Weight-loss can seem a real battle at times, plain boring food, no drinking, no junk food, just an all round drag.
However, does it need to be like this? Basically can you drink alcohol and still lose weight?
The short answer to this is yes you can. The long answer is it depends on what you drink.
You see everything we eat contains calories from fat, protein, carbohydrates and if you consume them, alcohol.
Protein and carbohydrates both contain 4 calories per gram
Fat contains 9 calories per gram
Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram
As you can see, alcohol contains quite a lot of calories per gram, more than carbohydrate and protein.
But what does this actually mean? It means although you can drink alcohol and lose weight, the amount you drink is pretty important.
One shot of most 40% proof alcohols e.g. vodka, whiskey, gin, dark rum, tequila contain about 10 grams of alcohol or 70 calories depending if it has been sweetened.
If you’re savvy and had 5 vodka or rum and diet cokes you could soon feel pretty merry and have only consumed 350 calories. Definitely not enough to hinder weight-loss if you only do it once or twice a week.
Even if you went on a binge and had 10 rum and diet cokes in one night, although not the best thing for your liver. Spread over the week it’s only an extra 100 calories per day, meaning you could definitely still lose weight.
However what happens if you replace the drink with red wine or beer?
Well a medium glass of red wine is about 170 calories and a pint of beer or cider is about 200 calories. Suddenly you can see how alcohol could be running your weight-loss efforts. 5 glasses of wine is about 850 calories and 5 pints is 1000 calories!
Do either of the above twice a week and suddenly you’ve consumed almost a whole day’s worth of food. Losing weight will be seriously tough now.
So although it’s certainly possible to lose weight and drink alcohol, it really does depend on what you drink and how much of it.
My advice is stick to spirits and zero calorie mixers for the best results. Over time the difference in calories really adds up.