Can You Drink & Still Lose Fat?

I WANNA LOSE WEIGHT BUT I DON'T WANT TO GIVE UP MY SOCIAL LIFE!!!

Is this you?  Is it possible to still have a social life while you're working on getting a hot, ripped up body???  The answer is....YES.  What???  Now don't get too excited, I'm not about to tell you if you work out like a beast you can drink like a fish.  Not so.  But if you understand a few things and follow a few simple rules, you can have a drink or two each week and keep your muscles, too.

Firstly, you need to understand that alcohol has calories just like anything else we consume.  It has 7 calories per gram.  Fat has 9 calories per gram.  Not a huge difference in the two, huh?  That's why alcohol is sometimes referred to as 'liquid fat.'  So, if you plan on drinking, you need to swap the calories from something else in your diet for that day.  If you've had a tough day at work and plan on having 2 beers when you get home, there is not one thing wrong with that!  But you will need to account for the difference somewhere that day, whether it's taking out 150 calories from 2 meals or 100 from three.  If you go over your maintenance calories, this will cause some or ALL of the dietary fat you ate for the day to be stored as fat.  No bueno.  Get it?

Alcohol calories take priority as fuel for your body over fat-stores and glycogen.  Why??  Because the by-product of alcohol metabolism is acetate and it is toxic, so all fat burning within the body ceases until these calories are outta there.  Makes sense!

FAIL TO PLAN....PLAN TO FAIL.

This applies to everything!  Even getting hammered.  Choose the day of the week you want to let loose.  Then do the following:

1.  Eat VERY low fat that day.  Remember, drinking too much will cause you to store some or all of that day's dietary fat as body fat, so keeping it very low fat minimizes that consequence.
2.  Eat all of your protein for that day to preserve muscle mass and eat all carbs for the day from veggie sources.  Drink tons of water.  Tons before drinking and tons before bed.
3.  Drink shots, dry red wines and zero calorie mixers.  I prefer Gin & Diet Tonic w lime juice, for example.  Beer is okay too, just remember it is oftentimes higher in carbs and calories and when you go over your daily caloric budget, you are storing all dietary fat as fat.

** Remember, sometimes when you get a few drinks down you get munchies.  This is often the biggest challenge when drinking while dieting.  Plan ahead with healthy munchie snacks like veggies and dips or make an agreement with yourself to only have drinks and stick to the plan. **

Follow those guidelines, and you can still go out once or twice a week and have a good time!  :)