Alcohol and coffee calories

[morefun]

So I'm trying to get ride of some lockdown weight, compounded by my boyfriend staying with me (always eat more living with a man!). I have to eat pretty small amount of calories to lose weight as I'm not big, I just want to fit in all my usual clothes.

I've been tracking my calories and realised that wine yesterday was around 400 calories and coffees 200! That's out of 1300 total. I can't decide whether to cut down wine or coffee!!? I love my morning coffees and some wine in the evenings!

What do you do, alcohol and hot drinks wise? It has to be sustainable as I'm not going teetotal!

Rid, not ride...

I'd be cutting down the wine, rather than the coffee, for several reasons. First, your body has all day to metabolise the coffee, much less time for the evening wine. Second, I've also heard that your body processes alcohol before food - if that's true, it'll be hampering your weight loss in other ways. And finally, 400 calories is more than 2 glasses of wine - if you're consuming that every day, it's way above the guidelines and will be putting you at risk of other health issues.

Personally I would hate to give up coffee. Could you switch your latte for an americano or something though and cut down the calories?
Could you just have wine a couple of evenings a week?

And finally, 400 calories is more than 2 glasses of wine

Really? I always thought a glass of wine was around 300 calories.

I don’t drink coffee so I guess I choose wine, but not every day.

How many coffee are you having for 200 Cals? Assuming the calories are just from milk, and you use sweetener if you do sweeten, can you switch to skimmed milk? That's 10 cals per 30ml serving.

The wine: yeah, it has to be sustainable, but you're not drinking every day? I'm not arsed if you are, each to their own, but you'll seriously hamper your weight loss like this. Maybe a vodka and diet mixer, a gin and slim instead? 25 mls is 52 cals. Don't know about you, but if I drink, I have an increased hunger, and more likely to indulge in snacky foods, even the day after. If you do have a nightly drink, for sustainability, try to limit to one wine, or 50 ml of spirits and a diet mixer, or maybe just make it a bi-weekly or weekly thing? a treat.

Losing weight is all about eating less and moving more isn't it.

Forgot to ask: are you measuring everything? Tedious, but effective. Measure your milk out each morning, and use that as an allowance. Same with the vino collapso, never free pour, dangerous ground that!

I'm measuring everything including the wine

Yes I have the wine pretty much every day...

The coffees are around 5-6 cups a day, some decaf after 11am. I've always had half a spoon of sugar and semi.

Alcohol doesn't affect my food choices, I still stick to my usual dinner and don't overeat next day....

I guess I have to lose a couple of coffees a day and a glass of wine!

The wine comes in at 105 cals for 125ml

How are you drinking 200cals of coffee?! Black coffee is 1cal! If you've made it down to half a spoon of sugar could you cut it completely? Or switch to sweetener to keep the calories down?

I swapped to black coffee, no sugar, which I didn't have anyway. I'm used to it now and it tastes weird with milk! And alcohol only at the weekend.

Yeah 400 calories of wine is almost a bottle a day. No judgement at all but yeah that's definitely going to have health and weight implications. Because if you are controlling calories and having wine account for 400 then you're not going to get the vitamins you need.
Switch to black coffee definitely. Cut down the wine if you can - the less you have the less you want, it's just a habit to have it every day

Koko unsweetened coconut milk is 15cals for 100ml. It doesn’t taste “coconutty” like other coconut milks and doesn’t curdle one coffee like some other non-dairy milks. TBH is tastes of nothing very much but it takes the edge off black coffee, makes cereal wet and has added calcium and some of the vitamins you get from dairy. I gave up alcohol entirely - mostly because I make lousy food and drink decisions after a glass or two and drinking is like diet self-sabotage.

If you cut alcohol to Friday and Saturday nights only then you’re saving 2000 calories a week without doing anything.

I would loose the sugar from the tea and alcohol only at the weekend.

Lose the alcohol completely. When I stopped drinking I dropped around half a stone without even trying (and I wasn't big to start with).

Just make some easy and small changes for now and take it from there. If you like to drink every night, carry on, but drink less. Drink skimmed milk and buy a packet of sweetex. After a while, reduce it down a bit more. People fall of wagons when it's too much too soon.

Sairafina the 200 cals is for 5-6 coffees a day.

I suppose I'm thinking about my priorities and there are things I really enjoy so will reduce them. I don't like skimmed milk. So I think for the coffee I will have 2 normal ones and a couple of black, which I don't mind except for as my morning one. The wine I will cut down. I've had a glass or two a night for ages but lockdown makes my drinking earlier, as I'm not driving back from work etc. Excuses, excuses!

Coffee contains zero calories.

Milk, cream & sugar contain lots of calories. Therefore, when trying to lose weight, drink black coffee, with sweetener if you must.