Should I Reduce My Alcohol Intake If I Want To Lose Weight?

Leslie Bonci answers the question: 'Ditch the Alcohol to Lose More Weight?'

ByABC News
December 22, 2008, 3:55 PM

February 1, 2009 -- Question: Should I reduce my alcohol intake if I want to lose weight?

Answer: When people are trying to lose weight, oftentimes they think about the food items being a source of calories and don't always think about the fact that beverages can provide calories too. And one of the things about alcohol, alcohol has calories in it. For instance, carbohydrates and proteins both have four calories per gram. Fat is nine, but alcohol is seven. So it is up there.

Now, there are some alcoholic beverages that are lower in calories than others, however, alcohol can also stimulate appetite. And most of the time, if people are having a couple of glasses of wine, or beer or whatever, they're usually not craving a carrot. At that point, they're probably going to be eating higher calorie food items. So ideally if somebody is going to be consuming alcohol, to try and limit it.

Wine would be better choice or even a light beer and keeping it to a lower quantity: one glass, or one can, or one 12 oz bottle. And realizing as well that if you do have alcohol, it's not an addition, you're going to swap something else out. If I'm going to have that glass of wine, maybe I'm having a smaller potato, rice or pasta on my plate at dinner.