alcohol and weightloss

[kikilondon]

do you really need to give up alcohol to lose weight? what if you factor it into your daily calories?

I'm no diet expert, but it seems like an obvious way of reducing your calorie intake. You get no nutrition from booze, it does you no good whatsoever, there's a reason they call them "empty" calories.

Of course, it depends on quantities though. If you're drinking 1-2 units a week, I don't imagine that stopping would make a huge difference. But if you're having two glasses of wine every night, reducing / giving up would certainly make a difference.

According to Weight Loss Resources a 125ml glass of red wine contains about 85 calories, so over a week that would be 595 calories.

I would think that if you are prepared to reduce your food intake in order allow for alcohol, you probably ought to re-examine your relationship with alcohol.

I don't have a link ... But I believe it is widely thought that drinking alcohol impairs your body's weight loss because it concentrates on breaking down the sugars etc in the booze first, moving on to eaten calories next.

Also, alcohol is completely empty calories. A couple of glasses with dinner on a Friday night are not majorly impeding your weight loss, but switching lunch for a bottle of wine is scary behaviour.

Doesn't alcohol have more calories per gram than fat?

Agree with PP - your body will use alcohol calories first, and there are a terrifying amount of cals in booze.

What do you usually drink?

prob half a bottle wine 4-5 nights a week... maybe a bottle one night a week if out...

So 3-4 bottles a week. That's up to about 2800 calories. Cut out half of it (so 1400 cals, roughly), and then just cut another 200 a day from food and you'd probably lose about a pound a week.