Can I drink alcohol and still lose weight?

Do you like to enjoy a cold beer or glass of wine from time to time, but are worried that it might sabotage your diet? Or maybe you’re not sure how drinking alcohol affects weight loss? You’re not alone. A lot of people want to know how they can drink alcohol on a diet and still see results. Let’s be upfront. On the Optavia program there are no approved alcoholic drinks. Most alcoholic beverages and mixed drinks contain extra calories, sugar, and carbs.

Don’t lose hope yet! The good news is that even with the dietary restrictions you may feel, you can still have a drink every now and then while on your journey. it is possible! In this post, we will discuss how alcohol consumption can impact weight loss, as well as some tips for enjoying your favorite drinks while still losing weight. Cheers!

The Best Choice When Drinking Alcohol on a Diet

Oh, the eternal question – how can I enjoy a glass of wine or a cold beer without sacrificing my diet goals? Well, here’s the answer – you can’t. At least not if you want to avoid empty calories and weight gain. We actually recommend our clients cut alcohol completely.

Alcohol may be a popular social drink, but it contains empty calories that have absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever. And worse yet, those empty calories are also notorious for triggering cravings and messing with your appetite control, making it all too easy to overeat. So the bottom line is this – if you want to maintain your healthy diet while still hanging out with friends over drinks, then the best thing to do is simply order a mocktail or other non-alcoholic beverage instead.

But we know that wasn’t your real question right? So how do you avoid the weight gain and stay within the structure of your Optavia program and still participate in moderate drinking?

---

---

How can I drink alcohol while dieting?

Here are our best tips for enjoying a glass while still going after your weight loss goals:

Know Which alcohol is best for weight loss

There is a lot of debate in the weight loss community over which type of alcohol is best for promoting healthy weight loss. Many people might think that vodka would be the obvious winner. It’s a very pure alcohol, meaning it doesn’t have a lot of additives or extra calories in it. Plus, vodka has an extremely high water content, which helps to keep you feeling full and hydrated.

On the other hand, other types of alcohol like beer and wine have more sugar and carbs in them, which can lead to fluctuations in blood sugar and energy levels. It doesn’t matter if it’s regular beer or light beer, the extra calories in a beer will likely cause you to fall right out of fat burn.

This is also true of red wine. There are a lot of excess calories in red wine or white wine for that matter to keep you in fat burn if you decide to drink. Of course we know their of health benefits for that pinot noir and heart disease but if you’re trying to lose weight drinking alcohol is not one of them.

Drinking Alcohol On A Diet Tips

If you’re going to have the drink and add the extra calories per cup/glass to your day, we want to give you the best tips and plan.

This is more than how to avoid excessive drinking and only drink items that have less than 5 calories per serving. Those don’t exist. This health journey isn’t about calories. Your health journey is about creating the life you love and having the health in your body mind and all the rest to achieve that.

There are plenty of other sites that will give you the answer you want about how to drink alcohol on a diet. We’re going to give you what we (not Optavia endorsed) believe is the best ways to achieve your health even if you choose to include alcohol every once in a while.

Eat First

Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach is dangerous for anyone but especially people that are on a low calorie intake program. The impact of more alcohol on less calories is not always good. So even if you choose to have one of your healthy snacks on a day you’re going to have a taste, it’s better to have those calories than too much alcohol intake on an empty stomach.

Avoid Cocktails

The amount of added sugar, calories per drink in cocktails is like making multiple poor food choices in one glass. Like we’ve already shared, the best alcoholic drinks are those with the fewest and most pure ingredients.

If you are serious about weight management don’t reach for the long island iced tea. Instead grab a vodka soda. One shot of vodka, topped off with club soda water, maybe the squeeze of a fresh lime is the best choice if you decide to have a drink.

Avoid Emotional Alcohol Drinks

The time for your alcohol use is not when you’re having a bad day. In fact, that’s when we encourage you to reach out to your coach. Remember a big part of reaching and maintaining your weight loss goals is identifying the habits that have held you back.

Emotionally drinking won’t help with your weight goals or your overall health goals. That’s true for one or two drinks. If you find yourself consistently thinking about drinking at the end of a hard day, reach for your life book or your phone and message your coach.

Don’t Have Alcohol At Parties

What?! Did I read that right? No alcohol when I’m out with the girls for happy hour or a big night. Yup. If you want to lose weight, drinking during these times is the least favorable ideas. Alcohol consumption is always up when we’re just enjoying drinks with a friend or friends. One leads to a second drink until pretty soon we are drinking without thinking and consuming more calories at the bar than all the calories we eat in a day on program. That’s not good for your health not matter how many times you say it in a toast, “Here’s to your health!”

There’s More!

The other thing we see happen with people go to places where drinking is the priority is the amount of food consumed rises with the alcohol use. If weight loss is the priority this is a problem. We’ve give ourselves the green light on drinking and the next thing you know we’re ordering food, filling up on more empty calories, and watching our health goals decrease as our calorie content for the night skyrockets.

Do yourself and those fat cells you’re working so hard to burn a favor. Be the designated driver. Drink an approved soda or even just a sparkling water when you’re out with friends for a girls night. You’ll save yourself a headache, food and calories hangover the next day!

Limit Your Alcohol Calories

We’ve said it multiple times but the empty calories you’re adding with that drink are going to have an impact on your health journey. It’s important that even though this isn’t a calories deficit program, adding too many calories will take you out of fat burn and you will gain weight.

Understanding the impact of alcohol calories is important. So limit the number of drinks you have and therefore limit the calories along the way. Remember, the more alcohol you drink the more calories you’re going to consume. The more calories you consume, the more likely you are to slow the rest of your process down.

We always encourage our clients to talk to their healthcare professional about these types of decisions and we would do the same for you.

So Can I lose Weight and Consume Alcohol?

The answer is yes. Anything is possible. The best way to achieve your goals is to follow the plan specifically as outlined and understand that no alcoholic beverages are approved. Even if you limit yourself to consuming only up to one drink that one drink is outside of structure and can impact your journey.

If you are 100% committed to trying to lose weight than avoiding alcoholic drinks all together is a good idea.

One final thought, alcohol often leads us to make poor decisions when it comes to food. If you are trying to lose weight, it is best to avoid drinking alcohol all together. Not only will you consume fewer calories, but you will also be less likely to make poor choices when it comes to food. Cheers to your health!

We hope you found this post about alcohol helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. We wish you the best of luck on your weight loss journey.

Make sure to subscribe and be entered into our monthly free gift-away!