What You Need to Know about Drinking Alcohol and Your Weight Loss Diet
July 03, 2018 at 8:13 AM
Having an alcoholic beverage now and then can be fun, but imbibing in alcohol regularly can wreak havoc on your weight loss diet. Even if you are a moderate drinker, the calories you ingest in alcohol can have a significantly negatively effect on your attempts to lose weight.
Alcohol provides plenty of calories but very little nutrition, a combination that can cause weight gain. A 5-ounce glass of sweet wine contains about 165 calories, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Rethinking Drinking website, while a 1.5-ounce sip of some liqueurs can contain as many as 165 calories. These calories can add up over the course of a night, and especially over the course of a week.
For best results on your weight loss diet, try to stick with nonalcoholic beverages. Mix protein fruit drink packets into flavored seltzers for a zesty, refreshing drink. Create smoothies with ice and your favorite fruit packets.
There are those special occasions that you may want to celebrate with a libation or two. If you choose wisely, you can certainly bend your elbow a bit without breaking the scale. Switch to light beer, if you are a lager lover, as a 12-ounce serving of regular beer contains about 153 calories while the same size serving of light beer contains about 103 calories.
Stay away from piña coladas, as they can pack as many as 490 calories into every 9-ounce glass. Distilled spirits, such as gin, vodka, rum, whiskey and tequila each have about 97 calories in every 1.5-ounce serving. Mixing distilled spirits with diet tonic water or diet soda is your best bet if you go this route. Try and avoid sugary and high calorie fruit juice as a mixer.
The other thing to consider with drinking are the effects that alcohol may have on you. It can impair your judgement and make you want foods that aren’t a part of your weight loss program. Ordering a burger and fries may help to curb a hangover, but it ultimately sabotages your goals. It’s best to try and get through the program without alcohol on a regular basis.
For more information on alcohol consumption and weight loss, speak to a medical weight loss professional. You can also check out our article about staying healthy especially around the holiday season & hidden calories. With Medical Weight Loss Solutions, you can lose weight in a medically supervised way and reach your weight loss goals.