Beer and diet

Lol beer is the cause of many poor life choices in general.

 

Drink less, eat less, move more, repeat forever.

 

I climb the hill at TreeHouse to get my steps in lol

 

Some good replies in here! I think most people "get it" when it comes to this stuff but we are all looking for that assurance that we can enjoy our beloved beer while still maintaining a decent physique. You can. It wont be easy per se.... but you can do it.

Ya gotta live life. Unless you are in bathing suit competitions every weekend its quite FINE to enjoy your life with friends and family. I dont skimp on that stuff. I partake in the festivities. However, as I said, I dont BS when it comes to my workouts. I dont skip them and I keep it fairly intense. I row, run and/or lift weights 4-5 times a week. Never less than that. I also park far awy at stores, take stairs, etc,. It all adds up.

Im in better shap at 47 years old than I was at 27 years old. Not even close. You gotta stay tough though. No when to say NO to snacks and treats. Dont be lame and skip exercise. Its very doable.

 

Diet, exercise, and the balance is so personal. What works for one person is worthless for another. Gotta try different stuff to see what works for you.
Personally, I drink a lot of beer. I also never eat fast food (rarely eat out), don’t smoke, and exercise daily. I also take a month off drinking every year. I get a health screening every year and so far so good! I am in very good shape other than the sore body from years of manual labor

One tip is to mix up your workouts. I do weight training and body weights every day, but running, boxing, hiking, etc. hits different muscules and helps you become more rounded in your fitness.

 

I don’t exercise much, but I count calories when I am attempting to lose weight. If you’re maniacal about the count, you can succeed. I don’t drink much soda, or consume much excess sugar, so that’s an easy trade off for me. If you want to drink some beers, I’ve found that I find some lower calorie beers that I can throw in (for me, Bell’s Oarsman is my go-to), and skip some Cheese, or some excess carbs for the day. On days that I do exercise, I can easily justify having a beer if i hold to the calorie count. My wife went on a detox diet that I ended up doing with her, in addition to counting calories. I found I could throw a beer in a few nights of the week. Down 10 lbs in the last 4-5 weeks, and still managed to drink some beers that I enjoy. I’m sure everyone is different though. Good luck.

 

Beer and diet get along as well as Packers and Bears.

 

I’ve been “dieting” for a year now. Though I don’t like that term. I’ve made “lifestyle” choices - mainly around limiting carbs. I’ve lost 35 lbs. I’m now 5’10 143ish lbs

I love beer. And I also had a major refined sugar addiction

I’ve been essential around 50ish grams
Of carbs per day. Which makes frequent beer consumption difficult . One of the major changes I made was going from 1 beer a day, to just drinking a two beers on the weekend. If anything I’ve found that it has made me appreciate bee even more. I still have the weekends to look forward too , and I know I really spend time finding “special” beers and drinking those as opposed to drinking whatever I could get my hands on.

 

I cut way back on gluten and lost 11 pounds in 6 months without counting or restricting calories. I chose to drink mostly low-gluten beers such as Warsteiner, Bitburger and Stone Delicious IPA. The weight alll came off my mid-section.

 

About two years ago I made a handful of big changes for me:

1. quit soda
2. converted from sugar to stevia/xylitol
3. began eating meat just once a day; all other meals have no meat
4. tried eating smaller portions (usually successful but I wing it -- I do not count calories)
5. avoid as much processed food as possible
6. converted from dairy milk to plain almond milk (I still mix in skim milk from time to time)

There's a few other things I've done, all standard-issue healthy diet stuff like lowering salt intake, eating not just vegetables but the healthier ones, and other stuff. Making the changes, especially the eating meat just once a day and no processed foods, has forced me to learn a ton about cooking and food in general, vegetables, fruits, grains and all of it, and through almost two years of changing my habits I've lost and kept off over 30 pounds.

I did not and have not limited my beer drinking. In fact, I drink as much beer as ever most weeks.

OH ... exercise. For the first year and a few months I exercised sporadically, mostly playing golf but doing some power walking (4-6 miles at about 16-17 minutes per mile). My knee began giving me trouble in October, which has limited exercise for me, but I've kept to the dietary habits fairly well and continued to either lose weight or at least keep off most of what I've lost.

 

One caveat with beer/alcohol that can make it tricky and put it in a league of its own: when drinking the liver goes after the alcohol instead of any fat so this needs to be taken into account...e.g. If you drink four beers a day and cut back to one there's still going to be an effect and it's different than cutting other types of calories; it is important to also focus on what you are eating while drinking.

I work out regularly and my diet is pretty good but I had some stubborn pounds that just wouldn't budge so I quit beer for a little over a month and it was instant results. I have since started enjoying it again but I focus on the ABV, frequency, quantity, etc.

 

I do 40p/40c/20f for macros with a caloric deficit every day except for the day I drink which I factor into my weekly calorie count. I like to keep carbs manageable or else I will feel deprived and/or like shit. I have turned to lower abv styles like pils/zwickel/hefe as they pack less calories than DIPA and Imperial stouts plus I get to explore certain styles I would normally pass up. If the goal is retaining as much muscle as possible then beer will affect this slightly considering it is not a protein packed delivery like chicken breast. However for me, I have lost about 11 pounds since mid February and have not lost any strength so far. Lift heavy, HIIT, etc. There is still a decent amount of time until the summer if that is when you want to reach the desired physique. Unless you got fat as fuck then just swim with your shirt on.

 

I agree with all this. I was very healthy before getting into craft beer, and about the time I started to drink a few beers a week, I found I struggled more and more on the track during workouts. I've found craft beer has sliced off a bit of my top end speed in the 3k/5k/10k, but I can still hang for half and full marathons. That trade is worth it, but I do have to pay close attention to my diet and/or cut out beer when I want to hit a race hard.

As per my race diet, I eat a lot of quinoa salads (quinoa, avocado, bell peppers, and whatever other veggies you want), and drink a peanut butter & banana smoothie after long hard workouts to jump start that recovery process. Occasionally, if I find myself dragging later in a week after a hard workout, I'll have a green smoothie with whatever greens I have in the fridge and some plain Greek yogurt.

 

I typically run 30 miles a week as well as strength training 6 days a week and only partake in craft beer once (sometimes twice when its nice out) a week. Usually Fridays and/or Saturdays. I typically stay fairly lean using this model.

 

Beer does not help in the health department. Not only is it extra calories, but it affects your sleep and recovery as well. I recommend once a week or a couple times a month.

 

It won't make it pointless, but it will make things much more difficult. I can get into the science of it, if you like.

Best thing to do is to cut out the beer completely during the week and give yourself a cheat day when you drink as much beer (and eat as much food) as you like. If you're a powerlifter, you probably have a decent amount of muscle, so that time during the week when you're on your diet, you'll be burning fat without trying very hard, even if you aren't doing cardio. Use that one day off as a reward and to refocus you for the next week.

 

Calories in vs. out. Nothing else really matters.

 

Although the "calories in vs. calories out" adage does have some truth to it, it is nowhere near the whole picture. What those calories are is much more important than how many of them that you take in, as different macronutrients affect the body differently. Alcohol and (simple) carbohydrates have a decidedly less than positive effect on one's metabolism.

 

Yes and no and not necessarily.

Do fasted HIIT cardio first thing in the AM and you're burning off more calories than "normal" cardio, your glycogen is depleted thus, metabolism is increased more than normal. Eating simple carbs once a day (or any carbs for that matter) doesn't make a big impact as long as they are usually held to below 60-100g a day and the rest of your calories are on point. Eating simple carbs after weight lifting is beneficial as well. It's all about timing and calories in vs. out to stay lean. When hormone levels drop you actually need to carb load to help further weight loss. Lyle McDonald brought some of this to the masses years ago.

Your body also burns more calories trying to digest protein and green vegetables than anything else. Diets high in these (200+g) daily help you stay lean.

We could go on and on and on about the science behind diet, nutrition and calorie consumption. A clean diet, 30-45 mins HIIT EOD and calories within maintenance will allow most to drink 2-3 every other night without fail.......in my opinion.

 

We certainly could, as some of the things that you mentioned aren't completely accurate, but doing so would go beyond the realm of this thread.

I agree. Eat a well designed diet and work out hard and you'll change your body composition and be able to cheat when you want.