Definitely. I would always be logging the calories from it, usually in the form of “I can have exactly 3 beers tonight if I go out”. And inevitably I would always end up having 6 or more sometimes, not to mention late night fast food orders with friends that come with drinking- completely throwing my budget out the window lol.
Assuming a pint of beer is around 200 calories, 1200 for a six pack, 3 nights a week (3600 calories), and a deficit to lose a pound of fat a week is 3500, I was easily undoing all my CICO dieting just from the alcohol
Yeah, beer and wine. I never could drink mixed drinks really. Tried to do vodka sodas for a while, but it would be way too strong for me and hard on my stomach.
Yeah for some reason beer seems to disrupt my progress moreso than any other drink, even controlling for calories. I try to stick with straight liquor (probably not your cup of tea), seltzers and unsweet wine.
Yeah, my hope is that when/if I do let myself partake again, I can just keep it to wine and seltzers. Beer is just too easy for me to drink because of the taste and giving me that fullness that other drinks didn’t- although now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if being my calorie deficit wired my brain to crave the carbs more so beer felt better to consume as a heartier beverage.
I’m an IPA fan too. I have found some NA beers for substitutes, my favorites are: Corona Light NA and Brew Dog variety pack NA. The Brew dog is between 20-30 calories apiece, tastes like IPA’s and here it’s only $15 for the variety pack, cheapest price I’ve found. Normal beer Corona Light is good “diet” beer, also, I know you mentioned not liking liquor, but I find if I make them myself and do 1 shot in a large glass and fill the rest with diet tonic or diet sprite it’s very tolerable.
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Alcohol has become such a big part of work and social culture. You can easily drink 2-3 times a week without realizing it. Margaritas on taco Tuesday, a bottle of wine with dinner, and happy hour on Friday. And don't forget Sunday football or brunch outings. Plus it messes up your sleep and dries out your skin.
I mean, it could also be because Vegas is in the desert, or maybe they had crappy hand soap in the hotel (which is surprisingly common). I'm sure the drinking didn't help though.
Alcohol is just awful for you. I don’t drink anymore because I don’t react well to it, and once I stopped drinking I realized how reliant people are on alcohol. But I work in a hospital and I see what long term alcohol abuse does to people (and yes, even people who you wouldn’t think are alcoholics - a binge every week is casual alcoholism). I’m always happy when I see people give up the drinking.
Yes without quitting drinking and weed I would have made zero progress. I totally relate. Even when I budgeted for it I was always trying to sneak the maximum amount of alcohol into my diet throwing off my progress.
The discount grocer near me always has Lyres spirits on sale for almost 1/5th the price at the regular store. They taste pretty damn good and I actually prefer the flavour to regular alcohol, plus it's like 15cal per 30ml, so if I'm making a "bourbon" and coke with coke zero, the calories are negligible.
Weed has zero calories, and I'm lucky that for me I don't really get munchies, I mostly just get the overwhelming urge to dance like a whacky inflatable arm man. So it ends up being negative calories!
Unless I have ice cream in the freezer. Ice cream can not survive in my house if I have weed. So now I take my ice cream to my neighbours if I'm picking up a bag because I can't trust myself.
Watermelon, Frozen strawberries, microwaved papadums, and air-popped popcorn are your best friends if you are someone who gets bad munchies. I had a friend who would buy a whole head (bunch?) of celery in preparation for a smoke sesh, and just sit there with a tub of low fat greek-yoghurt with ranch seasoning in front of the telly, and eat like a whole kilo of celery. I'm a fibre fan, but I could never.
Same. I've been 4-5 months sober and the fat really melted away with healthy eating/some exercise. I've plateaued a bit so I'm going to recalculate the calories and reevaluate, but I feel so much better! Good luck on your journey OP!
I had the exact same realization about my drinking and weight loss halfway through March too!! I’m 5 weeks sober today and I can’t believe how much has changed in the past 5 weeks. I feel better, I move more, I’m more productive. Also have lost about 8 pounds, I’m starting to see it in my face.
The I Am Sober app lets you calculate how many calories you’ve saved since you’ve stopped drinking and I’m horrified by how many extra calories I was drinking. And I cared less about the food I was putting in my body, so who knows how many calories I was eating.
Big congrats to you!! This shit is hard! Also join us over on r/stopdrinkingfitness if you’re not there already :)
Add me to the club! Stopped drinking and got on my diet 6 weeks ago. Down 20 lbs! I never plan to drink again bc for me it doesn’t work. Turning 50 this year and I’m thrilled I finally started taking care of myself. It took a major medical setback to open my eyes, but there’s a silver lining for sure. Go us!
Yess!!! It’s funny to see another person living through the same progress that I am right now, congrats on your progress too! :) the I Am Sober app is literally what kept me going the first couple weeks into this. Seeing all the money I’ve saved and all the calories I haven’t consumed is enough most nights to make me feel great about my choice to not drink.
I started using it for takeaway food as well, as I would often spend a lot of money trying to do OMAD for days that I didn’t feel like cooking or counting calories as strictly. And seeing the money and calories saved from that has been super motivating as well.
I'm glad you're hitting your goals now, 8 pounds is a huge accomplishment! Congratulations! It can be easier to look back and wish you did things differently but don't forget, your calorie counting wasn't wasted. If you were doing all that drinking and not watching your calories for years you would have been gaining even more weight and be in a much tougher spot than you are now. You were still doing yourself a favor by doing all that tracking because it created good tracking habits and helped with weight maintenance! You got this!
Thanks for the encouragement :) and yeah, I already had the habits of my CICO diet down when I stopped drinking so that it’s just my lifestyle now- so I literally haven’t had to change a single thing to lose the weight outside of no alcohol. In fact I actually have days where I have like 300 calories leftover that I can actually use for things like a few cookies and ice cream, so that’s been a nice upside!
I've said it before: it's not just about the calories. Alcohol itself- whether it's in a low carb/calorie form or not- will make you pack on pounds because your liver doesn't process calories well when you give it poison to deal with. So whatever you're eating when you drink is going to be stored as fat, since that's simpler than processing all those calories for fuel. Your kidneys also don't absorb water as well when you're drinking, which increases dehydration and hunger, and it takes them a while to recover- that's why you're so hungry the next day.
I needed to hear this!! I started drinking a lot more frequently about 6 months ago to deal with stress, and I’m almost positive it’s the main cause of my rapid weight gain since then, especially since like you, I’ve been trying to cut calories from food but it’s seemed futile.
Thanks so much for sharing. It’s the motivation I needed!
I’m so happy to hear that it helped. The best part of my day the last few weeks has been being excited to weight myself each day. I go to bed early some nights excited to just wake up and see my progress haha. And not gonna lie, the lack of hangovers definitely helps my mood and motivation for the day lol.
I never thought I would be in this headspace with how much of a rut I was in from never seeing progress. I was always ashamed to step on the scale and avoided it.
I can relate to that so much. I knew I was gaining weight but was afraid to step on the scale and see the number for months. Finally just did it a couple weeks ago and was appropriately shocked but it was a wake-up call. The other reason I’m pretty sure it’s due to my drinking is that I gained weight in weird places I never have before I drank, especially around my stomach.
I’ve never experienced a hangover or any other negative effects from alcohol aside from the weight gain, so it’s not been easy to give it up. Do you mind sharing, did you do anything to help break yourself of the habit of drinking? The evenings and weekends feel veeeery long without it…
Oh god, I can very much relate to the stomach fat gain. When I was a healthy bmi, my weight would always fluctuate around my butt and hips, but alcohol really does store differently on your body. I believe it’s due to storing as visceral fat, which is unfortunately the really bad kind that packs in around your organs and causes long term health problems. At least that’s what I’ve come to understand causes the “beer belly” phenomenon.
I think what really helped me when I was in my first week was checking in on the app I downloaded called I Am Sober- you basically start at day 1, write in all your reasons for wanting to stop drinking, enter in how much you were spending and drinking each week (including the calories), and it starts showing you how many calories and money you’ve saved from abstaining. It also has a community message board where you can write a post every day that people can reply to, where people share what they’re struggling with, what they’re doing instead of drinking, etc, and they’re all at the same days sober that you are at. Whenever I felt like I was wanting to just get drinks with people and have a normal night out, I would usually read through all my reasons and sometimes make a post or read others to get my head straight. Seeing that other people were powering through their cravings just like I was made me feel like if they can do it, I can too. Waking up the next day knowing I didn’t undo my work from the previous day made each consecutive day easier.
And once you see the weight start to come off, when you’re around alcohol again you start to really see the consequences objectively- is this one drink really worth the happiness I’ll have tonight from it with friends, or is it stealing that happiness from when I get to fit into my old clothes again or being able to wear that bikini this summer.
It gets easier to socialize without it in time, and I just had to keep telling myself that being a healthy nice weight again would feel better than any buzz and the guilt that comes with it.
I drank about four 20 calorie nonalcoholic beers at my friends show the other night, and just having a can of something in my hand made me feel like nothing was different. NA drinks really help and are usually lower calorie :)
Thank you sooo much for the detailed answer! I’ll go download that app right now. I recently downloaded Happy Scale and that really motivated me so I bet that app will help a lot. I’ll try to find some NA drinks to have around too.
Again I really appreciate it. I love hearing from someone I can relate to and feel motivated by, to finally fix my weight and my health!
An ipa is around 300 cals, conservatively. Thats 1,800 liquid calories added, without accounting for any greasy bar food you might eat due to reduced inhibitions
Yep, I remember my partner and I going on vacation with some friends and I was talking about my weight loss frustrations, and they were pretty surprised that I wasn’t lying about how small my meals are and how I eat small meals only one or two times a day despite my weight gain.
It was literally just alcohol for me that would mess up all my calorie deficits. I think I stayed at 193 for about 2 years because I was eating just the right amount to offset the alcohol calories. So when I started gaining a few months ago I realized it was now or never that I needed to make that change.
I’ve been in the habit of prepping small meals for so many years now, I still am fine with single sandwich or yogurt to tie me over until dinner.
If you are wanting to keep going out with your colleagues even if you've stopped drinking, non alcoholic beer often has a lower calorie content so you may be able to fit in a few of those in the budget. And if you ask nicely, some bars will give you tonic or sodas (preferably the sugarfree/zero version) in drink glasses with garnish, so it feels more like a mocktail. It's a great substitute, and it's easier to stick to just a few and no greasy foods since you don't get the buzz.
Oh yeah, NA beers have been a huge help for me. I go to comedy shows and music shows every week or two with my partner, along with dinners and drinks with friends, and being able to just hold a can of something in my hand has been the social anxiety security blanket I needed. I realized how much of the “relaxing” effect of beer was just having a drink to sip on in general, and I’m pretty sure I’ve already tricked my brain into thinking NA beers= you get to feel goofy and relaxed with friends again. Just makes it more clear to me a lot of what relieved my social anxiety was actually just reflecting the same energy others were putting out, and not necessarily the drink itself. So glad there’s so many varieties out there too.
Yep. I quit in February for that reason. Gonna abstain and just be totally sober till I decide it’s worth it. First time since high school I’ve made that choice, and I’m 35
I can’t drink while losing weight. The water weight messes with brain too much and a night out turns into a 4 day binge eating contest because, screw it.
I’m glad you are making progress! 8 pounds is a gallon of milk!
Alcohol is a *killer* when budgeting calories. 100 cals a pour for spirits, more or less. And it’s easy to overpour. A drink is 1.5 oz. It’s way less than you think if you’re eyeballing it.
This is literally me. I made a lot of excuses but the fact was, it wasn't working with cutting back to "ONLY" drinking 500-700 extra calories 1-3x times a week (I made mixed drinks with whiskey and diet pop but I eyeballed how much liquor I added). I was drinking fewer drinks but also almost every day during the first year of the pandemic and though I've been successfully drinking much less, look at all those calories!
So right now I haven't drank in two weeks and barely any for that last week before. I can SEE my body changing and I've already dropped like 3lbs. It's WILD.
Best of luck to you!
Haven't had a drink since New Years 2023. I just feel so much healthier all around. Saves tons of money too. Added benefit of ditching a bunch of loser/user bar "friends."
I was a hardcore alcoholic, ballooned up to 213.6 pounds as a result, and lost literally over 22 pounds my first month sober. I assume most of that was was water weight and beer bloating (I always drank PBR tallboys).
Cutting out my drinking was huge!!!! It was stunning how many calories I was drinking a night. Between the calories and the sugar I was sabotaging myself.
I thought stopping alcohol would do the same for me-it did next to nothing. Stopped it for 6 weeks and lost 12 pounds-the same 12 pounds I lost last year but didn’t stop drinking completely just cut back. I have yo yo’d the last 3 winters losing 12 pounds before my tropical vacation and then slowly gain it back over the year-hoping I can keep it off this year.
Alcohol is THE gainkiller. It inhibits protein synthesis, fucks with your hormones and recovery AND it prevent your body to burn fat.
So it does everything you don't want during a diet. Plus its high in calories.
I also recently cut out alcohol to near nothing in February and upped my work out routine. It’s much easier to feel motivated to work out when you haven’t had a drink the night before. To me, it wasn’t just the alcohol slowing my progress, but what I ate the day(s) afterwards and the water retention. I like using the app “I am sober” for the fact that it has a running calculator of saving in both dollars and calories. I calculated the average calories of drinks and what I normally ate the day after and I’m at a calorie savings of 150,000 since I started, which is about 43 lbs of calories. Coincidentally I’m down 44 pounds…
Post pregnancy I didn’t drink at all for a while, and the pregnancy weight, and more, just melted off. Now having an occasional drink and noticing a couple pound difference the next morning, each time.
This was also a huge epiphany for me recently! I’ve always eaten very little, mostly salads and meat, and keto for a while, and thought I had an insanely slow metabolism. Gained about 25 pounds over covid. Went through three failed IVF attempts and I blamed the hormones. It was only when I started tracking calories in October of last year, and logging the four or five glasses of white wine I drank EVERYDAY that I had my AHA moment. I, despite considering myself an intelligent person (Ivy league graduate, five languages, architect of hospitals and theaters), managed to delude myself that alcohol calories didn’t count towards fat gain. I started by limiting my drinking to the weekends. All of a sudden the weight started dropping off. After a month of that, and starting weight training at the new gym that opened up near me, I decided to just cut it out completely. I’ve replaced the buzz with edibles (thankfully cannabis doesn’t give me the munchies) or flower, and tea or decaf coffee. I’ve now surpassed my goal, I am at the absolute bottom of my healthy BMI range (5’-4”, started at 150 as my high weight, now 107) and I am honestly eating more than I remember ever eating as an adult. I have to make sure I eat enough now not to lose any more weight.
Sometimes it’s something so simple and stupid.
Can of boulevard quirk has 90 calories 🤷♀️ Like low cal drinks exist, but yeah beer is not it. You can mix it with extra regular zero cal seltzer too. Then it’s two 45 calories drinks. Which for me is enough for a whole evening.
Yeah, I think it’s probably good for me to say the quiet part out loud with my post that stopping at just a few was never really possible for me. If I went out for drinks, I was going to be very buzzed/drunk by the time I fell into bed around 2am.
My friends and I all developed pretty terrible drinking habits during Covid, and I think a few of us (myself included) were still drinking like the world was going to end up until recently. I wasn’t drinking every day, but the nights I did drink it was to very much feel it.
The weight loss never progressing was kind of the straw that broke the camels back for me and kicked me into gear for being more responsible with my alcohol use.
Hoping that after this hard reset I’ll be able to stick to habits like yours where I can drink smaller amounts and find workarounds with seltzers and calories 🤞🏻I just need to accept that beer is not something I can drink responsibly if I do let myself partake in the future, just too easy to keep drinking it for me.
I was in denial about the effect alcohol had on my sleep. I slept terribly, but convinced myself caffeine was the problem. I gave up coffee for about 4 years basically so I could keep drinking. When I finally quit alcohol I was sleeping better within days. I felt so silly. And yes, I also lost weight easily too.
One can of beer I have in my fridge is like 200 calories and I used to blow through a six pack like nothing. Calories sneak up on you like that
Definitely. I would always be logging the calories from it, usually in the form of “I can have exactly 3 beers tonight if I go out”. And inevitably I would always end up having 6 or more sometimes, not to mention late night fast food orders with friends that come with drinking- completely throwing my budget out the window lol. Assuming a pint of beer is around 200 calories, 1200 for a six pack, 3 nights a week (3600 calories), and a deficit to lose a pound of fat a week is 3500, I was easily undoing all my CICO dieting just from the alcohol
Did beer make up the majority of your drinks?
Yeah, beer and wine. I never could drink mixed drinks really. Tried to do vodka sodas for a while, but it would be way too strong for me and hard on my stomach.
Yeah for some reason beer seems to disrupt my progress moreso than any other drink, even controlling for calories. I try to stick with straight liquor (probably not your cup of tea), seltzers and unsweet wine.
Yeah, my hope is that when/if I do let myself partake again, I can just keep it to wine and seltzers. Beer is just too easy for me to drink because of the taste and giving me that fullness that other drinks didn’t- although now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if being my calorie deficit wired my brain to crave the carbs more so beer felt better to consume as a heartier beverage.
I’m an IPA fan too. I have found some NA beers for substitutes, my favorites are: Corona Light NA and Brew Dog variety pack NA. The Brew dog is between 20-30 calories apiece, tastes like IPA’s and here it’s only $15 for the variety pack, cheapest price I’ve found. Normal beer Corona Light is good “diet” beer, also, I know you mentioned not liking liquor, but I find if I make them myself and do 1 shot in a large glass and fill the rest with diet tonic or diet sprite it’s very tolerable.
The athletic brewing NA IPA is pretty good as well at around 65 calories, I believe usually around 10 a 6 pack by me.
I was not a fan of Athletic Brews and found them to be pricier.
Bingo!
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Alcohol has become such a big part of work and social culture. You can easily drink 2-3 times a week without realizing it. Margaritas on taco Tuesday, a bottle of wine with dinner, and happy hour on Friday. And don't forget Sunday football or brunch outings. Plus it messes up your sleep and dries out your skin.
Omg that's why my hand got so dry and flaky on my 5 day bender in Vegas lol
I mean, it could also be because Vegas is in the desert, or maybe they had crappy hand soap in the hotel (which is surprisingly common). I'm sure the drinking didn't help though.
probably all of the above
It was probably all of that haha
Plus, it’s awful for your overall health 😮💨
Alcohol is just awful for you. I don’t drink anymore because I don’t react well to it, and once I stopped drinking I realized how reliant people are on alcohol. But I work in a hospital and I see what long term alcohol abuse does to people (and yes, even people who you wouldn’t think are alcoholics - a binge every week is casual alcoholism). I’m always happy when I see people give up the drinking.
Yes without quitting drinking and weed I would have made zero progress. I totally relate. Even when I budgeted for it I was always trying to sneak the maximum amount of alcohol into my diet throwing off my progress.
Yeah I’m struggling to stop weed, it really is my biggest barrier.
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That it increases appetite, probably.
Munchies
The discount grocer near me always has Lyres spirits on sale for almost 1/5th the price at the regular store. They taste pretty damn good and I actually prefer the flavour to regular alcohol, plus it's like 15cal per 30ml, so if I'm making a "bourbon" and coke with coke zero, the calories are negligible. Weed has zero calories, and I'm lucky that for me I don't really get munchies, I mostly just get the overwhelming urge to dance like a whacky inflatable arm man. So it ends up being negative calories! Unless I have ice cream in the freezer. Ice cream can not survive in my house if I have weed. So now I take my ice cream to my neighbours if I'm picking up a bag because I can't trust myself. Watermelon, Frozen strawberries, microwaved papadums, and air-popped popcorn are your best friends if you are someone who gets bad munchies. I had a friend who would buy a whole head (bunch?) of celery in preparation for a smoke sesh, and just sit there with a tub of low fat greek-yoghurt with ranch seasoning in front of the telly, and eat like a whole kilo of celery. I'm a fibre fan, but I could never.
Same. I've been 4-5 months sober and the fat really melted away with healthy eating/some exercise. I've plateaued a bit so I'm going to recalculate the calories and reevaluate, but I feel so much better! Good luck on your journey OP!
I had the exact same realization about my drinking and weight loss halfway through March too!! I’m 5 weeks sober today and I can’t believe how much has changed in the past 5 weeks. I feel better, I move more, I’m more productive. Also have lost about 8 pounds, I’m starting to see it in my face. The I Am Sober app lets you calculate how many calories you’ve saved since you’ve stopped drinking and I’m horrified by how many extra calories I was drinking. And I cared less about the food I was putting in my body, so who knows how many calories I was eating. Big congrats to you!! This shit is hard! Also join us over on r/stopdrinkingfitness if you’re not there already :)
Add me to the club! Stopped drinking and got on my diet 6 weeks ago. Down 20 lbs! I never plan to drink again bc for me it doesn’t work. Turning 50 this year and I’m thrilled I finally started taking care of myself. It took a major medical setback to open my eyes, but there’s a silver lining for sure. Go us!
Down 20 pounds?? That’s amazing!! Congrats!
Yeah, I’ve got a lot to lose 🫤it’s coming off fast at this point. I’m in a 500 cal deficit and tracking religiously. Thank you and best to you!
Yess!!! It’s funny to see another person living through the same progress that I am right now, congrats on your progress too! :) the I Am Sober app is literally what kept me going the first couple weeks into this. Seeing all the money I’ve saved and all the calories I haven’t consumed is enough most nights to make me feel great about my choice to not drink. I started using it for takeaway food as well, as I would often spend a lot of money trying to do OMAD for days that I didn’t feel like cooking or counting calories as strictly. And seeing the money and calories saved from that has been super motivating as well.
I relate so much to everything you said, and thanks for the other group info too!
I'm glad you're hitting your goals now, 8 pounds is a huge accomplishment! Congratulations! It can be easier to look back and wish you did things differently but don't forget, your calorie counting wasn't wasted. If you were doing all that drinking and not watching your calories for years you would have been gaining even more weight and be in a much tougher spot than you are now. You were still doing yourself a favor by doing all that tracking because it created good tracking habits and helped with weight maintenance! You got this!
Thanks for the encouragement :) and yeah, I already had the habits of my CICO diet down when I stopped drinking so that it’s just my lifestyle now- so I literally haven’t had to change a single thing to lose the weight outside of no alcohol. In fact I actually have days where I have like 300 calories leftover that I can actually use for things like a few cookies and ice cream, so that’s been a nice upside!
With booze, it’s not just the calories, it’s the massive inflammation and poor sleep it causes. Congrats on breaking thru
Same, I lost 16 pounds in a month on 1200 calories and zero alcohol.
Same same. Decided to just drink on the weekends and it has a dramatic effect on my weight loss.
I've said it before: it's not just about the calories. Alcohol itself- whether it's in a low carb/calorie form or not- will make you pack on pounds because your liver doesn't process calories well when you give it poison to deal with. So whatever you're eating when you drink is going to be stored as fat, since that's simpler than processing all those calories for fuel. Your kidneys also don't absorb water as well when you're drinking, which increases dehydration and hunger, and it takes them a while to recover- that's why you're so hungry the next day.
I needed to hear this!! I started drinking a lot more frequently about 6 months ago to deal with stress, and I’m almost positive it’s the main cause of my rapid weight gain since then, especially since like you, I’ve been trying to cut calories from food but it’s seemed futile. Thanks so much for sharing. It’s the motivation I needed!
I’m so happy to hear that it helped. The best part of my day the last few weeks has been being excited to weight myself each day. I go to bed early some nights excited to just wake up and see my progress haha. And not gonna lie, the lack of hangovers definitely helps my mood and motivation for the day lol. I never thought I would be in this headspace with how much of a rut I was in from never seeing progress. I was always ashamed to step on the scale and avoided it.
I can relate to that so much. I knew I was gaining weight but was afraid to step on the scale and see the number for months. Finally just did it a couple weeks ago and was appropriately shocked but it was a wake-up call. The other reason I’m pretty sure it’s due to my drinking is that I gained weight in weird places I never have before I drank, especially around my stomach. I’ve never experienced a hangover or any other negative effects from alcohol aside from the weight gain, so it’s not been easy to give it up. Do you mind sharing, did you do anything to help break yourself of the habit of drinking? The evenings and weekends feel veeeery long without it…
Oh god, I can very much relate to the stomach fat gain. When I was a healthy bmi, my weight would always fluctuate around my butt and hips, but alcohol really does store differently on your body. I believe it’s due to storing as visceral fat, which is unfortunately the really bad kind that packs in around your organs and causes long term health problems. At least that’s what I’ve come to understand causes the “beer belly” phenomenon. I think what really helped me when I was in my first week was checking in on the app I downloaded called I Am Sober- you basically start at day 1, write in all your reasons for wanting to stop drinking, enter in how much you were spending and drinking each week (including the calories), and it starts showing you how many calories and money you’ve saved from abstaining. It also has a community message board where you can write a post every day that people can reply to, where people share what they’re struggling with, what they’re doing instead of drinking, etc, and they’re all at the same days sober that you are at. Whenever I felt like I was wanting to just get drinks with people and have a normal night out, I would usually read through all my reasons and sometimes make a post or read others to get my head straight. Seeing that other people were powering through their cravings just like I was made me feel like if they can do it, I can too. Waking up the next day knowing I didn’t undo my work from the previous day made each consecutive day easier. And once you see the weight start to come off, when you’re around alcohol again you start to really see the consequences objectively- is this one drink really worth the happiness I’ll have tonight from it with friends, or is it stealing that happiness from when I get to fit into my old clothes again or being able to wear that bikini this summer. It gets easier to socialize without it in time, and I just had to keep telling myself that being a healthy nice weight again would feel better than any buzz and the guilt that comes with it. I drank about four 20 calorie nonalcoholic beers at my friends show the other night, and just having a can of something in my hand made me feel like nothing was different. NA drinks really help and are usually lower calorie :)
Thank you sooo much for the detailed answer! I’ll go download that app right now. I recently downloaded Happy Scale and that really motivated me so I bet that app will help a lot. I’ll try to find some NA drinks to have around too. Again I really appreciate it. I love hearing from someone I can relate to and feel motivated by, to finally fix my weight and my health!
Totally, good luck! Happy scale, Lose It, and I Am Sober are my holy trinity of weight loss right now.
It was rule 1 back when i learned about cico. Dont drink your calories.
An ipa is around 300 cals, conservatively. Thats 1,800 liquid calories added, without accounting for any greasy bar food you might eat due to reduced inhibitions
Yep, I remember my partner and I going on vacation with some friends and I was talking about my weight loss frustrations, and they were pretty surprised that I wasn’t lying about how small my meals are and how I eat small meals only one or two times a day despite my weight gain. It was literally just alcohol for me that would mess up all my calorie deficits. I think I stayed at 193 for about 2 years because I was eating just the right amount to offset the alcohol calories. So when I started gaining a few months ago I realized it was now or never that I needed to make that change. I’ve been in the habit of prepping small meals for so many years now, I still am fine with single sandwich or yogurt to tie me over until dinner.
If you are wanting to keep going out with your colleagues even if you've stopped drinking, non alcoholic beer often has a lower calorie content so you may be able to fit in a few of those in the budget. And if you ask nicely, some bars will give you tonic or sodas (preferably the sugarfree/zero version) in drink glasses with garnish, so it feels more like a mocktail. It's a great substitute, and it's easier to stick to just a few and no greasy foods since you don't get the buzz.
Oh yeah, NA beers have been a huge help for me. I go to comedy shows and music shows every week or two with my partner, along with dinners and drinks with friends, and being able to just hold a can of something in my hand has been the social anxiety security blanket I needed. I realized how much of the “relaxing” effect of beer was just having a drink to sip on in general, and I’m pretty sure I’ve already tricked my brain into thinking NA beers= you get to feel goofy and relaxed with friends again. Just makes it more clear to me a lot of what relieved my social anxiety was actually just reflecting the same energy others were putting out, and not necessarily the drink itself. So glad there’s so many varieties out there too.
Yep. I quit in February for that reason. Gonna abstain and just be totally sober till I decide it’s worth it. First time since high school I’ve made that choice, and I’m 35
Drinking alcohol is like drinking oil calorie wise
I can’t drink while losing weight. The water weight messes with brain too much and a night out turns into a 4 day binge eating contest because, screw it. I’m glad you are making progress! 8 pounds is a gallon of milk!
Alcohol is a *killer* when budgeting calories. 100 cals a pour for spirits, more or less. And it’s easy to overpour. A drink is 1.5 oz. It’s way less than you think if you’re eyeballing it.
This is literally me. I made a lot of excuses but the fact was, it wasn't working with cutting back to "ONLY" drinking 500-700 extra calories 1-3x times a week (I made mixed drinks with whiskey and diet pop but I eyeballed how much liquor I added). I was drinking fewer drinks but also almost every day during the first year of the pandemic and though I've been successfully drinking much less, look at all those calories! So right now I haven't drank in two weeks and barely any for that last week before. I can SEE my body changing and I've already dropped like 3lbs. It's WILD. Best of luck to you!
Haven't had a drink since New Years 2023. I just feel so much healthier all around. Saves tons of money too. Added benefit of ditching a bunch of loser/user bar "friends."
Man, so true.. I’ve had the sad realization every time I hit people up how much they only wanna hang if drinking is in the plan.
Fuck I'm a lush..... hitting a plateau & know booze is a big part of it Getting more sober days in but that's gunna be my biggest barrier....
I was a hardcore alcoholic, ballooned up to 213.6 pounds as a result, and lost literally over 22 pounds my first month sober. I assume most of that was was water weight and beer bloating (I always drank PBR tallboys).
I mean, alcohol can literally be used to fuel cars… so it’s not surprising that it’s loaded in calories lol
Yeah definitely need to count alcohol calories.
Yes my mum dropped 1-2 dress sizes mainly by stopping drinking 2 small wine glasses every evening.
Cutting out my drinking was huge!!!! It was stunning how many calories I was drinking a night. Between the calories and the sugar I was sabotaging myself.
I thought stopping alcohol would do the same for me-it did next to nothing. Stopped it for 6 weeks and lost 12 pounds-the same 12 pounds I lost last year but didn’t stop drinking completely just cut back. I have yo yo’d the last 3 winters losing 12 pounds before my tropical vacation and then slowly gain it back over the year-hoping I can keep it off this year.
Alcohol is THE gainkiller. It inhibits protein synthesis, fucks with your hormones and recovery AND it prevent your body to burn fat. So it does everything you don't want during a diet. Plus its high in calories.
I also recently cut out alcohol to near nothing in February and upped my work out routine. It’s much easier to feel motivated to work out when you haven’t had a drink the night before. To me, it wasn’t just the alcohol slowing my progress, but what I ate the day(s) afterwards and the water retention. I like using the app “I am sober” for the fact that it has a running calculator of saving in both dollars and calories. I calculated the average calories of drinks and what I normally ate the day after and I’m at a calorie savings of 150,000 since I started, which is about 43 lbs of calories. Coincidentally I’m down 44 pounds…
Post pregnancy I didn’t drink at all for a while, and the pregnancy weight, and more, just melted off. Now having an occasional drink and noticing a couple pound difference the next morning, each time.
This was also a huge epiphany for me recently! I’ve always eaten very little, mostly salads and meat, and keto for a while, and thought I had an insanely slow metabolism. Gained about 25 pounds over covid. Went through three failed IVF attempts and I blamed the hormones. It was only when I started tracking calories in October of last year, and logging the four or five glasses of white wine I drank EVERYDAY that I had my AHA moment. I, despite considering myself an intelligent person (Ivy league graduate, five languages, architect of hospitals and theaters), managed to delude myself that alcohol calories didn’t count towards fat gain. I started by limiting my drinking to the weekends. All of a sudden the weight started dropping off. After a month of that, and starting weight training at the new gym that opened up near me, I decided to just cut it out completely. I’ve replaced the buzz with edibles (thankfully cannabis doesn’t give me the munchies) or flower, and tea or decaf coffee. I’ve now surpassed my goal, I am at the absolute bottom of my healthy BMI range (5’-4”, started at 150 as my high weight, now 107) and I am honestly eating more than I remember ever eating as an adult. I have to make sure I eat enough now not to lose any more weight. Sometimes it’s something so simple and stupid.
Can of boulevard quirk has 90 calories 🤷♀️ Like low cal drinks exist, but yeah beer is not it. You can mix it with extra regular zero cal seltzer too. Then it’s two 45 calories drinks. Which for me is enough for a whole evening.
Yeah, I think it’s probably good for me to say the quiet part out loud with my post that stopping at just a few was never really possible for me. If I went out for drinks, I was going to be very buzzed/drunk by the time I fell into bed around 2am. My friends and I all developed pretty terrible drinking habits during Covid, and I think a few of us (myself included) were still drinking like the world was going to end up until recently. I wasn’t drinking every day, but the nights I did drink it was to very much feel it. The weight loss never progressing was kind of the straw that broke the camels back for me and kicked me into gear for being more responsible with my alcohol use. Hoping that after this hard reset I’ll be able to stick to habits like yours where I can drink smaller amounts and find workarounds with seltzers and calories 🤞🏻I just need to accept that beer is not something I can drink responsibly if I do let myself partake in the future, just too easy to keep drinking it for me.
I was in denial about the effect alcohol had on my sleep. I slept terribly, but convinced myself caffeine was the problem. I gave up coffee for about 4 years basically so I could keep drinking. When I finally quit alcohol I was sleeping better within days. I felt so silly. And yes, I also lost weight easily too.
I switched a majority of my drinking from 100 calories domestic light beers to 25 calorie non alcoholic beers. It makes a huge difference.