How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight
So, you want to know how to drink alcohol and still lose weight?
Great, because you’re in the right place.
I know how frustrating it may feel with all of the conflicting information around this.
You’ll have people who go, “I quit drinking and I finally lost all the weight!”
And yet you’ll have other people who drink like a fish and don’t seem to gain a single pound.
You might be wondering, “WTF is up with that?”
“Why can’t I be in the second situation? I love my beer, wine, and fruity drinks and I can’t really see myself giving it all up.”
Luckily, for you, there is a way to continue drinking alcohol and still achieve weight loss.
But I will say, it won’t be as easy as “continue everything you’re currently doing” because if you want your body to change then your habits will also need to change.
But you also don’t need to completely cut yourself off from the things you love.
Everything can truly be enjoyed in moderation thanks to flexible dieting.
So in this article, you can expect to read about:
- How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight – The Weight Loss Part
- How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight – The Drink Alcohol Part
- Practical Hacks For How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight
- The Cold, Hard Truth About Alcohol
How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight – The Weight Loss Part
Alright, so let’s talk about the hard part first. The weight loss part.
As discussed in my other article, The Ultimate Fat Loss Guide, the main driver of weight loss is going to be using a calorie deficit.
However, for most of us, we don’t just want to lose any weight, we mainly want to lose weight in the form of body fat.
So by combining a calorie deficit with adequate protein, strength training, and daily activity, this is how you maximize fat loss.
And how does alcohol play a role in this?
As discussed in my article, The Complete Guide On How To Track Your Calories And Macros, the four main macronutrients we consume are protein, carbohydrates, fats, and alcohol*.
*Alcohol is sort of a macronutrient. It isn’t a necessary “nutrient” like protein, carbs, and fats, but it does have a caloric value.
What are these values?
Protein has 4 calories per gram.
Carbs have 4 calories per gram.
Fats have 9 calories per gram.
Alcohol has 7 calories per gram.
And it’s this exact reason why people will say things like…
“Alcohol makes you fat!”
“Different types of alcohol make you fat.”
When in reality, it’s not specifically the alcohol, but the overconsumption of calories that put you into a calorie surplus that causes fat gain.
Sidenote: Why Alcohol Does Not Actually Make You Gain Fat
This might be a surprising point to many people, but alcohol isn’t actually the reason you’re gaining fat.
There is no such thing as a “beer/wine belly” or any sort of specific fat gain related to alcohol.
The scientific community actually discovered a while ago that the calories you get from alcohol are still metabolized just like anything else, but it is physically impossible to store it.
This means that none of the calories you get from alcohol are stored as fat.
Now you’re probably wondering, “Then how did I gain all this weight? It didn’t just magically appear out of nowhere.”
And you’re right. Here’s why.
This is because the body treats alcohol as “poison” and metabolizes that first.
Then, especially if you are in a surplus, the calories you get from food will be stored as fat since your body has gotten its calorie requirements from the alcohol.
So as you can see, nuances aside, it still boils down to net calories in calories out over the course of the long term.
This means yes, as long as you are in a calorie deficit, even with the consumption of alcohol, you can still lose weight.
Now a common follow-up question I get is, “How do I track this? My bottles of beer, wine, and liquor don’t have a nutrition facts label as food does.”
And don’t worry, we’ll cover this in a bit.
Sidenote #2: Alcohol And Building Muscle
If one of your goals is to build muscle (which it should be even if weight loss or fat loss is your primary goal as explained in my other article Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle? – Your Complete Guide), then you should reconsider the role of alcohol in your plan.
One big reason why is because it’s been shown that large amounts of alcohol consumption blunts muscle protein synthesis (MPS), which is one of the key processes that help you build more muscle over time.
However, as performed in this study, the participants consumed an average of 12 drink servings so this doesn’t mean that you can’t go out a few times a week to enjoy drinks with the boys/girls, but just know that if you are someone who binge drinks, it would be worth looking into.
But with that said, something that I constantly preach is to fit fitness into your lifestyle and not the other way around so use your best judgment to limit drinking, but also don’t be afraid to enjoy yourself from time to time.
How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight – The Drinking Part
Now, let’s get into the more fun part, the drinking part.
How To Track The Calories Of Alcohol
First off, I understand it can be hard to track the calories of alcohol because it isn’t necessarily displayed front and center on the containers themselves.
But luckily for you, I’m going to give you a one-sheet of a part of my Macro Cheat Sheet that every single one of my online coaching clients gets.
One more thing to note, if you’re someone who likes logging the calories and macros, you can use the right-most column to do so.
But like I said earlier, alcohol is its own “macro” so it doesn’t really count as carbs or fats, it just allows you to track it like that because most tracking apps won’t have a separate alcohol tracker.
Something else we need to talk about at this point is a reminder of alcohol serving sizes.
And yes I know…this isn’t something you want to hear again reminding you of your alcohol education courses, but it’s important to know not just from avoiding a possible DUI, but from a nutrition aspect.
Because what you think is just a single serving alcohol could easily be 2-3 servings which means 2-3x more calories than you initially thought.
Here’s a hilarious post from Dr. Spencer Nadolsky showing this concept.
But as you know, each alcohol does different calorie values. So let’s dive a little deeper into that below.
The Difference Between Alcohol Types
Alright, so a quick refresher.
Carbs have 4 calories per gram. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram. (The other two are still true, but they aren’t relevant here.)
So knowing that you’ll realize that some alcoholic beverages have fewer calories than others and this is exactly why.
When a beverage says “15% alcohol by volume” it literally means that.
15% of the beverage (and its calories) are from alcohol and the rest is carbs from its various brewing, distilling, production components like wheat, grapes, potatoes, etc.
This is why typically hard liquors will have fewer calories per serving.
It’s because it has a higher percentage of just ethanol (the main chemical found in alcohol) whereas drinks like beer, wine, and mixed cocktails contain sugar and sugary mixers in combination with alcohol.
However, as I said, it does boil down to calories in calories out. You can still enjoy your alcohol while making progress.
So let’s talk about some practical application tips you can immediately apply.
Practical Hacks For How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight
1. Reduce Your Alcohol Consumption
Okay, this first one you’re probably like “Drink less? No shit, Austin.”
But it helps to be reminded. Especially when you start tracking your calories or just simply build awareness by writing down what you eat/drink every day.
You realize all the extra unnecessary crap you’re eating/drinking and how quickly they add up.
And being faced with this realization helps a lot of people cut down.
Whether you go cold turkey or reduce your drinks from having 3-4 per day to 1-2, it’s entirely up to you.
But you need to realize that if you want to be successful reach your goals, it’s going to take some restrictions and you’re not going to get to eat/drink every single thing you want in whatever quantities you want.
Also, becoming consciously aware of your decisions allows you to seriously reflect and ask yourself if you really need all the extra drinks you’re having.
Oftentimes, by incorporating moderation, we realize we didn’t really need all those extra drinks as we thought.
However, if you’re still having trouble coming to terms with this and still finding yourself overdrinking, give this “hack” a try.
It was first recommended to me by Jordan Syatt an online personal trainer who did it with one of his clients.
Since then I have found massive success with my own clients and it goes like this.
Propose to yourself a 30-day challenge where you are either going to have no drinks or only 2 drinks max a day (because let’s be honest, we can all do something no matter how tough it may seem for 30 days, if not you probably something deeper going on).
Then at the end of the 30 days, if you end up absolutely hating it, you’re allowed to go back to your old habits.
And what happens 9.9 times out of 10?
People end up drinking a lot less or not at all because they realize how much they really didn’t need it.
So if you’re seriously struggling with your alcohol intake, give this a try, and shoot me an email to keep me posted.
2. Opting For Lower Calorie Options
This works well if you’re someone who likes beer, hard liquor, or mixed drinks.
Rather than having a full-calorie beer, opt for a light beer (I know it doesn’t taste the same, but you win some you lose some alright?).
If you’re someone who likes hard liquor, straight-up shots are probably going to be your best bang for your buck in terms of keeping calories low and getting you to “feel” it.
But if you’re someone who likes ordering mixed drinks, you can opt for low-calorie mixers like soda water, diet tonic water, or diet soda.
Sometimes, bars and restaurants may even be able to make drinks “skinny” or “light” for you by using fresh fruit juice and other lower-calorie substitutes rather than sugary mixers, simple syrup, etc.
Getting those “tooti-fruity” specialty mixed drinks at bars and restaurants is going to be the most calorie-dense.
Not saying that they are bad or that you can’t have them, but realize they can contain upwards of 500 calories per drink (which is equivalent to the size of a small meal).
3. Budgeting Your Calories
This works well if you’re someone who likes to have a game plan before you go out to eat/drink.
If you know ahead of time that you’re going to be drinking later, pre-log those drinks into your food logs so that you can plan your nutrition accordingly earlier in the day.
Whether that’s making sure you’re filling up on a lot of lower-calorie options like protein, veggies, and fruits, or giving yourself accountability to stop at 2 drinks since you’ve already logged it.
4. Not Treating Yourself Like An Asshole
Okay so for most people (myself included), it’s not necessarily that they drink a lot and the calories add up.
But it’s also the fact that drinking doesn’t lead to the best decisions afterward.
Whether you end up texting your ex, fighting some other person who looked at you funny or end up unsuccessfully flirting with someone at the bar.
The above can be embarrassing but doesn’t affect your nutrition really.
However, when you do end up with a case of the “drunchies” (drunk + munchies) and let the waitress talk you into ordering another round of drinks and appetizers, end up ordering late-night pizza delivery to your house, or decide to go bar hopping only to end up on a midnight taco run…
The few drinks you had were probably only worth a few hundred extra calories, but by doing this you end up blowing your intake out of the water by eating a bunch of deep-fried, cheesy, and fatty high-calorie bomb foods and end up in a much higher calorie surplus than you realized.
So while it’s great that you aren’t getting tons of calories through alcohol, it’s also important to not let alcohol have a snowball effect that causes you to end up eating thousands of calories with no control (which is easier said than done of course).
The Cold, Hard Truth About Alcohol And Weight Loss
And of course, with all of the talk around building flexibility and incorporating alcohol while you’re trying to lose weight, we need to talk about this as well because many people need to face this reality.
Do you really need your drinks? Here’s one of my Instagram posts for you to self-reflect on.
Because I really do think that if you are serious about reaching your health and fitness goals, alcohol really has no place in it.
Now, as I said before, no one has truly answer if you can fit it into your diet except yourself.
But I want you to dig deep and ask yourself, is it worth it?
If it is, then work it in, that’s fine.
But if it isn’t and you need to cut it out, that’s fine too.
But don’t kid yourself when you say “I need it” when it’s only covering something else up that needs to be addressed.
Final Thoughts On How To Drink Alcohol And Still Lose Weight
Alright! And that about covers everything on how to drink alcohol and still lose weight.
The bottom line here, as I said, is it boils down to calories in versus calories out and really asking yourself what is worth it to fit into your calorie requirements and lifestyle.
If you want to achieve more, it likely has no place, or you may need to cut back to less frequently than you’d like.
But either way, you can still have it from time to time or not at all.
There are no right or wrong answers.
As always, if you ever have any questions or need help with anything at all, please reach out. I would be more than happy to help 🙂
Until next time,
-Aus
