YES YOU CAN! A study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that individuals who consumed one to two alcoholic beverages daily had the lowest body mass index. So consuming alcohol on a regular basis has a positive impact on your BMI – who can argue with that?! A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine also found that women who had one or two alcoholic drinks a day were actually less likely to gain weight than those who avoided alcohol.
But hold on! This doesn’t mean you can throw back shot after shot, night after night. There are many factors to consider before you hit the bar.
Yes, there is a way to incorporate alcohol into your diet without packing on the pounds, but it certainly isn’t by binge drinking. When alcohol is consumed in large quantities at irregular intervals, serious weight gain is the result. Think “freshman 15” – when most kids go off to college they come back a few pounds heavier, mostly thanks to the frequent, random all-night-binge drinking that goes on.
Plus, the more you drink, the lower your inhibitions and the more likely you are to throw all caution to the wind. Not to mention, studies have shown that alcohol can make you feel hungry and crave carbs! All of a sudden those nachos sounds really good, and you forgo your diet for the night.
So what is considered one drink? 1.5oz shot = 1 beer = 4oz glass of wine. This doesn’t mean they all have the same amount of calories, though. A regular beer can have up to 200 calories, a light beer has on average 100 calories, a glass of wine has approx. 150 calories, and a mixed drink made with one shot can range anywhere from 60 – 300 calories depending on what’s mixed in!
Most bars pour you more than 4 ounces of wine in a glass and more alcohol in a mixed drink than you might think, and you most likely eyeball it and pour yourself more at home, too. If you think you overdo it, stick to one glass for the benefits. You’ll also want to stick to low calorie mixers like club soda with a splash of cranberry juice. Better yet, drink quench your thirst with a light beer or two. Unlike wine and mixed drinks, beer offers you portion control, with calories and carbs printed right on the bottle! Heineken Light has only 99 calories per bottle. You could easily drink two of those and not destroy your diet. That’s less calories than a glass of wine and most mixed drinks. Not to mention, beer has been reported to offer health benefits similar to red wine.
If you’re trying to lose weight, but don’t want to give up drinking, it’s important to make sure whatever you consume fits in with your daily allotment of calories. It’s likely the women in the studies above factor their alcoholic beverages into their daily calorie allowance, and make up for it by not overdoing it with dessert or second helpings of dinner. For example, 2 glasses of wine ranks in at around 300 calories. So you want to factor that in. If you’re already at your limit of say 1600 calories for the day, 2 glasses of wine is going to put you a good amount over that. Do this everyday and you will see weight gain.
So there you have it! You can drink and still lose weight; in fact, a drink a day can keep weight gain at bay! But overdo it and you’re likely to see the pounds creep on. Limit yourself to one drink, or two at most, and choose low calorie drinks like light beer, red wine, and mixed drinks with club soda. And by all means, if you’re not a big drinker, this is no reason to start.
Cheers!
