Dr. Janet HicksOne night of drinking won’t affect your diet. But you will feel the effects the next day though. It is normal to feel bloated and your weight might increase by a few pounds. But if you get back to normal that weight will drop right back. You just need to exercise patience and discipline.
Also, I’d be careful with the quantity of alcohol you consume. My sister didn’t touch anything while on keto for 6 months and lost 50 lbs. Now she drinks 2 light beers and it’s light out. Watch out because your body won’t react the same as before.
Does Drinking Alcohol on Weekends Negatively Affect Weight Loss Efforts?
Yes, it does. Ingesting any calories (including alcoholic beverages) above your particular calorie intake that is needed for you to lose weight. (determined by weight, height, gender, activity level, and ideally body fat percentage) will cause you to either gain weight or maintain your present weight.
Technically, if you’re seriously careful not to eat very much food during the day or are a calorie counter and tracked every single beer to the calorie, you could potentially not affect your weight loss activity due to being under your caloric requirements for the day (and so your body is forced to turn to other sources of fuel, hence weight loss).
But, you and I know that most people won’t starve themselves during the day (except heavy drinkers) to drink at night. So, in more realistic terms, it’s extremely likely you are going to go over your caloric intake on those days, mainly if you eat while drinking as well (even more calories).
So, Am I saying you might stop drinking on the weekends? Ideally, for your weight loss, I’d recommend so, but not necessarily.
ALSO SEE: Will 2 Beers A Night Make Me Fat?
I reckon that exercising and following a healthy diet (needed to achieve your weight loss goals) is a lifestyle requirement for any meaningful weight loss to be maintained. In other words, your overall caloric expenditure needs to change and STAY changed.
Drinking is an unhealthy habit, to begin with, but if that is your indulgence, then I advise that you discover ways to accommodate your drinking and still lose weight. But, be careful not to overdo your indulgence and become alcohol-dependent.
In other words, it depends on how much you value losing weight as opposed to drinking alcohol. Alcohol has lots of empty calories and no doubt puts you back on your fitness goals, but fitness is a lifestyle, and the decisions you make every single day are going to determine how you look and how much you weigh, so since you are living a lifestyle, if drinking is seriously important to your lifestyle, it may be a form of indulgence you choose to participate in even though it’s not the absolute most healthy weight-loss/fitness-minded thing to do.
