When looking at your diet for weight loss purposes, a frequent question that arises is how much alcohol are you consuming? More often than not, the advice heard is to eliminate most, if not all, alcohol from your diet – which might have you thinking twice about this new health kick.
Luckily, education is power, and the more you know about how it affects your body, the better you’ll be able to make smarter decisions, unless you switch to tequila. First off, look at how much alcohol you consume and ask yourself if you really follow the ounces per servings on the back of the bottle, or if you’re like a majority of people who just fill up the cup more than it should be.
Moderating the amount of alcohol that you’re serving yourself is similar to portion control when looking at food on a plate. Now that you have the proper serving sizes down, it’s time to check out what exactly it is that you’re drinking to look at the total carbohydrates and sugar content.
Most white and red wines are about 100 to 120 calories per serving, and as long as you use moderation, this should be okay. Try to stay away from sweeter wines, liquors, and handmade beverages because these types of drinks will usually contain more sugar and carbs – which will ultimately sit in your stomach and turn into fat as you sleep.
Excessive amounts of alcohol will also begin to create an imbalance in hormones levels as estrogen rises, which could slowly lower your resting metabolism – causing gradual weight gain.
Aside from adding extra sugar, carbohydrates and causing an imbalance in your hormones, drinking will lead to poor decision making skills. Some common poor decisions when on a diet are picking comfort foods, sugary foods and bigger portions – which can be influenced heavily by consuming enough alcohol.
Does this all mean that you necessarily have to quit drinking altogether in order to not compromise your current diet? No, not at all. In fact, you can still continue to lose weight while consuming alcohol, as long as you’re mindful about the sweetness, portion size, and the ability it has to negatively influence your choices.
At the end of the day you don’t want to deprive yourself of something like alcohol if it’s really enjoyable to you because dieting alone is stressful enough, so go ahead and treat yourself responsibly.
