to think i should be losing weight even when drinking most evenings?

[Martha1000]

I’m having quite a stressful time at the minute and am probably drinking more than I should be which I’m working on but I can’t help feeling I should still be losing weight
I’m being very healthy and always eating no more than 1500 calories a day
I’m working out a minimum of 3 times a week at high intensity classes plus at least an hours walking on the other days
I probably drink 2 glasses of wine every night apart from maybe 2 so even if that’s 300 calories that’s only an additional 1500 per week which is still way under with what I’m eating plus all the training.
AIBU to expect to lose weight without giving up wine completely!?

Stop sabotaging your weight loss with alcohol.

No it doesn't.

Alcohol is very calorific, you may be underestimating how many calories are in it. It’s just empty calories to me, seems totally pointless when you’re trying to lose weight. MIL has been trying to lose weight all year and she thinks because she barely eats and goes to Pilates twice a week, that should be adequate. She drinks a lot of wine and we’ve told her that’s the reason she isn’t losing weight but she doesn’t want to believe us.

I’ve lost over 4 stone this year in comparison, I don’t drink at all and I exercise a lot every day. HIIT 3 times a week is great but there’s still 4 days a week where you’re barely active. An hour of walking isn’t much, do you have a smart watch at all? You need to walk 12k+ steps a day to lose weight. I walk 20-25k a day.

Alcohol is a type of sugar. Wine is alcohol sugar plus fruit sugar - even grape juice is super sugary compared to other fruit juices. If you don’t burn it off it converts to fat. Even if you do a work out after drinking - obviously most people don’t - you will have to work off that alcohol before you start working off the rest of the sugar, then the other carbs you’ve eaten before any fat might get a look in. I saw this shown on a tv program once but I can’t remember what it was called. That’s why it’s not good for weight loss. It massively gets in the way of fat burning.
I’d reduce it to just a night or two a week, see if that helps.

Alcohol blocks fat burning so you will struggle to lose weight even on 1500 calories a day if you are drinking most evenings. Your metabolic rate will slow instead and you will adjust to the lower calorie intake without losing weight.

Try cutting out the alcohol and have a fasting period of 14-16 hours overnight and you should see a big difference.

This is an interesting read and might shed some light on things.

www.healthline.com/health/alcohol-and-weight-loss

It does give you better alcohol alternatives to wine for weight loss at the end if you really still want your tipple. Vodka or whisky any one?

@Carpy88999 ok, not more. But each have 7 calories per gram

Your body will use the calories from the alcohol before it uses everything else that’s why it’s hard to lose weight when you drink alcohol.

People often overestimate the effect of exercise for calorie burning.

You really have to do a hell of a lot of exercise to burn a reasonable number of calories.

As an example (based on someone weighing 70kg) you would need to walk for 2 hours at a decent pace to just to burn off the 2 glasses of wine.

Pure alcohol contains roughly 7 calories per gram. For reference, carbohydrates and protein both contain about 4 calories per gram, while fat contains about 9 calories per gram.

however it is sugar in carbohydrate and alcohol that raises blood sugar levels and can lead to pre-diabetes and diabetes which in turn affects metabolism and why it is now thought that low carbohydrate ( especially low sugar) is a better way to lose weight than low fat.

Are you weighing out how much you eat or estimating? If you are just estimating that will probably be why

Also did you use a tdee calculator to work out your calorie allowance?

You aren’t in a calorie deficit.

And that's all that matters at the end of the day.

If you need to 1,800 calories to maintain your weight, it doesn't matter if you consume that 1,800 calories entirely in chocolate, crisps and full sugar coke, or if you only eat lean chicken and vegetables and drink only water.

You won't gain or lose a single pound.

I'm so glad you posted about this OP, I've been trying for ages to lose weight and I've only been eating 1,000 calories a day but still drinking wine most nights (like you I'm going through a stressful period in life and it helps for now) but found I'm only losing half a pound a month. Reading other posters saying that it affects the way your body metabolises calories makes sense now and is really helpful.

I find weight loss really easy when I'm not drinking loads, should have realised the correlation!

Probably unhelpful but a few years ago just before turning 50 I did dry January and didn't make many other changes to diet (although didn't eat the party food/other December crap), same exercise levels etc. I was coming down from a busy Christmas drinking session! Anyway, I lost the grand total of 0 lbs. I was really surprised and I genuinely thought I'd lose weight but no. One of my life's big mysteries.

I suspect your two glasses are a lot bigger than you think. A large glass is more like 200-220 calories and most people pour out way more than they think they’re pouring (I know this from working in pubs) at home.

Also, when we drink, we are way less conscious of how much we’re eating.

I’d also add that unless you weigh or measure everything - including things like oil you cook with, the butter on your sandwiches, the milk in tea or coffee, your cereal etc - your calorie count is probably off. And most people also hugely over-estimate the calories burned through exercise.

Do you measure and input the wine into whatever diet you’re doing? I’ve always found the opposite, when I have a glass of wine my hunger completely goes.

Can you explain the science behind this please?

Sorry but 1000 calories a day is a ridiculously low amount for any adult (and even most children) to be eating. The reason you won’t be losing much weight is because you 100% won’t truly be sticking to 1000 calories a day as it’s unrealistic & if you were sticking to it 100% you’d certainly be losing more than 1lb a week.

if you upped your calories you’d most likely be able to adhere to the deficit and you’d find you were losing more consistently.

Whatever you do, don't follow the possible logic that could follow from these sort of posts and eat less whilst continuing to drink alcohol.

The alcohol is unnecessary and not a healthy way to deal with stress. Cut it out.

Do you need to lose weight? You're doing a lot of exercise and high intensity training which will build muscle. Bare in mind muscle mass will add weight when it replaces fat.

You have a punishing regime and are following a strict calorie counting diet and now beating yourself up over a couple of glasses of wine.

I think you should relax and stop being so hard on yourself

Calories in the evening are worse for losing weight than those earlier in the day. You need to start drinking at lunchtime instead.

Friend of mine was really active and ate very healthily but had a distinct middle age spread.
She drank wine most evenings but decided to stop.
Her weight plummeted.

I cycle two hours a day and am on my feet literally all day. When I don't drink, I'm slim and feel healthy and great. when I do drink I gain noticable weight on my tummy and face from literally nothing but the alcohol. I could drink the sam as you and still be looking visibly worse for it. 😔