in order to drop these last 8-10 pounds I have seriously reduced drinking–beer, wine, anything that has alcohol. by reducing I mean, limiting it to just 1 or 2 nights a week when I can have an adult beverage–and no more than 4 a week, and no more than 2 drinks in one night. it’s a positive change. but I wonder if doing this will acutally translate to loosing weight. (i have improved my diet as well)
is there anyone here that seriously reduced/quit drinking and by doing so lost weight?
also, I hear all of this talk about not eating bread. well, I eat it, and granted it’s about 80 calories for 2 slices, and sometimes I have up to 4 slices a day, so 160 calories. by doing this am I defeating my own efforts?
whenever i need to shed a few pounds, i cut out alcohol big time. i’m a female in my 20s. i think that’s relevant to get an idea of metabolism in general.
normally i drink every night, 1-2 glasses of wine, and maybe 2-3 glasses of wine two days a week. (maybe i have a problem…) Before races, I cut back a lot. For weight loss (and I only ever want to shed about 3-5 pounds), I stop drinking entirely. It’s hard, but it works. And it works FAST. I believe alcohol is metabolized as fat, the kind that’s around your belly. I feel better when I work out too.
I don’t drink, but I dropped 15 lbs this offseason by cutting back on exercise and starting Slimfast. I have been exercising twice a day 6 times a week which meant I had to consume a ton of calories to sustain the effort. I cut back to 3 times a week at an easy intensity so that I wouldn’t bonk from lack of calories while replacing two meals with shakes. It only took me two months to get back to the weight I wanted to be at.
Bread is high calorie, but I feel like rather than cut back on it, if you switch to dark bread, you’ll do better. It’s more filling and higher fiber.
thanks for the answer. i was drinking about as much as you mentioned, plus maybe a little more (say 4 glasses of wine) one time a week. maybe this will work. Thanks!
I’ve always read about alcohol being a no-no when losing weight.
But for me, it’s bad for an additional reason. If I have one beer, then it’s, well, why not another one. Then, of course, snacks are required. Etc. So I can go from a good day to a bad day with just the opening of one beer.
I usually have one or two beers a night with maybe 1 night a week with none and one night on the weekend with quite a few more. I’m mid twenties. I find that if I need a kick start in losing weight cutting out the alcohol for a week or two helps. Just changes the diet balance or something and I can drop a few pounds quickly with no other changes. After that I can go back to a beer or two a night and I don’t seem to put the weight right back on.
Nothing scientific here but works for me. If I’m really training hard I don’t think the beer or two with dinner matter at all. Big weekend nights still do though. Not drinking beer when I know I’ll full (like going out after a big meal) seems to make a difference as well.
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy” Benjamin Franklin
Since I started my cycling season in early March I have pretty much completely cut out alcohol (in the past month i have had maybe 2 beers total). Alcohol is metabolized as fat and has no nutritional value. More than the calories from alcohol I have just found that cutting alcohol out of my diet is much better for training and racing. Alcohol hinders recovery.
In the past month I have also lost weight through a very healthy diet, very slight caloric restriction (100 kcal/day). In a month I have lost about 4 lbs.
Also, bread is a lot closer to 70-90 cals per slice, not 40. That being said I eat sandwiches on whole grain bread and refuse to cut carbohydrates/breads/starches out of my diet I just don’t snack on bread. My caloric intake is about 60% carb/25% pro/15% fat.
In the end, I try to think about eating like fueling my body. Alcohol is putting something in the tank that slows the car down, snacking on bread is filling up on high octane fuel when not driving.
there’s alot of empty calories in beer - something like 400 or more for a bottle…which your body then tries really hard (mainly your liver) to convert to sugar - which then causes insulin to spike which then causes your body to store calories as fat…
there’s alot of empty calories in beer - something like 400 or more for a bottle…which your body then tries really hard (mainly your liver) to convert to sugar - which then causes insulin to spike which then causes your body to store calories as fat…
or so thats what I’ve read…
I think it’s more like 150 to 200 cals per bottle.
Eliminating the booze is any easy way to cut out extra empty calories when trying to lose a couple of lbs.
Since when did bread become bad to eat? I’ll agree that that white wonderbread is crap but whole grain bread is an excellent addition to one’s diet.
Keep on doing what you’re doing. There’s no easy and quick way to properly lose weight. The folks who are severely limiting their caloric intake and going on these crash diets are setting themselves up for trouble.
My whole take on losing weight but not cutting out the things you love is replacing the calories. If I want a glass or two of wine, I’m going to have it. I may eat oranges instead of a banana, 4 oz. yogurts vs. 6 oz. yogurts, etc. Just make room for what you love…
I recall that alcohol has 7 calories per gram, almost as much as fat. A 10 oz serving (glass and a half or so in most restaurants) of 12% alcohol wine has just over an ounce of alcohol, call it about about 30 grams - so 210 calories from alcohol.
Cut that alcohol intake in half and save 700 a week, or close to enough to lose a pound a month.
Never read anything about alcohol’s effect on fat metabolism- can anyone cite a reference for that?
I sell wine (and food) for a living- so my economic self interest is affected by this but there are plenty of gluttons and others out there even if all the triathletes lower their wine consumption by half…
Alcohol is most likely counter productive to everything, but I still love it. I say do the extra miles, laps or weight work to burn the extra Lbs.
That said when I cut out the booze my weight drops like a stone and my physical condition improves a lot. Which leads to the question is mental or physical health more important? I guess I’ll shoot for the middle - not too skinny, not too crazy
Alcohol and bread are definitely two different things. In regards to alcohol and fat, there is no clear answer. Alcohol tends to make you eat more, but there is not a direct connection to alcohol and fat storage per se., though you have to expect some changes to metabolism because of alcohols affect on the liver (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 69, No. 2, 173-174, February 1999) and hey I founds Mr. Linky (http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/69/2/173).
That said, as an endurance athlete alcohol is hard on your liver, which is already being taxed in so many ways by the endurance training and racing. IOW if you were to ask me to pick a sport compatible with alcohol it would be softball or volleyball or something and not something as overall taxing on all your body’s systems as triathlon.
In regards to bread, it is metabolized very different than alcohol, and all things being equal I prefer bread to say, pork hot dogs for endurance training and racing. Next time S/O says to cut out the bread, challenge them to a race where you can only eat bread the day of and 2 days before the race, and they can only eat pork hot dogs in that time, and see who wins.
I was pleased to learn that a glass of Guiness has fewer calories than a glass of orange juice or a glass of milk. And Guiness has all of the antioxident and other benifits of red wine. The perfect drink? I think so…
