Alcohol

[BekStar]

Hey everyone,
I am usually pretty good on diets but I often find I slip when I drink alcohol. Somebody HELP ME! What is the best alcoholic drink out there if your trying to be weight conscious and what should I definetly avoid. Any help would be fantastic.

[Jisgone]

if your after wine or champers you can get the 'light' versions, less alcohol and lower in calories
for the hardcore stuff a white spirit like vodka with a diet mixer isnt TOO bad

[bferbear]

If you have to drink try vodka, soda and fresh lime.

[GumBoots]

I think if you are just starting out your "diet" I would prob cut out all alcohol for a little while and slowly introduce it back in

[EvilWombatQueen]

All alcohol is high in calories, but there are a couple of slightly-less-evil options open to you. A shot of vodka and diet coke will set you back about 100 calories. A glass of dry white wine is between 80 and 100 calories. A tip I learned at Weight Watchers was to mix white wine with soda water. It still tastes as good, helps keep you hydrated, halves the calories, makes the bottle of wine last longer, and makes sure you don't get too pissed! And if you're choosing beer the best bet is either light beer or Pure Blonde, a low carb alternative. Most light beer is lower in calories, on average a stubbie is 105 calories. A 355ml bottle of Pure Blonde will set you back 107 calories but has a higher alcohol content. However the calorie saving isn't that much since VB is 'only' 150 calories per stubbie.

If you can cut out alcohol completely that's your best bet. If you can't do that then make sure you factor in the extra calories into your daily intake.

[happyday]

Hi,

Something I note that hasn't been mentioned here is that your liver ALWAYS metabolises alcohol first when you consume it. This therefore causes all other nutrients that are being consumed at the same time to be stored for later use. That is, if your eating while drinking alcohol (which is very common) then all the energy from that food will be stored either as Glycogen (in muscles) or as fat. For most overweight people their glycogen (carbohydrate) stores are rarely depleted (due to lack of intense exercise) and therefore the body will store the energy from food as fat (mostly around the belly, behind and legs). As you can see there's much more than just the energy (caloric) issue involved when choosing to drink to alcohol. You must consider the metabolic effect as well.

My advise is to stop drinking alcohol completely if you're genuinely trying to lose weight! I stopped drinking a few years ago to lose weight, and then never started again. Basically I found once you get the urge (addiction) to drink out (even it's just 1 or 2 a day) of your system you will find you never miss it. Our bodies consider all alcohol to be a toxin, that is why it is metabolised first.

Hope this helps. Bye