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.

I love wine too but it doesn't love me any more! Once I hit peri menopause, my tolerance to it dropped and now it mainly just makes me sleepy, two glasses and I am nodding off!

Doesn't everyone drink every day on holiday? I do and then detox for a week or two when I get home. I thought it was what everyone did! But this is MN so I imagine a lot of people on here stick to water and go for runs instead of hitting the bars.

I think potentially the booze is worse, assuming it's downing half a bottle of wine every single day versus drinking moderately while eating basically healthy food in quantities that mean you go above your ideal weight; eg if you ate a lot of olive oil on your superfood salad and loads of unsalted nuts, and some of your 'excess' weight was muscle rather than fat. But it's better to be a healthy weight and drink in moderation.

It is as previously discussed a silly question, false dichotomy and too many variables. If I had to choose, though, I'd rather be overweight any day. Being overweight does have a negative impact on your health, but regular drinking can make you ill in a much more diverse range of ways. In addition to the cardiometabolic risks that both drinking and being overweight pose, drinking also poses additional risks:

• Dehydration
• Heightened cancer risk
• Liver and kidney damage
• Poor sleep
• Impact on mental health
• Impact on work
• Impact on your brain and CNS (heightened risk of dementia)
• Damage to relationships (this is a biggie)
• Cost
• Risk of associated addictions and an "on ramp" to more serious drugs

The relationships and mental health ones are particularly invidious. Being overweight tends not to make people grossly selfish, tone deaf and annoying. Having been married to a heavy drinker, I wouldn't put my worst enemy through it.

No. Just sounds like an alcoholic trying to justify their drinking habits.

You can’t out exercise alcohol. The guidelines of safe consumption don’t change if you’ve been for a run that day. No doctor would endorse drinking beyond 14 units a week. Your husband can’t bend health facts to fit his convenience - reality will catch up with him at some point. If your husband needs to drink daily and is finding excuses for it being ok then he is developing a dependence on alcohol.

This is one of those pub debates isn’t it 🤣(like who would win in a fight- caveman vs astronaut or batman vs superman).

2 stone overweight isn’t too big a deal if you are on the taller side, so overall I’d say that one (might be different if you were very petite but then a half bottle of wine would hit worse on someone smaller too). Obviously it would depend also on muscle mass too and where the fat is stored -around waist isn’t good but bum/thighs or boobs less of an issue. BMI can sometimes be less accurate in those cases anyway.

Plus there is some debate even amongst Doctors about whether being in the “overweight” category is that bad for every person- with the big proviso that the overweight person must still exercise regularly and have a reasonably healthy diet (and that they aren’t into the obese category or have existing joint or heart problems). Basically afaik because if you get ill and are a bit overweight but still in overall good health, then your body just has the extra fat/energy stores for fighting the illness.

Whereas as far as I know there has never been any physical benefit to drinking half a bottle of wine a day, ever. But in a pub debate, I reckon most people will still favour the wine 🤣

There is not a simple answer to this and you must know that. But I’ve simplified my opinion on it below:

Drinking alcohol every day is definitely bad for you. There is no way it’s not bad for you. It is culturally acceptable, but will damage your health.

Being 2 stone overweight is generally bad for you. But there will be big variations in just how bad for you that is. Some people carry more visceral fat around their organs - this is extra bad. Some carry their fat more visibly - not as bad for your health. Some overweight people eat very healthy diets and exercise - they just eat too much. Some have appalling diets etc.

More likely to be 2 stone overweight if you drink half a bottle of wine a day! If it's not a very strong wine it will be about 6 units a bottle so 3 units a day or 21 units a week, which is a fair bit over the 14 units recommended, but many people drink much more sometimes in a single evening or every weekend. Two stone over weight is going to have a negative influence on your health in many ways, and isn't as enjoyable as the wine!😀

It's more or less equal but you can lose weight more easily than kick an addiction I'd say.

Someone will come along and disagree probably but if you think that half a bottle a day isn't an addiction then stop.....

They’re both bad.

You really can’t lose weight as equally as an addiction (for one, many obese people’s relationship with food is akin to an addiction.

Statistically, all other things being equal, the drinking is more dangerous.

Things are never all equal in health research though, so its a pretty meaningless comparision.

For one thing, it matters hugely where the fat is stored. A person who stores fat preferentially in their limbs and hips is running a signficantly lower risk with that extra weight than a person who stores it centrally. On the other hand, a person drinking that amount and not gaining weight probably has some nutritional deficiencies going on, is less likely to be doing meaningful exercise and less likely to be sleeping well.

Mostly YANBU but depends on other factors, mainly activity levels. If you are overweight and active I believe that is healthier than "healthy" weight, active and drinking half a bottle of wine a day.

Drinking alcohol that frequently is guaranteed to be having a negative impact on your health. Being overweight is more nuanced. Being overweight AND sedentary though is probably as bad.

This is what I used to drink:

A 120ml serving of Yellow Tail Chardonnay contains approximately 114 calories. A standard 750ml bottle, which is about 6 servings, would contain roughly 684 calories. The Pure Bright Chardonnay from Yellow Tail, which is lower in alcohol, has 85 calories per 150ml serving.

If she is drinking half the bottle then it's roughly 350 calories. She is not being mindful of how much she is eating she is going over 2000 calories a day to be over 2 stone in weight. She is a greedy woman.

Let's be real eating and drinking too much is going to harm your body it's not a competition. You are over your 2000 calorie a day limit you are not eating as healthy as you think you are. Watch secret eaters it's an eye opener it made me rethink what I am eating.

But you don't necessarily have a bad diet as such if you are 2 stone overweight. You might eat largely healthy food but too much of it. I reckon that being 2 stone overweight but eating good, home-cooked food and getting plenty of exercise is definitely healthier than drinking half a bottle of wine a day.

I'm going to say a 2 stone overweight teetotaller is probably healthier than someone who drinks half a bottle per night. On average.

I say this as someone who drinks in moderation and is on the cusp of overweight.

I also suspect it depends where you put the weight, I put on all my weight around my middle so that's going to be alot more unhealthy than someone who puts it on their hips and thighs and if I started to get into diabetes territory then maybe the weight would be a problem for me. (I was pre-diabetic when I was a stone overweight) so perhaps for me the weight would be more of an issue but I would also consider myself on the verge of an alcohol problem if I was drinking half a bottle per night.

Really it depends in the individual. Both would cause me issues, the next person might be absolutely fine in either scenario.

There is actually a fair bit of evidence about this. The WHO outlines 5 reversible causes of chronic disease and cancer - of which alcohol and obesity are 2.
Obesity is generally considered worse for health than alcohol.
www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4549.html

Hard to say but I'm opting for the wine (not literally, I don't drink these days).
Half a bottle of wine a day is way over the limit for safe drinking.
Being 2 stone overweight is also not ideal but plenty of people are I suppose...

I drink a good amount of wine and am not overweight. HTH with some random arse body type stereotyping.

I thought obesity cost the nhs more than alcohol related issues

2 stone overweight isn't obese for most people.

OP asked about being 2 stone overweight, which for most isn't obese.

Doesn't mean it's healthy she is over eating 2000 calories a day. We are catching up with the Americans.

OP you win the prize for the silliest question ever asked on Mumsnet.