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Do Alcohol and Weight Loss Mix?
We had a client called Kelly. She weighed 202 lbs. She was a lovely, bubbly, vivacious girl...a party animal by any other name! Now, we started working with Kelly and just like any other client we asked her if she drank alcohol and if so, how often and how much. Her answer was along the lines of now and again and not much. So we got her started on her healthy weight loss plan and she lost a few pounds. Then... The weight loss stopped. We analysed her food intake. No problem. Exercise, not a lot but the odd aerobics class was a good sign. Was she sticking to the program? Absolutely, she swore. The weeks went by and her weight started creeping up. We called her one night for a regular chat and she wasn't in. But her mum was. Baby sitting. Kelly was out, her mum helpfully informed us...boozing in a few bars before hitting the clubs. And how often does she go out, we enquired? Three or four nights a week, her mum replied. And how much does she drink, we enquired? Oh, 10 or 15 Bacardi Breezers and a few tequila slammers, her mum replied...normally followed by a kebab on the way home. We were staggered that Kelly's weight had remained static for as long as it had on her program! Now Kelly is fairly typical of many young people in the UK...the binge-drinking culture is well entrenched. Alcohol and weight loss do mix, but only if you limit yourself to a few drinks a week.
Is Alcohol Banned, Then...?Here are a few facts...Alcohol contains more calories per gram than fat. There are 3.5 calories in a gram of carbohydrate, 4 calories in a gram of protein, 7 calories in a gram of fat and...9 calories in a gram of alcohol! Worse still, your body cannot store alcohol so it either has to burn it off there and then or convert it to fat...it takes 30 minutes of vigorous dancing to burn off a Bacardi Breezer! A glass of wine has between 80-120 calories depending on the size of the glass. A pint of beer around 200 calories, the stronger the beer the more calories. A gin and tonic around 200 calories. An alcocop (Bacardi Breezer, Smirnoff Ice, etc) around 180-200 calories. Add up those calories and ask yourself if drinking a lot of alcohol and weight loss mix! So Can I Drink Alcohol and Lose Weight...?Treat alcohol like you would sugar...if you can't limit yourself to a glass with a meal, then you may want to consider not drinking it at all, at least while you're trying to lose weight. Its up to you.Personally, we would find a life without red wine hard to bear...would it be worth living at all!!! So moderation is probably a more realistic option if you do drink. A glass of wine with your evening meal is fine. Try sipping a glass of water with your wine to make it last longer. Spritzers, wine with fizzy water are a good option as is a spirit with a diet soda...vodka and diet coke, for instance. One of our clients, Tracy, makes a single measure of gin last pretty much for a whole night out... just topped up with ice and diet tonic water at regular intervals. She has no problem combining alcohol and weight loss. Another client, Andy, doesn't drink alcohol during the week and has a couple of pints of lager at the weekend. If you fancy a drink then have one. It won't make much of a difference. Its what you do most of the time that matters so exercise some control and limit your intake. Alcohol and weight loss will then no longer be mutually exclusive!
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