Is it healthier to be 2 stone overweight or drink half a bottle of wine a day?

[SodYouIllGoOnMyOwn]

Just seeking some views here and it’s a bit controversial so I opted for AIBU. Obviously neither is ideal but from a health perspective, what do you think?

Not unreasonable: Half a bottle of wine is worse.
Unreasonable: 2 stone overweight is worse.

Really interested to hear some views.

Thanks.

Totally agree. Or by making it a question of virtue and character.

I am not fully functioning after two glasses of wine

No, but why would that be a problem unless you have a baby to look after or something? You may not be fully functional, but you're not incapacitated either.

A few glasses a day every day could well be verging towards alcohol dependency.

Any amount every day can be alcoholic territory tbf

"An alcoholic is someone who needs to drink and will have physical symptoms if they stop"

It's not. This is far too simplistic.

Way, way too simplistic.

I need to be clear headed every workday morning.

No one is shaming a lot of people do cook healthy meals but a lot of those people don't think about portion size. I was 8 stone before I had children then I went to 12 stone after having 3 of my children. Then I had my 4th child and now I am 16 stone 3 pounds. I spent years cooking from scratch and not thinking abouty portion size and also enjoying a drink. I am relearning and teaching myself to make better choices after spending years with a bad habit thinking I would always get away with it. I am 42 this year and it's so fucking hard losing the weight I need all the will power and energy I can get to shift it.

I don't want to be stick thin I want to be a healthy 10 to 11 stone in weight. I've managed to lose 8 pounds this month and boy does my body hurt. I won't give up because I want to be healthy and look and feel good about myself. I do agree a lot of what I have read about preferring drink over food is disturbing.

@Helloworlditsmeagain No one is shaming a lot of people do cook healthy meals but a lot of those people don't think about portion size.

Fine and you do what you need to do but a lot of people come onto these threads for some weird humble bragging about how little they eat. And none of them are helping people with weight problems.

Agreed. A large number of people fall short of meeting the technical definition of having an alcohol dependency but still have problematic and damaging relationships with alcohol.

You don't have to be needing a drink before noon to be in problem territory. Someone drinking half a bottle of wine a night could easily be damaging their family relationships or impacting their mental health and performance at work even if they're not (yet) actually doing damage to their internal organs.

Not a silly question, it’s interesting because this is how we manage life some of us. I drank every night which then made me choose shit food as well so the weight crept on. I felt awful every morning so no motivation to do anything like exercise.

I have stopped drinking during the week and in the beginning I craved sugary snacks but I soon overcome that issue too. When I don’t drink, I make healthier choices with food and exercise and I’m slowly losing the weight and enjoying getting active.

This has all come from a huge mindset change and changes within my personal and family life. I’m single mum of autistic children, home schooled last year and not working (lost my business) now they are back in school with supports and I have a job. I have purpose, routine and feel content.

My dad eat very little and he looked dreadful he had an eating disorder. I found laxatives in his draw once. Let them be stick thin skeletons and malnourished it is fucking ridiculous and not worth getting wound up over. Don't follow the fools if you want to lose weight follow what is safe. You will be so much more healthier in your body and your mind than them.

Ah, but we were talking about while drinking. Someone who drinks every day is not going to have any problem functioning the day after a few drinks.

"Someone drinking half a bottle of wine a night could easily be damaging their family relationships or impacting their mental health and performance at work"

I don't really see how, but even if they were, they would not be an alcoholic for those reasons. They would be alcoholics if they were physically dependent on alcohol.
You can't just call someone an alcoholic because they drink more than you consider ideal.

This is how we know this thread is full of extremists. There are supercentenarians who have a glass a day. (I'm not claiming that's healthy, but they're obviously not alcoholics).

Quality of the diet must be a factor. In the overweight and the drinker.
If both eat good diet (just too much), then the drinker has worst outcomes I would think?

Moderate drinking is less harmful to health- especially women's health than being overweight. However if you're drinking half a bottle of wine daily, it's likely to escalate to a bottle a day fairly quickly and then who knows where.
Being 2 stone overweight is less likely to be a detrimental to health for someone who's taller/ has a larger frame. It's all about context!
But generally, neither is great for long term health.

But half a bottle of wine a night every night of the week is not moderate drinking - and drinking is in fact more harmful to women's health than to men's health in smaller amounts.

I agree. Half a bottle of wine a day isn't moderate drinking. I should have been clearer. I was just stating that the current research re women's health indicates are that obesity - more than alcohol, smoking, living in poverty - is the highest risk factor for chronic disease and increases the risk of developing certain cancers. Being overweight also increases the risk of serious complications caused by drinking alcohol. And women are indeed at a higher risk of developing complications associated with excessive alcohol intake than men.
In other words, I wasn't trying to suggest that drinking half a bottle of wine daily but I do see that's how it looked!

4.5 units of alcohol daily is 31.5 weekly, which is a lot and constitutes an alcohol problem which is a worse problem to have than being overweight IMO.

Are you trying to justify drinking half a bottle of wine every day OP by saying that it's better than being overweight?

I think if that's the case, and you're at the point where you're having to try to justify your drinking to yourself and others - then you probably have a problem.

Do you think that maybe you don't see everything she eats? If her diet was as healthy as you claim, she wouldn't be 2, stone overweight.

Any reference for the claim that it's like to escalate to a bottle a day?

@Gwenhwyfar
Experience!
And also, alcohol is one of the most addictive drugs in existence. Like all drugs it starts by releasing dopamine and making us feel lovely. And, like all drugs, prolonged intake causes the brain to adapt meaning more alcohol is required to create the same feelings. So half a bottle of wine a day will invariably lead to a bottle a day. It's how addiction works.
And half a bottle of wine a day adds up to 34 units a week- over twice the recommended intake for women... So not really recommended. And just to clarify, half a bottle of wine a day isn't moderate drinking... that would be no more than a glass a night... or less.