How to Drink Alcohol and Still Lose Weight
Ah, Alcohol.
Whether it’s Monday Night Football, happy hours, summertime BBQ, date night, or anything in between, alcohol is more than likely involved somehow in your lifestyle. Probably because alcohol is the social lubricant around the world.
Due to alcohol’s popularity, almost all my clients will ask me at some point if they can still enjoy their happy hour AND still make fat loss progress.
It’s a question that leaves most people praying for a “YES” but expecting a “NO.”
As nothing is black or white, the truth lies somewhere in between. On one hand, alcohol has some detrimental effects, yet these effects can be minimized when alcohol is intelligently incorporated into your diet without sabotaging your progress.
So can you drink alcohol and still lose weight?
The answer is “YES! Yes, you can!”
So, let’s break this down and, more importantly, discuss how exactly you can have your drink(s) while losing body fat at the same time.
Quick Facts of Alcohol
So, let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Your body essentially views alcohol as a poison and it possesses addictive qualities that may lead to future problems (i.e alcoholism). As someone who grew up with an alcoholic father, this is my way of saying drink responsibly and within your limits.
Before going ahead on how to safely add alcohol into your diet plan, we need to look at the macronutrients and what their calorie values are:
Protein - 4 calories per gram
Carb - 4 calories per gram
Fats - 9 calories per gram
Alcohol - 7 calories per gram
As you can tell, alcohol contains more calories per gram than protein and carbs. This is important because it allows you insight into how to calculate alcohol into your dietary budget (i.e. your calories). The key to any successful diet is developing awareness of the total calories you’re consuming.
Once the alcohol enters your bloodstream, your body’s number one priority is getting the alcohol out of your system ASAP. To be more efficient at this, your body actually shuts down other metabolic processes to clear the system faster, such as:
---> Your body’s ability to burn fat
---> Hormone production
---> Muscle tissue repair
---> And more.
When you drink, your body’s metabolic processes to either burn fat or build muscle comes to a sudden halt until your body clears the alcohol from the system.
With that being said, your fat loss still comes down to creating a caloric deficit so you can still drink and lose body fat. Drinking only causes you to gain body fat if it’s pushing from being in a caloric deficit into maintenance or calorie surplus.
For my online clients, we work together to create a sustainable nutritional plan so they can work in some alcohol into their nutritional plan. I firmly believe fitness should augment your life, not consume it. Your diet is the sum of all parts, meaning you should be looking at the whole week, instead of overanalyzing individual days or specific foods.
While you don’t need to make dramatic shifts (i.e. eat nothing beforehand), it does require some discipline and planning to preserve your physique.
So, here’s 5 easy rules you can follow when you choose to drink. These tips will save you hundreds (if not thousands) of calories and keep you moving in the right direction.
1) Workout in the Morning
If you are going to drink in the evening, make sure you work out in the morning. You want to space your workout and drink as far apart as possible. This will make sure it doesn’t interfere with both the muscle-building process and overall recovery. You’ll burn a few hundred calories which will offset all the calories you’ll consume that evening.
2) Eat a High Protein Breakfast and lunch
Please do not make the rookie mistake of not eating anything before drinking. You’ll end up extra drunk and embarrassed. Instead, you should go for high protein items with a lot of veggies to keep it on the lighter side.
Stick to a light breakfast (think omelet) and chicken breast for lunch. We want to save all our carbs for booze and snack foods. Therefore, we want to offset the carbs you’ll be drinking that night with plenty of protein and veggies during the day.
Here’s how to structure your day
Morning Workout – 40-minute strength training
Breakfast – scrambled eggs with fruit and baby spinach
Lunch – salad with chicken breast, water
Dinner – Date night
After Party? – probably not
Next Day – 20-minute bodyweight circuit workout if under 30; couch side planks all day if over 30.
3) Pick your (Alcohol) Battles
Now that you’re at the party, it’s time to select our drink. In general, beer is a terrible choice. Beers are like chips; rarely do we ever have just one. In addition, those microbrews are going to have more calories than a normal Budweiser. While you can have your beer, it will always be dose-dependent.
To make things easier for you, I’ve created a list of the Marco friends drinks that will keep calories low to preserve your physique
In general, clear liquors are a better option. Clear liquors are usually lower in calories; however, avoid calorie-filled cocktails. Instead, look for small changes: order a Moscow Mule, or order Whiskey on the rocks (if you can handle it).
Regardless of your alcoholic choice, monitor and pace yourself there, champ.
4. Limit/eliminate the munchie foods
Without question, this may be the most difficult. Pizza, tacos, fast food, greasy snacks, and appetizers are never a good idea. Your best bet is to offset the influx of carbs with protein.
Remember, alcohol is a toxin, and your body’s primary focus is to remove the toxins ASAP. Any post-drink foods won’t be metabolized until after toxins are gone. Generally speaking, it takes one hour for your body to metabolize one alcoholic drink. Any late-night foods consumed will not be metabolized until the alcohol is gone.
You can have fun, but you cannot have it all. #sorrynotsorry
5) The Morning After
A little prevention goes a long way in reducing your hangover. Before heading to bed, drink 1-2 glasses of water. Make sure you get plenty of sleep. After sleeping in, make sure you sweat it out the following morning, even if it’s not a great workout. Just get something in.
Make sure to drink plenty of water to rehydrate and recover. Make sure you prioritize high protein and veggie meals all day to balance your macros back into place.
Learn from my Mistakes
At the end of the day, alcohol is part of life. Completely restricting alcohol isn’t going to aid you in long-term adherence (the golden ticket in sustainable results), unless you completely stop drinking.
Instead, it’s essential to be intelligent in incorporating your alcohol into your diet plan. That doesn’t mean you can get blackout drunk every weekend. Drink in moderation, track your macros, have a drink or two every so often and enjoy life.
After all, fitness should augment your lift not consume it.
So cheers, my friends.
Be responsible, enjoy your drink(s), get home safely, and get back on track the following day.