BY EMMET RUSHE: The question about alcohol and weight loss comes up frequently, especially around holidays, but also when I have a new wave of members in my Better Bodies classes.
The questions are usually ‘Can I still drink?’ or ‘If I drink will it affect my weight loss?’
As with anything, moderation is key, but if you are having regular drinking sessions at the weekend or having a glass or 2 each night after work, chances are, it will affect your goals.
This is an article on the subject that I wrote last year, and it gives everything that you need to know about alcohol and weight loss.
Alcohol is part of our society.
80% of people over 18 in Ireland drink alcohol.
81% of males drink and 79% of females drink.
90% of 18 – 29 year old males and 89% of 18 – 29 year old females, drink.
In 2011, beer represented 48% of the alcohol consumed in Ireland, wine 26%, spirits 19% and cider 7%.
So, it is safe to say that we are a nation who likes a drink.
One of the most common questions that I get asked when I am having a consultation with someone, be it for weight loss or muscle gain, is ‘’Can I still drink alcohol?’’
My answer is as it always is with questions like this, yes…but the yes comes with a big but, or should that be butt?
What many people fail to take into consideration are the effects that alcohol will have on their goals.
If your goal is weight loss and you feel that you are ‘being good’ and ‘eating healthy’ during the week, the question is, can a weekends drinking mess it up on you?
As Sheldon Cooper would say, ‘Let’s do the math’
Beer came out on top as the drink of choice, so we will start the night with that.
A 330ml bottle of beer has 142 calories, if you drink pints that number increases to 244 calories.
So, if we take that the start of the night for most will be around 5-6 bottles or pints before hitting the night club, you will have already hit 852 calories for the bottle drinkers and 1464 calories for the drinker of pints.
Now the fun begins.
You hit the nightclub and it’s party time.
You move onto spirits.
Vodka has 95 calories per half and just like Pringles, you can’t only have one, so let’s average it out to 4. Of course, because we’re watching our weight, we will mix it with diet coke.
4 x vodkas + diet coke = 384 calories
For our bottle drinkers, the grand total for a night is 1236 calories.
For our pint drinkers, the grand total for one night is 1848 calories.
This isn’t even allowing for Redbull, shots, full sugar mixers or a trip to the takeaway at the end of the night.
By the way, if you mixed the shorts with Redbull, the total would be 608 calories instead of 384 calories.
Add in a takeaway at the end that would add on around 838 calories.
This is one night, one night with a possible higher end total of between 2298 and 2910 calories.
Then you wake up the next day and start back into your diet again and all is right with the world………..or you wake up with a hangover and have to have something, to take the taste of alcohol and that kebab you think you ate, out of your mouth.
Breakfast might be a fry-up that can have anything between 700 – 1200 calories depending on how bad that kebab tasted.
What you also need to know is that a lot of the calories in alcohol are ‘empty calories’ they are virtually useless to the body, so when you drink alcohol fat burning stops until the alcohol calories are burned off first, so everything that you ate that day could be stored as fat.
As I have said before, weight loss comes down to calories in v’s calories out.
If you are in a moderate calorie deficit all week, a weekend of drinking can easily mess up your goals and leave you wondering where it all went wrong.
#TrainSmart
If you have any question on this article or for getting a tailored program based on your starting point, please contact me through the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rushe-Fitness/120518884715118
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