Starting weight loss journey, alcohol question?

[DanielleJohn]

I am 18 years old and trying to loose one stone and tone up. Obviously I have only legally been able to drink for a short amount of time so all my friends are out drinking a lot of the time and it is something I enjoy doing as a social aspect. I am one week into my diet and I am supposed to be going on a night out with my friends tomorrow night. I only drink vodka and lemonade and we don't go out every weekend, can I still do these things and still reach my goal?

[2muchmunchin]

Vodka and slimline tonic and drink lots of water if you can! Also Alcohol makes me want to eat more so be very careful don't get lured into the takeaway after your night out! Its so hard though, I love wine and beer but I know its so bad for me if I want to lose the weight.

[laurav2166]

Alcohol is so calorific if you want fast results I'd try to avoid it. One shot of vodka is around 60 calories but the lemonade in a pub is likely to be full of sugar too. Diet lemonade or diet coke would be the best mixer. You have to still have a life even on a diet. If I've had a few drinks in the evening I get up and do a 3 mile run the following morning feel so much better for it too!

[yoyo-nono]

Alcohol can really slow your progress...its very calorific as everybody says. Decide beforehand how much you are going to drink...work out the calories and stick to it. Then, in the week to come, do a bit more exercise to cancel out those calories. You might not lose too much weight but at least you had fun and you will stay on track.

[GoogleMe]

Yes, you can. You'll need to keep a record of how many you have so you keep a handle on the overall picture. Maybe you could just have the diet lemonade mostly and limit yourself to one with vodka? It would be a great habit to establish long term that you don't need to have alcohol to socialise (rather than thinking of it as a 'weight loss' thing and treating it as temporary). My treat is homemade pizza and a glass of wine is really nice with that. I usually use a small glass (wineglasses have got so big) and it is worth those calories... but I also like to ensure that sometimes I *don't* have wine with my pizza so there's no automatic link.

[lfields]

Why would you want the alcohol. It is just going to make you puffy and then you have to watch the calories and you could use the calories for food if you were not drinking alcohol. lf

[albionjen]

As everyone has said, you can still drink and lose weight. But be aware that alcohol is very high in calories. Vodka and lemonade might be 100-200kcal per drink depending on the serving size. I agree it is a good idea to go with diet mixers, but check how many shots are in your drink. Some pubs/clubs serve doubles by default and that is about 120kcal even with diet lemonade!

If you can manage it try to alternate an alcoholic drink with water/lemonade. Or set a limit at the start of the night on the number of drinks you will have. Drinking alcohol makes me much more likely to snack or overeat. I try to make sure I am not too hungry before I go out and head straight home rather than joining others for a post-pub snack. Easier said than done sometimes of course

When/if you end up over-doing it, then just get back on track the next day. One day over calories will not make you put on loads of weight, just like one day under calories does not make you skinny. As long as you have most days under control then I am sure you will reach your goal.

Although you did particularly ask for feedback on your goal - I thought I might add something on this. You said you want to "tone up". Losing some weight will help, but you will also need exercise to improve muscle tone. If you are not overweight right now, you might not even need to lose much weight and instead focusing more on increasing exercise might get you good results. The NHS recommendation is to do around 75 minutes of vigorous cardio plus 2 sessions of muscle strengthening exercises per week.

nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pag...

I do quite a bit more than the above recommendation, particularly of cardio. But that is my personal choice