liver does this, it has to ditch its normal functions, one of them being burning stored fat.

Alcohol contains "empty calories" which have no nutritional benefit. So if you factor alcohol calories into your daily caloric intake, you are substituting something good for something that will set you back.

If you're gonna drink alcohol, Never EVER EVER eat junk food before or after drinking. Because alcohol slows the metabolism and slows fat loss, these junk foods will be stored as fat very easily if you eat them before or after drinking.

Hope this helps!

Good luck with everything,

Tim

It's hard......I've been 9 days without my nightly glass(es) of Cabernet. I missed it, but I'm getting over it. I know that I'll never not drink, but I know that I need to stay away from it in order to lose. Okay, so I had a beer with lunch this weekend, but at least it was within my calories (somewhat). I'll never abstain completely, but until I see goal, I'll stay away from alcohol. It is detrimental, I know.

Gary......you've got this, um, what is it called....oh, yeah! Reputation! Yeah, that's it!!

I drink once per week when we get together with all our friends. Sometimes I go a little overboard. Generally not though. I usually limit myself to three or four shots. And since we're generally out walking or doing something else active (we play DDR and Wii Sports drunk O_o) I like to think it off sets some of the calories.

I used to make Malibu Sunrises - they were my FAVORITE thing in the world. Then I learned how many calories are in Grenadine. I just drink the Malibu straight now, if at all.

I try to avoid alcohol most of the time--it just tends to stall weight loss. I did have a couple (2) drinks last night, and I was down two pounds this morning--gotta love that post-booze dehydration. I'm sure once I pound some water today, my weight will pop back up to where it was. I drink rum/diet coke/lime when I do drink, so I keep my calories in control and no carbs.

In general, I'd say it isn't a great idea to drink while you're losing weight. Though I do enjoy an occasional drink without too many negative effects.

I used to really enjoy wine with dinner, esp when eating out. However, when I started dieting this time, I gave it up, which I did not do on previous diet attempts. Here's the math that convinced me: 2 glasses of wine per day @ 100 calories each (because a glass is rarely 4 oz, usually 5 to 7 oz.) 200 calories per day is 1400 calories per week. 1400 calories per week is 25 lbs per year. 4 years of that is 100 lbs.
Well, I didn't really drink 7 nights a week but 2 nights sometimes became 3, then 5, etc.
Once a month, I have a meal when I eat whatever I want. Anything. Just the one meal. I have some wine then. When I hit goal, I will have some wine a little more frequentlly but I have to be very diligent. It is easy to let the calories slip in. And in my case, alcohol definitely increases my appetite. I miss it sometimes... But I miss having the "real me" more.

Originally Posted by GingerRail:
Here's the math that convinced me: 2 glasses of wine per day @ 100 calories each (because a glass is rarely 4 oz, usually 5 to 7 oz.) 200 calories per day is 1400 calories per week. 1400 calories per week is 25 lbs per year. 4 years of that is 100 lbs.

omg... I am so going to post that onto my fridge!!

This is so tough because I'm a big wine drinker and I will never give it up. So, how does one explain my situation when I lost my initial 32 pounds? I drank a lot! I guess I averaged 3 nights a week (many glasses) and I still managed to lose the weight. Granted, it was a very slow process and that makes sense now, in retrospect, but I still lost weight. I'm back to eating healthy and exercising again because I gained some back. I'm still having my wine at night. I've been more conscientious about how much I consume this time though and have cut back on the evenings but it's still something I enjoy and have not cut out of my diet. There was no mention about the amount of exercise one does in the info that Tim posted. That is an important thing to leave out, don't you think? I can see a considerable amount of weight gain (obviously) if the person never exercises.

When I used to drink before I got put on medication that makes my stomach very sensitive to alcohol, that I would always get the munchies and didn't pay as close attention to eating. My husband has gained some weight since he really does get MONSTER MUNCHIES when drinking and even the next day it seems like his eating is out of control.

It seems like a lot of folks like to make room for some alcohol in their plan. Of course, there is a line one doesn't want to cross with alcohol. Me, I crossed that line a long time ago, and now I don't drink at all.

Other than alcohol addiction, a couple of things are worth keeping in mind.

One is "empty calories," as others pointed out. Not a lot of nutrition in alcoholic beverages--essentially, none. So, if someone is staying, say, between 1200 and 1400 cals to lose weight, they might want to have 100 cals of protein instead of a drink!

Another is that alcohol does lower inhibitions, and that means the food plan can go right out the window.

Jay

last week monday was the first time I had ANY alcohol since I started "dieting" again. I had 2 10oz tomatoe beers (light beer at that) and then last week thursday we played horseshoes, well then I had several beers! (NOT A GOOD IDEA). This week when we play again I will have to stick to the water and diet pop...because my body and scale are yellin at me now! I am definately up a couple pounds and the alcohol is what started it.....grrrrr

Originally Posted by GingerRail:
Here's the math that convinced me: 2 glasses of wine per day @ 100 calories each (because a glass is rarely 4 oz, usually 5 to 7 oz.) 200 calories per day is 1400 calories per week. 1400 calories per week is 25 lbs per year. 4 years of that is 100 lbs.

WOW! That really made me think. Thanks for posting it. Right now, I have a couple of drinks about 5 nights a week, but I think I will cut it back to Friday and Saturday nights...I enjoy it too much to cut it out completely, but I can see that if I cut it back, it would help a lot.