To think I will lose weight if I drink less

[Nocto]

NC as I don't want this linked to other posts, and posting in AIBU for traffic.

I want/need to lose about 6lb. I am very fit and do lots of exercise; I generally eat pretty healthily (fortunately, I don't like sweet things, and don't buy crisps as they are my weakness). No snacking, and small portions.

However, I have still gradually gained weight over the past couple of years, and I want to get rid of it.

The weak spot in my diet is alcohol. I mostly drink gin with no mixer (to reduce the calories), but I drink the equivalent of several doubles on most evenings. Sometimes wine if I run out of gin, but try to avoid this because of the calories.

AIBU to think I'd lose at least some of the weight by cutting out alcohol more or less completely?

Of course you will. Each double gin is 150 or so calories so if you're having 3 or 4 a night that's 450 /600 calories. That's a lot every evening.

Thanks, Amber. I thought it had to be the case, but then the bloody internet turns up all kinds of articles about how daily gin helps you lose weight.

It sounds to me like you are drinking far too much regardless of your weight. You need to at least cut down for your health, and hopefully you will lose weight too.

Yes, it will. I’m sure I would be a skinny Minnie if I didn’t drink so much wine! I start the week with good intentions, but always by Friday and sometimes even by Tuesday I crack, depending upon how stressed I am.

Absolutely. Lost so much weight in pregnancy when I cut out alcohol. If I wanted to lost weight again I'd absolutely stop but I'm happy with a few pounds and glasses of wine a week

Why don't you drink the mixers and not the gin? Fever Tree do some really delicious tonics that are much lower in cals and obviously cheaper than gin. And yes, it sounds like you do everything else 'right' so for a 6lb loss that would probably work.

I always do dry january, and I always lose about 3 or 4 lbs. My weakness is prosecco maybe a bottle and a half a week. Cutting alcohol out will 100% lead to at least a small amount of weight loss

Seren, that is undoubtedly the case (which is a whole other issue, really).

HugeAckmansWife, yes they do. I have got some in the cupboard, which I bought when I had good intentions which have somehow not been fulfilled. The 'light' ones have something like 19 calories in 100ml, so that is rather fewer than gin...

Frazzled, I think (unfortunately) my only real option is stopping completely. It's the first one that makes me want the second one, and so on (I realise this is problematic).

Less gin more water

Squidge, that's interesting. Even 3-4lb would make a difference!

If you are worried about the amount you consume and the reasons you feel the need to drink every day, I think trying to go completely dry for a month or two will maybe shine some light on why you are drinking rather than the issue of weight as a result of drinking. For me, I was turning to my prosecco in the evenings as a way to relax after a stressful day at work, but it was becoming more and more of an every night thing. I went dry for a month to see why I was doing it, and also to sort of face my stress head on and deal with it in other ways. After the month i was more clued into other ways of dealing stressing and I drank less. Maybe you need to think of these things more than the weight.

Sorry to get a bit deep.

*__*Frazzled, I think (unfortunately) my only real option is stopping completely. It's the first one that makes me want the second one, and so on (I realise this is problematic).

This is EXACTLY what I am like with biscuits!! Far easier not to have any, or at least have lots of days without having any, then if you have an evening or two when you have a few (gins/biscuits) it has less impact, and calorie input over the week will be less. And then you can feel less guilty about having lapsed

I made a thread on this about a week ago in weight loss chat. I didn't drink from last Saturday to yesterday night (allowed myself some wine-wish i hadnt now!) Anyway, weighed myself last sunday at 12.5 stone, and then yesterday (sat) morning I was 12.2. That's without any changes apart from staying dry. I usually have two or three big glasses of wine an evening and a few vodka tonics dotted around. Hopefully I've not put that back on after my binge last night!! But now I know its possible, I'm going to continue at least 5 dry days a week. Feel better for it and sleeps improved too.

Yep. I gave up drinking (except on rare special occasions)18 months ago, didn't change anything else around diet & exercise. In 6 months I lost 1.5 stones without any effort so must have been the booze. I've stayed the same weight since, within a couple of pounds, also without effort.

You definitely will. My DH drank every night for about 15 years. A few cans of lager, or half a bottle of red. Six weeks ago he dropped it down to two nights a week and he's lost over half a stone already. It's really noticeable around his stomach.
As a PP poster said, he's also waking up feeling refreshed as he's getting a better quality of sleep.

I do a non gin gin with all the stuff I'd usually have (ice, lime, tonic water) but no gin. I do it in my gin glass so it feels special. Might be worth doing?

My mum cut out alcohol, it was the only change to her diet and she went from a size 12 to a size 8 in four months!

Did you genuinely believe that drinking gin would make you lose weight??
You need to be in calorie deficit to lose weight. If you're genuinely drinking 500 calories in gin daily then you may lose weight if you cut it out, as long as you don't replace it with something else and as long as that puts you in calorie deficit.

I gave up alcohol 8 weeks ago and weight is falling off me despite no diet changes. I was definitely drinking about another days calories a week at least 😑

Thank you for all the useful comments.

Squidge, not too deep at all. I know I drink too much as the result of a whole catalogue of shitty events, and I also know that I would be better finding more healthy ways to deal with them (alcohol is decidedly not dealing with them - it's just making them fuzzy).

Vilanelle, no, don't worry - I was clutching at straws, having Googled!! I do know gin is less calorific than wine. But still. There's no risk of me replacing it with something else, as I'm not that interested in food - I eat three moderate meals a day because it would be a bad idea not to. If I'm really stressed, the first thing I do is stop eating (not out of choice).

The other comments are very interesting, as they suggest that it's possible to do what I'm hoping to do!

Having alcohol-free "Prosecco" tonight, which has 20 cals per 100ml, so I will have had about 80 cals in total.

I only drink white wine and sometimes champagne and I’ve given it up for a month at a time in the last few years and I’ve never lost weight. If I averaged out my weekly consumption it would be about 2 bottles a week. If I give up starch in the evening and/or sweets/chocolate then I do lose weight.

Montsti, that's also interesting. I'm afraid my consumption of gin/wine is rather higher than 2 bottles per week - which is what made me turn my attention to that. I don't eat sweets or chocolate because I don't like them (not virtuously depriving myself). And my portion sizes are very moderate - dinner would be 50g of pasta with a bit of sauce made with cherry tomatoes (for example). So I can only think that it's the alcohol that's the culprit in my case. Unfortunately!

I am partial to a drink, but even I really think that the weight is not the main problem here. I am sorry, but that is a lot of gin.

Sadly you are absolutely right. My weight has been either stable or reducing for the last year or so. Then lockdown happened! My food hasn't changed but my alcohol consumption has increased (to a level I now really need to do something about if I'm honest) and I've put on a stone in the last 3 months. So yes, alcohol alone is enough for your issue. Perhaps as a starting point make it a weekend treat?

Schrodinger, yes, it is a lot of gin. It has crept up on me. I drank virtually nothing until about five years ago when I left abusive XH. So I need to do something about it quite apart from the weight thing (though the weight thing might give me the kick that I need).

Squiggle, I'm going to try to think like that - not cut it out completely (because I really would feel a bit bleak if I looked into the future and saw no Champagne etc ever again), but see it more as something for the weekend.