Beer and diet

I've lost 20 pounds over the last 1.5 years*, but it takes constant daily exercise and discipline. I run 2-3 times a week, and am spinning for at least one hour 2-3 times a week. Also limiting myself to 1-2 beers per day (most days?). Um. But I slip. So I track what I eat on top of the beer. If I burn 1200 calories, with exercise, I allow myself 2 big beers. 1500, 3 beers.
But I ruthlessly track this. Avoid the garbage food and snacking, high protein to stave off hunger, don't drink on an empty stomach if you get buzzed easily... and it's possible.
*Go ahead, ask me how!* Sorry, couldn't avoid a cheap tv infomercial lead-in...

 

My take on Michael Pollan: Drink beer, not too much, mostly pale ales.

 

I only drink 3 days a week (wed, sat & sun) and lately the beers of choice have been lower ABV than ever. German styles, berliners, pales, etc… Not so much the DIPA’s and Imperial Stouts, as much as I love them. I’d rather have a few beers that I can enjoy vs. one or two big ones.

I balance by not taking in any “liquid calories” at any other time… No pop if it’s not diet, mostly water and iced tea (unsweet). Eat a lot of veggies and all that to balance. We cook at home 90% of the time, rare we get fast food or anything like that which is always far worse for you than cooking the same stuff at home from scratch. We also walk our huskies a lot, a few miles each night when weather cooperates and head to the zoo each weekend to walk in the mornings when it’s not gross out. (I live like 5min from the local zoo, so it's convenient and get to see all the animals!)

My weight has been stable as can be the past three or four years, actually has gone down a few and at my lowest weight since I crossed the weight back in middle/high school or whatever. So that's awesome.

That being said, if I stopped drinking beer, I would probably lose weight with all the same habits otherwise. But maintaining is good with me. (6’6” and 250lbs)… Trying to lose 10 by the end of summer, slowly but surely.

 

A bit off subject, but diet soda is decidedly a bad option, especially if it's sweetened by aspartame.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17684524

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231716304104

 

Skip a meal almost every day, avoid bread, pizza, pasta, fried food, and ice cream. All protein and veggies and I can still lose weight and I love red meat and chicken and don’t feel I am suffering. Cheers and good luck.

 

Oh, no doubt any pop/soda is bad and I avoid artificial sweeteners at all possible. I don't drink much of it at all, maybe a can worth a week. I drink so little of it I don't worry so much about it. I will also drink fruited sparkling waters and stuff like that as well.

 

I am still drinking and haven't gained nor lost any weight. Everyday i drink at least one beer during lunch in the afternoon and sometimes a few more in the evening and i hit the gym four times a week. So i guess staying in shape can be done while drinking, but losing weight is harder.

 

Still drinking, but i am cutting down a bit. Still hitting the gym, now five times a week. My weight goes like a yo-yo. Basically i haven't lost or gained any mentionable weight, but if it is the beers to blame or me just eating too much i can't tell.

 

I've lost 10 pounds in the last month by getting more steps in, not overeating, not snacking as much (and smaller snacks), and trying to limit myself to one beer a day. Slow and easy does it.

 

As many people have stated it's how many calories you consume vs how many you burn. If you consume more than you burn that will not allow you to lose weight. Cutting out snacks that are fatty and/or carb heavy helps (i.e. swap almonds for potato chips). Also being active every day helps even if it's just walking for 30 minutes. Really just comes down to commitment to exercising.

 

Calling bullshit.

1. ^ a b Moon JK, Shibamoto T. Formation of carcinogenic 4(5)-methylimidazole in Maillard reaction systems. J Agric Food Chem. (2011)
2. ^ Yamaguchi H, Masuda T. Determination of 4(5)-methylimidazole in soy sauce and other foods by LC-MS/MS after solid-phase extraction. J Agric Food Chem. (2011)
3. ^ Lojková L, et al. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of 4(5)-methylimidazole (4-MeI) and 2-acetyl-4(5)-(1,2,3,4)-tetrahydroxybutyl-imidazole (THI) from ground-coffee with high-performance liquid chromatographic-electrospray mass spectrometric quantification (HPLC/ESI-MS). Food Addit Contam. (2006)
4. ^ a b c Assessment of 4-(5-)methylimidazole in soft drinks and dark beer.
5. ^ Klejdus B, et al. Solid-phase extraction of 4(5)-methylimidazole (4MeI) and 2-acetyl-4(5)-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydroxybutyl)-imidazole (THI) from foods and beverages with subsequent liquid chromatographic-electrospray mass spectrometric quantification. J Sep Sci. (2006)
6. ^ a b c Chan PC, et al. Toxicity and carcinogenicity studies of 4-methylimidazole in F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice. Arch Toxicol. (2008)
7. ^ a b Murray FJ. Does 4-methylimidazole have tumor preventive activity in the rat. Food Chem Toxicol. (2011)
8. ^ Hargreaves MB, et al. Inhibition of p-nitrophenol hydroxylase in rat liver microsomes by small aromatic and heterocyclic molecules. Drug Metab Dispos. (1994)
9. ^ Moretton C, et al. Quantification of 4-methylimidazole in class III and IV caramel colors: validation of a new method based on heart-cutting two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC-LC). J Agric Food Chem. (2011)
10. Evaluation of Consumer Complaints Related to Aspartame Use.
11. Maher TJ, Wurtman RJ. Possible neurologic effects of aspartame, a widely used food additive. Environ Health Perspect. (1987)
12. Kühn R, Graner H, Soukup P. {Experiences in the expert evaluation of nucleus pulposus prolapse}. Beitr Orthop Traumatol. (1975)
13. Aspartame ingestion and headaches.
14. Levy PS, Hedeker D, Sanders PG. Aspartame and headache. Neurology. (1995)
15. Roberts HJ. Aspartame and headache. Neurology. (1995)
16. Schiffman S. Aspartame and headache. Neurology. (1995)
17. Newman LC, Lipton RB. Migraine MLT-down: an unusual presentation of migraine in patients with aspartame-triggered headaches. Headache. (2001)
18. Pisarik P, Kai D. Vestibulocochlear toxicity in a pair of siblings 15 years apart secondary to aspartame: two case reports. Cases J. (2009)
19. Spiers PA, et al. Aspartame: neuropsychologic and neurophysiologic evaluation of acute and chronic effects. Am J Clin Nutr. (1998)
20. Ford HE, et al. Effects of oral ingestion of sucralose on gut hormone response and appetite in healthy normal-weight subjects. Eur J Clin Nutr. (2011)
21. Ma J, et al. Effect of the artificial sweetener, sucralose, on gastric emptying and incretin hormone release in healthy subjects. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. (2009)
22. Anton SD, et al. Effects of stevia, aspartame, and sucrose on food intake, satiety, and postprandial glucose and insulin levels. Appetite. (2010)
23. Steinert RE, et al. Effects of carbohydrate sugars and artificial sweeteners on appetite and the secretion of gastrointestinal satiety peptides. Br J Nutr. (2011)
24. Møller SE. Effect of aspartame and protein, administered in phenylalanine-equivalent doses, on plasma neutral amino acids, aspartate, insulin and glucose in man. Pharmacol Toxicol. (1991)
25. Wolf-Novak LC, et al. Aspartame ingestion with and without carbohydrate in phenylketonuric and normal subjects: effect on plasma concentrations of amino acids, glucose, and insulin. Metabolism. (1990)
26. Horwitz DL, McLane M, Kobe P. Response to single dose of aspartame or saccharin by NIDDM patients. Diabetes Care. (1988)
27. Teff KL, Devine J, Engelman K. Sweet taste: effect on cephalic phase insulin release in men. Physiol Behav. (1995)
28. Malaisse WJ, et al. Effects of artificial sweeteners on insulin release and cationic fluxes in rat pancreatic islets. Cell Signal. (1998)
29. Andrew G. Renwicka,Samuel V. Molinarya. Sweet-taste receptors, low-energy sweeteners, glucose absorption and insulin release. British Journal of Nutrition. (2010)

Summary of the above here: https://examine.com/topics/diet-soda/

 

Why is going vegan extreme? More so than keto? Or Atkins? Or any other lame ass dad diet out there?
I'm losing weight by adjusting the hell out of my diet. No processed shit. What's worse, 1000 calories of donut or oats? No animal products before dinner. Unlimited fruits and veggies, moderating whole grains. Sticking with lean proteins at night with more veggies. I haven't had a beer in a couple weeks either. Seems to be working. Good luck to all the other fat butts trying to get fit!

 

Here is what has worked for me. I know there will be a couple people who will dispute this I'm sure, but what may work for me may not work for you. I just enter my goal weight and the date or days I want to hit that goal weight by. Then it projects what my total caloric intake should be based off of my weight, sex, age, height, and daily physical activity.

https://www.precisionnutrition.com/weight-loss-calculator

What ever my daily caloric intake is, I make sure I am getting at least .7/g of protein and .4/g of fat per pound of body weight. For example: If I weigh 190, I will consume at least 532 calories of proteins (133 grams of protein x 4 cals for each gram of protein) and 684 calories of fats (76 grams of fat x 9 cals for each gram of fat). So if my daily caloric intake is 2100 calories and proteins + fats make up 1216 calories, the other 884 calories can be whatever I want including pizza, beer, donuts, etc. as long as I'm hitting my macros.

 

Counting macros

 

Sounds like a great plan. I'm very much "anti-fad" diet because in most cases you'll come off of it and the pounds will pile back on. Simple portion control/sugar reduction seems to do the trick for me. I eat pasta/bread but keep it under control. Cut back on 8.5% DIPAs and drink more simple lagers/pale ales. Or bourbon.

I don't classify going vegan as a fad diet, more of a lifestyle change. But I've seen a few people over the years overreact to their frustrations with not losing weight, and will foolishly try to give up meat thinking that will be the magic bullet. It's not. Vegans can be unhealthy too.

 

+1

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/11/why-we-fell-for-clean-eating

I just do what I believe is common sense - eat a balanced diet, try not to drink too much too often, exercise regularly

Haha love the sequencing/timing of these posts

 

I just try to moderate everything the best I can and have started to incorporate more from the various "superfoods" into my daily diet intake and less intake of processed and fast foods. I still eat the ocassional frozen meal for lunch at work or McD's Breakfast sandwich in a pinch, but those are exceptions and not the daily norm. I've been trying to stick to the 1 beer per night plan with only exceptions on bottle share night which happens about once a week. Then its probably equivalent to 3 beers total (5% ABV /12oz based estimates).

My weakness is morning coffee with alot of French Vanilla in it. I cut out sugar + creamer but all I did was substitue more French Vanilla. 3 cups every morning. If could ever figure out how to go to black coffee that would be best. I've tried to switch off 1 of my coffees to green tea (a super food) but man that stuff tastes nasty. I like my morning pastry coffee stout, hold the alcohol and barrel aging.

 

I'm using the My Fitness Pal app, and I love it- having a calorie database in your pocket is such a handy thing to have.

Mine calculated my budget to 1900 calories, but my doctor challenged me to do better, which I did. I'm at 1700 now, and even have room for a small snack at night if I'm smart about it during the day, so I'm gonna stick with that for a while. Maybe when the weight is off I'll bump it up to 1900 for maintenance.

 

Awesome. Keep it up @TongoRad

 

You too, man!

But, yeah, the thing that makes it work for me is that you're not really giving anything up. Portions may be smaller, and there may be trade-offs every now and then, but if I'm craving something I don't really have to deny myself.