I know what you’ll expect me to say, ideally, we need to give up alcohol if we truly want the body we’ve always hoped for. And whilst it’s true, alcohol can hinder your results, it’s possible to still enjoy your favourite glass of wine or cider and still lose weight.
Let me tell you how.
Firstly, if you were to go cold turkey and give up all alcohol to try and lose weight, how long would you last, truly? I can guarantee it’s probably not more than a month, right?
For most of us, alcohol is part of our lifestyle. It’s there when we go for a BBQ round our mates, it’s there when we go for cocktails, it’s there when we go for dinner to the local pub with our family. It’s difficult to avoid, particularly if we are habitually used to opting for alcohol over a soft drink. This can make it really challenging. Particularly if you are the kind of person that tends to drink one and then buy 10 more over the course of the evening!
Ponder this example. In order to stay the same weight, let’s say you need 2000 calories. This is what your body burns per day when you consider exercise, sleep, movement etc. Over 7 days this would mean you need 14,000 calories.
Say each day, you eat in a ‘deficit’, this means you eat less than what your body needs so that instead of staying the same weight, you could potentially lose weight…
Monday 1300kcal
Tuesday 1300kcal
Wednesday 1400kcal
Thursday 1250kcal
Friday 1300kcal
Total 6550kcal
On Saturday, your girlfriends call and invite you to the local bar for a drink, you accept… In your head your thinking, dammit… I’ve done so well this week, I’m about to ruin it!
Of your 14,000 calories you had at the start of the week you have 7,540 left! Did you know that in order to lose one pound of fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit of 3500kcal per week? So, currently you’d be on track to lose two pounds, but you’ve got two more whole days of eating left!
Saturday
1300kcal + 3 x glasses of 175ml Red Wine at 148 calories per glass + one Gin and Slimline Tonic at 115 calories. Total calories for the day = 1859kcal
Sunday
1500kcal
Leftover:
4,181kcal. Total calorie deficit required to lose one pound of body fat? 3500kcal
So there you have it, you’ve just lost a lb! It is possible to not completely give up alcohol and still lose weight. You just have to be smart about your alcoholic choices if you are serious about losing weight. For example, if you’d have had 5 large glasses of wine and 3 double gin and full fat tonics? You wouldn’t have lost weight that week. Note, your calorie intake through food throughout that week was relatively low, meaning you had some ‘spare’ calories to use up at the weekend.
As a PT, Of course I wouldn’t recommend doing this every weekend! But it does show you that on those weekends where you really do want to go out with your pals or let your hair down, it is possible.
TIP: If you’re serious about your fat loss, avoid cocktails that are packed with fruit juices and sugar, full fat mixers (such as coke, lemonade etc) and beer…
Did you find this helpful? Let me know i’d love to hear!
Comment with your favourite drink in the comments section <3 Mine is a Mojito!!
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