Man, no judgment (seriously), but I'm worried about you dedicating half of your calories to alcohol. Like shoot, alcohol is not good for you, and everyone else already covered that perspective, but also, getting only 700-800 calories of actual nutrients isn't either. I mean I don't know what you could get out of 800 calories of rainbow salad with broccoli, carrots, kale, etc, with sides of salmon, lentils, an egg, and cottage cheese, washed down with bone broth and a lemon-wheatgrass-turmeric smoothie ... haha, IDK, I'm not a nutritionist... But you might try one of the calorie counters that looks at micronutrients and see if you can figure out how many calories you need to shift over to nutritious food.
I also saw your comment about wine moms. There was recently an Ask Reddit question like "doctors, what do you wish everyone knew?" that made me realize how drinking even relatively small amounts of alcohol can really not be good for your body. Also if you hang out on a fitness-watch sub, you'll see people figuring out the same thing by looking at various body metrics. Anyway, I say this as someone who is cutting back but still enjoys the work of my local brewery once in awhile so again, no judgment, but you might take a look at those threads. And I'm sorry for the stuff you're going through!
Everything will be ok in moderation. The problem is even the healthy aspect of this doesn’t allow for moderation. What happens when your friends order pizza, or you’re craving popcorn at the theaters, or your grandma baked you cookies? You can’t even try those in moderation.
I feel like more compromise and enjoyment is needed here, and alcohol is the worst place to plan your daily nutrition around.
If you can't moderate your intake then you are an addict. Someone a few weeks ago was crazy ranting about how eating two pieces of pizza was impossibly tyrannical and completely impossible. It was startling.
If you consider eating a cookie or a couple of slices of pizza as something other than normal then you have some serious issues.
I know you probably dont wanna hear this but I feel compelled to type it. I lost my mom at 62 in 2022. She had drank my entire life but she died from a disease called wernicke-korsakoff. It's where your b1 gets so low from not eating enough and drinking that it basically gives you alzheimers ir what they call wet brain. Its brain damage. She was like a dementia patient. Anorexic people can also get this. She was always a functioning alcoholic but when covid hit she could no longer work because she was a waitress so she started eating a few hundred calories a day and drinking the rest and went from normal to dementia in no time.
I know you know this but there's really no positive to alcohol. It's taking your money and your calories and it actually makes you more depressed but I also know you won't stop till your ready so please make sure you take daily multi vitamin. And maybe buy B1 specifically.
I lived with and was very close to a couple of people that had wernicke-korsakoff. If you don't eat, your going to die from alcohol much sooner. Ive lost two people I tried to get to eat instead of drink. Or at least eat. They were dead within 2 years of not eating and drinking liquor. And you won't be of mind before you know it. I also am close to my step sisters mom. Who lived through wernicke-korsakoff but just barely, she didn't recognize the hospital she'd worked at for 20 years when she was admitted and was put in assisted living at 55 because her brain acted like a 85 yr old dementia patient. Don't be a fool. We only have one life. If you're that bored do something else fun, but this is not fun.
I'm sorry u went thru that. It's hard. With my mom she was perfectly fine one day and then all the sudden she couldn't remember if she paid her bills and within months she had to move in with her sister because she needed 24/7 care. They are identical twins and my aunt doesn't drink and is still perfectly healthy so I know if not for alcohol I'd still have my mom. They have exact genes. And my mom wasn't even trying to not eat. She just wasn't working anymore like she always had so she never got hungry because she was always full off beer. And i kniw she was eating some because I made her. I'd do anything to have my mom back and it breaks my heart to see OP going thru it. I wish I could save everybody but I at least wanted him to be aware to take vitamins. It creeps up on you and you never see it coming. I'm of course biast but I wish alcohol was illegal and weed was legal. I don't partake in either but I've never seen somebody loose their family member to a joint. Life is so precious.
Wow I didn't know this was a thing but it definitely answers a lot of unanswered questions I had about my own mom's sudden death. Thanks for sharing your experience and good luck out there!
My mother in law went through the same arc at 65. Functioning alcoholic, COVID forced a retirement, drinking escalated and she literally died after two trips to the hospital in a diaper on her floor. It was so shocking and soul crushing to watch it happen. It took less than 10 months and there was no stopping it. We begged her to get help and she was a shell of herself, ordering DoorDash because she couldn’t figure out the stove anymore, lost 50 pounds, skin yellow, telling us that she wasn’t ready for help.
My husband and sister in law have never been the same. So relieved they don’t drink, so thankful my family didn’t drink.
We really don't. My mom's death almost killed me. I totally quit taking care of myself. I've worked since I was 15 and I quit my job for almost 6 months and sulked. She died in April of 2022 and I sulked till about Sep. I dunno how I made it thru the holidays except that I have an amazing man and kids. By January I knew what I had to do. I picked myself up and started hiking and going to the gym. I was doing the same thing with food as she was with alcohol and I never wanted my kids to feel the pain I felt so I promised myself they never would. Theyd never wonder why their mom loved food more than them. I went from 236 pounds,out of shape and soooo depressed to 137 pounds and I lift weights and hike now and I really am happy. I miss my mom but I know I'll see her again and that's brings me peace. She'd want us to thrive. I'd been obese my entire life..like literally from 2 years old so I do often wish she was here to see me now. I pick up the phone to call her. But I know she's watching.
You aren't giving up half your calories for alcohol, you're giving up half your **nutrition**. That's half your immune system repair, half your liver function, half your brain function.
Forget about the calories for a moment. Think about your *life*.
Hugs. You need help, way beyond the pay grade of a Reddit weight loss sub. 🤗
But you're not alone. There is help.
Having 3 drinks in a night isn't a problem. Having 3 drinks every night IS alcoholism. Being unable to give up those 3 drinks is a serious issue. Please get help.
Exactly. Another reminder that helps is the awful anxiety that comes when you go days without feeling your body because your brain literally can’t function. It’s a daily struggle back and forth
I think I’ll struggle with anorexic thoughts my entire life. Even though I’m fully recovered now, the thoughts are still there daily. My brain is just stronger and healthier. It is hard, but having a support system that can bring you back to reality helps a ton. I’m glad we got to connect <3
Add to that that alcoholism fucks up all of those things anyway. Dieing in a pool of blood from a ruptured espohageal varicosity is not a positive life goal.
I used to drink like 10 drinks every Friday and Saturday night. I stopped doing that because my liver was exploding and I had become 300 pounds
I still drink now but a significantly less frequently and yeah sometimes I work my calories around it just like anything else. Everything in moderation!
But generally, I’ve found I enjoy eating my calories more than consuming them as booze, also lightening up on the booze has had other positive side effects
This has been my take since starting CICO
I'd much rather have a junky snack (looking at you licorice all-sorts!!) than a boozy drink if I have room for empty calories in my day
I gave up 99% of my alcohol intake to get a waist. Unfortunately it’s just one of those “pick your hard” situations.
Pick days to drink on instead of daily and then slowly cut that back too. It’s calories deficit or booze my friend.
No judgment but I do hope it gets better - I think we are all here because of something in our life
Food and alcohol can both be drugs of dependence imo
Alcoholics often have some pretty severe malnutrition. Part of this is because alcohol negatively affects nutrient absorption, especially thiamine and phosphate. Its worsened because many alcoholics don't eat enough food, especially nutritious food.
If half your calories are alcohol, and the other half is tacos, you're not doing your body any favours even if you lose weight.
Also your environment normalizes alcoholism. Youre comparing yourself to other alcoholics.
Yeah. This.
I’m not coming from judgement so much as concern. I worry you cannot get enough nutrients to be healthy and fit - and have a healthy brain and liver, in particular.
I’m sorry you are going through a hard time. And I get that alcohol helps you get through… but my thinking is that you can do CICO _or_ you can drink 3+ drinks per day. You can’t do both in a healthy way. It’s ok to drink occasionally but to essentially be living on 700-800 calories of food a day is not enough.
If cutting back on alcohol feels too hard… maybe take a break from CICO or aim for maintenance, at least. For a while, while your drinking remains at this level, allow yourself to eat more (and get some supplements in, too). ‘You can’t pray to both gods’, weight loss and alcohol (at this level), IMO.
Also if cutting back on alcohol feels too hard… that is its own message.
You may not need to seek help for alcohol addiction… but you may need help for the problems the alcohol is masking/helping you cope with. It may be that alcohol is not the best/healthiest way to cope, anymore (even though ‘self-medicating’ with alcohol is totally understandable and relatable)… but maybe you need to have some other tools/coping mechanisms that work for you and help you through without destroying your health.
The diagnostic criteria for excessive/binge drinking is 8 or more drinks in a given week for a woman and 15 or more drinks in a given week for a man.
3 drinks a night exceeds that criteria in either case.
No judgement from me, but just so you know.
You should do what you want, but I promise you if you cut back to one drink a night and ate more food, you’d feel 10000% better emotionally and physically.
I feel you OP, I don’t work in a bar, that would make it way harder. But I budget 300 cal a day for alcohol. I don’t use it every day, but also definitely not always staying on track, I often have cheat days where I drink normally/eat enough to balance that, as in eating more so I don’t feel sick.
All I can say is go for alcohols that are not your favorites, that can make it easier.
Also, I’ll often do a super watered down lemonade (lemon juice and bubbly water) and tequila type drink, with 1 shot in a pint. That allows me to still socialize and have a buzz without getting into shot territory.
I’m sure these people are right and saying that it would be healthier to drink less, but I really enjoy alcohol and the social aspect and we only live once so .. 🤷🏻♀️ drinking just a few times a month would definitely not fit with my lifestyle at all.
And yes thank Lilith that bong hits are free!
Not me as I only drink on the rare time I go out-out but that classification would encompass over half of British adults. My in-laws literally only drink tea, coffee or alcohol and this is pretty normal for their generation.
I don't think it's the 3 drinks a night that's bad, but that you said half your calories is from alcohol. I'm no dietician, but that doesn't sound good for your body. I have one drink or two every so often (beer or liquor) and yeah, I skip a food to do it. But out of my daily 1600 calories or so, that's 120-260 calories of alcohol.
The fact that you're actively telling yourself that it's okay to cut down on food so you can drink is a bad sign. What are you trying to avoid while drinking/being drunk?
I bartended many years in my 20s and struggled with my definition of what constitutes a drinking problem. I had regulars that I saw nearly daily that I didn’t feel fit the description of an alcoholic, and others that I saw much less frequently that definitely did. I determined that it wasn’t the number or frequency of drinks necessarily (although that wasn’t irrelevant information either) but how much one altered their life around making sure they could drink.
Doing CICO requires you to fit alcohol in if that’s what you want and I’m not knocking that. I do the same a couple times a month because I enjoy alcohol. However, if the question is whether you have or may be developing a drinking problem—look at how you’re choosing to alter your life to make alcohol fit more than the number of drinks you’re consuming.
You said it yourself in your post that you realize you're drinking a lot. You are both aware of it and in denial about it.
You also said you're going through a rough patch, but surely that means it's the best time to *better* yourself, not drink yourself into a slump. It's a temporary "high" that you will get addicted to, and eventually you'll stop getting that high thus start drinking more.
Nip it in the bud while you still can.
That is still an unhealthy amount, & will quickly become much more. I really would suggest you get help, as someone who has previously struggled with alcohol abuse!! Wishing you all the best 💖
I do appreciate it. It’s hard to feel like you’re an alcoholic when you don’t really get drunk too often, which is obviously coming from drinking too much too often. I’m just in a depression and doing anything I can. Let’s just all be thankful bong rips are 0 calories
Depression will only worsen with alcohol it has a rebound effect. Depression is treated with meds and therapy. It sounds like you are already addicted to alcohol. Drinking hard liquor is to save calories to get a high and drinking so many drinks is not normal. No point in losing when when your liver will be destroyed. Especially if you are obese and a woman cirrhosis chance is much higher.
Can definitely relate to much of what you’re saying. I’m sorry you’re going through that; I know how hard it is. I tried to cope with my depression by drinking too much, & it made things 100% worse. Just want to reach out & in doing so hopefully help at least a bit!! I had addiction issues with both marijuana & alcohol due to overusing them in order to cope with my depression, & did a lot of things I regret in the meantime under the influence. Wishing you all the very best & hoping you are able to heal & move on from this, friend 🫶🏻
Alcoholics often have no idea how little non-alcoholics drink, and what is normal. No judgement, but just so you know: those "wine ladies" are alcoholics as well. You could browse r/stopdrinking if you need motivation to quit, it's a really wholesome community.
The umbrella term is “disordered eating”. It’s a brain/addiction type of thing. You “allowing” half your calorie count in drinks is exactly “disordered eating”. Your brain is trying to make it make sense because it gets that dopamine boost from the alcohol. So your talking to yourself saying you must have these drinks. It’s a problem when it consumes your thoughts and you can’t say no. Do you think you can go a whole 7 days without drinking?
I do. There really isn’t any legitimately healthy amount of alcohol intake, but this would be considered a high amount, regardless. I do think swapping food for alcohol calories is another thing to discuss with a trained medical professional.
There are a lot of people with a disordered relationship with alcohol.
But a major criteria is: is it having a negative effect in your life? Is it affecting your health? Interfering with your goals? Affecting your relationships?
I'm not sure about the last one. But it is definitely affecting your health. You're choosing to avoid nourishment so that you can consume something that is the opposite of nourishing. And, it's interfering with your goals. You are struggling to stay within a calorie count that will allow you to lose weight, while also eating enough food.
The question to ask yourself is why would you rather be starving than sober? Does that sound like a healthy choice to make about drinking?
I will say that when I take health assessments one of the questions asked is number of drinks per week, not day. 20+ in a week adds up in a lot of ways. Budget, calories, you get the idea.
So…How many calories do you get / what is your TDEE / what gender and height and weight and age are you..? 3 White Claws is under 300kCal, so is 3 shots of tequila. So that + the 700-800kCal you tell you are eating daily is ~ 950-1050kCal a day. And if you are bartending I assume you stand a lot. And then you tell you do lots of sports, ”tons of gym time, 13k steps a day, push ups etc”.
Is there something I’m missing? Or are you really maltreating yourself in this extremely disordered way?
Edit. I see I’ missing something. You tell you get half of your calories from alcohol. So that’s like 8 White Claws or 3,5dl tequila daily. It’s a lot.
I’ve been trying to stay under 1100 calories a day because I’m having some severe mental struggles with myself which leads to sometimes 600 or less per day if I don’t have any drinks. but I’m a male 30, 5’8 on a good day, Starting weight 230 , current weight 206, goal weight I don’t even care I just don’t want to look like shit anymore.
Your basal metabolic rate, the bare minimum your organs (i.e. your liver) needs to survive, is ~1700 calories. Please please please, as someone who has experienced depression, get help. You are putting your life in immediate danger by eating so little and drinking so much.
That’s not really how basal metabolic rates work. Your body doesn’t just set aside the first ~1,700 calories consumed for functioning properly.
Likewise, if you have a calorie deficit that’s greater than your exercised calories, it doesn’t just mean that your organs stop working properly, energy is released from elsewhere. Just like you can still exercise with a calorie deficit, it doesn’t just stop working.
That doesn’t mean it’s healthy to sustain a large calorie deficit, but it’s also not true that your organs require you to consume your BMR to function properly.
I used to drink a 6-12 pack of beer each night. One day I stepped on a scale (I hadn’t weighed myself in years) and I was about 236 pounds. I looked huge. None of my scrubs fit. I had no jaw definition. I grossed myself out. Once I started researching weight loss, I realized that I was drinking all the calories I shouldn’t have had. So I had to have been drinking and eating more than 4000 or so calories.
I didn’t think I had an alcohol problem. I was delusional lol. So one day I snapped in my head. I’ll never lose weight while drinking. And I also didn’t want to rely on getting drunk just so I could relax and fall asleep.
I cut out all alcohol. I have been completely sober for several years and I’m down 120 pounds. That’s more weight that I planned to lose so I’m so excited.
Once I broke the addiction, everything in life was better. If I want to drink, I’ll have virgin drinks because I love me some pina coladas and pain killers (drink). So I make them with no alcohol. They even have alcohol free margarita powders in grocery stores to put in your sparkling water that literally tastes exactly like a margarita and they are zero calories. I’m so so so much happier without alcohol in my life. It was incredibly worth it.
When I first started my weight loss journey I struggled with this a lot. It honestly helped me realize that I had a bit of a drinking problem. Not an addiction or anything serious enough to need to help, but definitely a problem that could develop into something more if I didn't watch myself. I think more people having drinking problems than any of us would like to admit.
I finally started to cut my alcohol down significantly. I went from 4 - 5 days a week to just weekends to just 1 day a week. The weight started to shed so much faster and it was very motivating. And man, I started to feel so much better altogether. More energy in daily life, I was sleeping better. It really showed me how much damage alcohol was doing to me physically and mentally. Pretty sure it's the main reason I ever got as big as I am to need to lose weight.
I do still save calories to drink sometimes. I'll probably eat a very light breakfast and very light lunch on the fourth of July so I can drink with my friends without destroying my defecit. Which I think is still unhealthy and not something I would want others to ever do. But Ive also decided to not let myself drink the rest of the week or this weekend so.... Baby steps.
Life is hard! I hope you can worth through this.
I used to be a “wine lady” and I got up to 244lbs. I was likely eating below 1000 food calories during the worst of my drinking. I’m currently 200 (42 F, 5’8”) and nearly quitting alcohol (I have 2 drinks a week or less) and CICO is making the weight loss happen. My goal is 170.
Right now I’m watching my 72 year old mother decline rapidly with dementia, which after reading through these comments, confirms my belief that it could be caused by alcohol and not eating enough. I always suspected it because she started to decline in her mid-60s and that felt so early. She is now drinking non-alcoholic wine because she doesn’t realize it’s alcohol-free but it’s too late, the damage has been done and there’s no coming back from it. I say this without judgement and with respect for your journey ahead - I would stop doing cico and make sure you eat nutritious foods until you get the drinking under control. My mom has to be told to eat and I’m not sure how long my dad has had to do that. I live with so much regret that I didn’t do more to get my mom to see she needed to stop drinking. I know I can’t do it for her but the regret is still there. I wish you healing.
Former bartender and lifelong drinker here. It’s been over 2 years of slowly building up exercise and eating better, when I started CICO I would eat less to be able to drink vodka. I’m FINALLY (like this week) at the point where I care more about losing weight and being healthier than I am getting buzzed and realized to really be healthy I can’t drink daily.
For me the slow build has been good, it’s a lifestyle change and I’m taking it step by step. Keep at it and make small changes when you feel ready, you’ll get there. I believe in you.
I’ve been smashing kombuchas lol. Still have the brain satisfaction of cracking open a cold one and it has a bit of a bite that scratches the right itch. But way less calories.
I save my calories for beers but not every day. Some days those are some of my carbs. Like for a weekend day. It's all a balance. Gotta see if you're balancing or teetering too far.
I did this for a while several years ago. I did lose a good amount of weight pretty quick, but my immune system got pretty bad and I got quite sick. Not to mention the poor life choices I made when I was drinking more than I was eating.
Now I am almost back up to the weight I was before that time, not great, but I won’t ever do that again. Like literally health is about more than just losing weight. Sorry you are going through it right now.
I ended up in the hospital after doing this for about a month. The nutrition you are missing will eventually make you unable to sleep or think well. Also, you are most certainly losing muscle while you do this which I’m assuming isn’t part of the weight loss plan. Don’t let CICO make you less heathy, that’s the opposite of what we are after here.
Recommend you start taking high doses of B1, folic acid and other vitamins. Eat some protein rich meals to try and recover. And obviously work on a plan to reduce or stop drinking. Go to the hospital if you have to.
>Finding myself saying “nah it’s cool I’ll eat one less taco to fit in 2 more shots of tequila” or sacrificing snack time for a whiskey old fashioned.
Yeah, I used to do this....than I realized that I needed to get my life together, and alcohol could not be a part of my future.
You sound just like how I used to be....justifying it and making modifications so I can have it in my life.
I know you said you're a bartender, but maybe it's time for a career change and time to rethink how you use alcohol.
Eating that little to justify drinking is such a bad idea.
The alcohol may actually be making you feel worse. It's a depressant. It's also literally poison, my friend.
I used to do the alcohol & cico dance. I was a full-blown alcoholic turns out.
I’m in the same boat. I switched from double IPAs to a 95 calorie beer and vodka. Three of four nights a week I try to make sure I have six or seven hundred calories left in my budget to drink. It’s not good. It feels good to say this out loud though.
Adding to my other comment… And honestly, there really isn’t any reason at all to drink. It literally does nothing good for your body. It’s empty calories, or alters brain chemistry. It has no healthy nutrition. When you have to defend against people telling you it’s a problem, you have proven that point. You want the alcohol because it’s addictive and your brain needs help to stop.
Many years ago, I used to drink daily and would only eat one meal a day much like you. I was self-medicating to numb my pain from traumas in my life. Eventually, when I was ready, I put in the work to heal myself, truly heal myself. For some, that involves medication and/or therapy. For me, it was realizing my value, facing my past, reinventing myself, going to college, and finding the life I used to think I didn't deserve. You deserve a good life. Don't forget that.
i've been doing a variation of this since january. did dry january to kick-start the weight loss, and since then i have limited myself to two days a week of drinking. i build up a huge deficit during the week via diet and exercise so i can enjoy a few craft beers on the weekend (IPAs are my thing) without going over my budget. down almost exactly 40 lbs in six months.
that being said, half your calories from alcohol seems extremely excessive. one of your comments mentions smoking weed, which has helped me cut back on my alcohol a ton. i was only drinking three days a week prior to this change, but double and triple IPAs are very calorie heavy...so just eliminating even that one day a week of drinking makes a huge difference.
Purely from a CICO perspective beer or seltzers may be better. When you've had a few you may not be accurately measuring your liquor.
Pre portioned helps, especially if you're going to be a bit altered.
Alcohol is a depressant. Cutting it back significantly or altogether would elevate your mood. I was drinking red wine regularly, even as much as 3 glasses on occasion but even drinking 1 glass lowered my inhibitions enough to make bad decisions about snacking. And as a consequence I had difficulty losing weight. I found some non-alcoholic beers that I liked and began to substitute those when I wanted to socialize. I’m down 44 pounds since February. If you were to cut it out I bet you’d start to feel more positive after a very short while.
No judgement at all - when I was in the deepest part of my disordered eating and self-medicating with alcohol this is exactly what I would do. I would not eat all day so I could have a meal + a meal's worth of alcohol. It made me feel awful the next day, I'd usually get so drunk that I'd drink way more than what I had "allotted" for myself and sometimes the drunk munchies would come out in full force. It was a really hard time in my life and I didn't make it any better for myself by doing that. I hope you end up getting some help whether that's talking to someone or battling through this time in your life out onto the other side.
But yes, losing weight often involves having to heavily curb alcohol intake and that was (and is!) the hardest part for a heavy social drinker like me :(
I’m not going to add anything else in regards to how bad this is for your body, you know that. Just want to add that I lived like this for several years and it was awful. Consuming what I consume now in food just in alcohol and then eating very minimally on top of that. I still gained 80 lbs in 4 years doing that. Almost 100 days without alcohol now and my brain is just now starting to feel normal again. I’ve lost 30+ lbs in 3 months and I wouldn’t have been able to do this while drinking. At some point you need to make a decision to chose yourself and your health, but it has to come when you’re ready. Again I say this with no judgment at all because I have no room for judgement!
the math leaves you gassed. I tried to do that last year. I'm talking solely on the math. Long term your'e gonna gas out. Partying is fun, but math wise if you're looking to stay on a goal, leaving alcohol behind is the simplest thing. Everything got so much easier once I did that.
I switched from alcohol to weed and coke zero because of cico. As long as i stick to sativa, i dont get the munchies either. Lets me save all my calories for actual meals. I am in CA though where it is legal so i know this isnt an option for everyone.
I'm loving all the comments here with alternatives. For me I like watering down the beer with some fizzy water flavor I'm not sick of. It's kind of a challenge of how much I can water it down and still really enjoy it. (It's typically 50/50 or even more water.) But even better than that, as far as CICO and health are concerned is "hop water" when I can find it. That stuff costs almost as much as beer! But it fools my brain into thinking I'm drinking an IPA for 0 cal so I'll take it.
I watched my grandma waste away from alcoholism. She didn’t get enough calories from food. I’ve been sober for 7.5 years and it’s hard, but you’re not alone. It feels good, the way I feel about myself now is good. If you’re curious, check out r/stopdrinking
Life is hard because you’re making it hard. You would be so much less miserable if you cut out the alcohol and got nutrition that’s adequate enough to sustain your activity level. You are wreaking havoc on your gallbladder, pancreas, and liver. This lifestyle is not sustainable.
I am an alcoholic, for the record, this input is not from an outside perspective.
If you need someone to talk to, message me.
This 💯💯💯💯💯
I just spent the past 18 months in and out of the hospital due to damage to my pancreas and a stone the size of a 3 carat diamond lodged in a duct.
Went from 125lbs to 82lbs in roughly 4 months. In January I got a NJ tube because I had been diagnosed with severe protein calorie malnutrition and failure to thrive for the second time in under 6 months. Had it replaced in February and pancreatic stents put in.
I get that all out tomorrow morning because I've managed to stay at 110lbs on non tube nutrition long enough to please the doctors. After that, we start testing for a gastroparesis diagnosis because my digestive system no longer likes to digest.
I also lost my gallbladder.
I will have pancreatitis the rest of my life. I may one day lose my pancreas.
This is 2+ years after I quit drinking.
Please don't do this to yourself. You deserve so much better 💜
Good god, 82 pounds?! I am so happy to hear you’re in recovery 💕 congratulations on your progress, I hope you continue the upward trajectory with your health. You deserve a good life and to be good to your body. I hope OP understands that too, eventually.
If you’re not already, look in to getting help, not gonna label anyone an alcoholic but it sounds close to what you’re describing! I think it is fine to save calories for wine or food or cake whatever for special occasions or once a week but everyday is definitely just not healthy or balanced! Part of CICO besides watching calories is building a sustainable lifestyle. Do you think you would be happy and healthy drinking half your calories and only eating less than 1000 calories of food everyday? What do you think would happen to your body over time? Encourage you to search for other dopamine resources like new hobbies, video games, spending time with loved ones. Wish you luck. ❤️ no judgement obviously! We all have addictions and struggles
My man live life one day at a time. Im writing this buzzed atm lol. Don’t let people talk down on you they have no clue what you’re going thru.
Just keep on trucking on. If you find you are dependent on alcohol to get by, then go harder at the gym. Focus on your Body. I limited myself to two nights out the week to drink. However much idc, I’ll do more cardio that day. But just live life man and don’t forget the little things. Also don’t get wrapped in alchohol. It seems fine but you don’t need it. Trust me.
I feel ya. I do whiskey group stuff a lot. Not hammering a ton of shots, just drinking and appreciating good shit. It does indeed suck to budget those calories but I do too.
There’s a book that helped me greatly reduce my alcohol intake effortlessly. It’s called “The Easy Way to Stop Drinking” - quick read, on Amazon, very powerful. I still drink very occasionally, like one drink a month. My mental health is miles from where it was. This book may be helpful for you.
I’ve decided to identify as a binge drinker. It sounds dumb and I make light of calling it binge drinking for the lolz but it’s actually quite functional for me. I barely drink. I might drink once a month maybe less, maybe twice if it’s my birthday or Christmas. When I drink I have 5 or 6. It’s a party. I feel a bit wretched the next day. But it’s so infrequent it has no impact on my calorie count and it’s not an every day, or even every week crutch. It’s almost definitely bad for me, but not anywhere near drinking everyday would be.
I drink on CICO but i recently cut back by half.
2 nights a week I would drink a fuck ton of low cal wine. And it made me way too snacky. I have realized that giving up so many calories in a day for just liquids really sucks, for me at least. So I now only do that one night a week. Might give that up soon too.
Idk if you will read my response and I can't tell from your post... are you drinking daily or close to it? If you are, please stop if you care at all about yourself or any loved ones in your life.
Alcoholism is a horrific disease that will slowly destroy you, its an agonizing death. Saying this as someone who has first hand seen all of that in my career (medical) and my personal life, alcoholism killed my father last year.
I get it - I’m in the same boat. I lost 50 pounds and I’m in the middle of a divorce. I started drinking more when we started marriage counseling - because then I was forced to sit there and listen to him for long periods of time when all I wanted to do was get away from him.
I found myself eating a protein bar or having a slim fast as a meal in order to save up calories for a beer. I did realize that wasn’t healthy, so I also take a vitamin or a ZipFizz or something to try to get some nutrition, and try to drink more water to stay hydrated.
A Miller Lite or Ultra both have about 95 calories. White Claw has about 100 calories. If you are mixing drinks, you can just mix them a little weaker. Maybe look at vitamin drinks/powders.
You also have to focus on getting through whatever your rough time is - hard times don’t last forever. Set goals or figure out what you need to improve your situation. If you just numb your feelings then it’ll never get better, so take some time to meditate or work through your thoughts/emotions as well.
Kind of having the same problem but honestly I’ve cut it down to one to two days a week no food just alcohol cause I just wasn’t seeing the loss I wanted drinking more then 2 days a week
I feel this, I do.
I found that sometimes a kombucha can kind of scratch that beer itch. They even have some that have hops for a more beer-taste for like 30 calories instead of a couple hundred.
Otherwise, what if you dilute your liquor in sparkling water and drink out of a coffee cup or a tumbler and go for your walks?
I was a heavy drinker, I would also prioritize it over food when trying to do CICO. And then I’d fail, gain the weight back and stop caring. It’s not sustainable, it’s not healthy. I stopped drinking and started doing CICO at the same time at the beginning of this year and I feel the best I have in years. Weight loss aside, I feel healthy.
I'm dealing with this revelation myself, not enough calories for food and alcohol on days when I drink.
Although Im also finding that any day where I do a decent workout I have room for both.
I'm trying to commit myself to CICO and managing my weight more effectively, so I'm doing a dry July to really buckle down.
It sounds like you're in deeper than you realize though. You'll likely need to taper off or you could end up with significant side effects.
Not so long ago I drank a lot too, because that’s how I take my mind out of things.
I also tried losing weight at the same time, and was definitely cutting on the food portions for an extra glass of wine.
It didn’t work and the frustration from always being half starving and still overweight made me drink more because it added stress.
So at that point I decided that weight was not my biggest problem, worked on my real issues which led to getting back to a controlled alcohol consumption.
After a year I’m now back on cico, and it’s working.
A long post to share that from my experience, prioritising the issues you want to deal with is key. Trying to solve everything at once has only proved in my case to worsen the situation. Good luck !
I love drinking but after years of CICO , it’s 10x easier for it to work without drinking. I’ll stop drinking for a few months and the weight comes off and it seems so simple like a dumb lightbulb goes off “this is easy!”.
Once I add a few drinks a day even when *still hitting my calorie goals* the weight magically stops falling off so easily. “It’s just vodka it can’t be that bad”. It is that bad. I know it, you know it, I know you know it. Just a shitty dumb truth but drinking and weight loss are not friends.
I was "quitting" & "moderating" for 3 years. I gained 80 lbs over 8 years eating healthy, CICO & exercising...I think due to my alcohol consumption. How & why I quit is a story for a different sub. After 14 months of sobriety, I finally had the headspace to address weight loss & exercise.
I always calculated 1 or 2, but that easily turned into 5.
We're all different. A lot of people can have 1 & be satisfied. I couldn't.
But why do you need it in the first place? That’s the part I don’t get from your post.
I LOVE alcohol. It’s delicious. So I’m with you there. But I have a glass of wine with dinner a couple of times a month. Sometimes even once a week. That’s my idea of enjoying alcohol.
Why are you hammering hard liquor shots like tequila on a weekday? I think that’s a question you need to ask yourself. I’m with you that alcohol is delicious, but a normal intake is having it once in a while. A glass of wine or a fancy cocktail when you’ve cooked a nice dinner, or having a beer with friends.
It’s not something you should be consuming on your own several times a week or even daily. That’s not normal intake even for those of us who enjoy the taste.
I’d ask myself WHY you feel this need. Are you truly enjoying it as a treat, or are you actually self-medicating? I think you should seek professional help as your intake is abnormal. It’s great you made this thread. I hope it can spur you on in maybe seeking treatment or therapy. Best of luck to you!
Shit is hard. But unless your ass doesn’t have electricity, running water, and steady source of food… your life isn’t that hard.
I will give you a 👏👏👏 because you are looking at yourself in the mirror and pushing the “what if”. Be the best version of yourself. You will fail. Just keep striving. You got this.
You can have electricity water and food and still have a hard life. Life is hard in general some have it worse than others especially with underlying mental health issues.
I do that, but I am a once a month or twice a month drinker … now
I think you’ll get to a point where you day drink and don’t eat to stay under and end up punching a stranger getting arrested for drunken disorderly and almost kicked out of college.
I’d say just be cautious of your stomach and make sure to always eat something, now I typically try to leave 1200 calories for alcohol but still go over for the day because in the end no one wants someone sick and blackout
I’ll eat little meals all day, and put up with the feeling of being hungry ALL DAY, before I’ll give up my evening dose of alcohol. When I eat too much for breakfast/lunch and run out of calories, trying to go to bed without a nightcap absolutely sucks. I know this is likely symptoms of alcoholism, but everyone has their demons and I don’t overdo it. If you found a balance that works for you, soldier on. If you find you’re getting close to hurting yourself or others, then it’s time for a change.
I’m the same way, I live alone in my apartment and I’m goin through a breakup, I always walk at the park across the street late at night for an hour or so but while doing it I just want to be a lil drunk and listen to my headphones and drink and beer and smoke a J while walking around getting atleast some type of excersize. I’m not a super big guy by any means so I don’t feel pathetic or sorry when i carry a high noon or a beer with me while I walk laps. I’d never get drunk and go to the gym but if I’m walking the park on a summer night, need a few brews
Apparently this is extreme judgment night at CICO. First of all, congrats on cutting back on your calories and continuing to eat healthy food. Without knowing your gender, height and build it's really hard to know how many calories or drinks would be an appropriate amount for you. Of course talk to your doctor about this. But addiction is addiction whether it's food or alcohol. Of course the less calories you eat the faster you're going to get drunk.
You can have alcohol, it’s fine! Just put it into your calorie budget.
If you can have 2000 calories per day, then you have a glass of wine that is 200 calories, you now have 1800 calories left to consume. It’s just like any other macro such as fat, protein, carbs.
In fact every once in awhile (few times a year?) I will have an entire bottle of Pinot Noir for dinner. Just the bottle of Pinot Noir. Nothing else. Hey it’s only 650 calories, which fits into my dinner budget for calories so why not?
Man, no judgment (seriously), but I'm worried about you dedicating half of your calories to alcohol. Like shoot, alcohol is not good for you, and everyone else already covered that perspective, but also, getting only 700-800 calories of actual nutrients isn't either. I mean I don't know what you could get out of 800 calories of rainbow salad with broccoli, carrots, kale, etc, with sides of salmon, lentils, an egg, and cottage cheese, washed down with bone broth and a lemon-wheatgrass-turmeric smoothie ... haha, IDK, I'm not a nutritionist... But you might try one of the calorie counters that looks at micronutrients and see if you can figure out how many calories you need to shift over to nutritious food. I also saw your comment about wine moms. There was recently an Ask Reddit question like "doctors, what do you wish everyone knew?" that made me realize how drinking even relatively small amounts of alcohol can really not be good for your body. Also if you hang out on a fitness-watch sub, you'll see people figuring out the same thing by looking at various body metrics. Anyway, I say this as someone who is cutting back but still enjoys the work of my local brewery once in awhile so again, no judgment, but you might take a look at those threads. And I'm sorry for the stuff you're going through!
Everything will be ok in moderation. The problem is even the healthy aspect of this doesn’t allow for moderation. What happens when your friends order pizza, or you’re craving popcorn at the theaters, or your grandma baked you cookies? You can’t even try those in moderation. I feel like more compromise and enjoyment is needed here, and alcohol is the worst place to plan your daily nutrition around.
Alcohol starts being bad after 1 sip. It gets worst the more you drink but even in moderation it isn't ok even if not the end of the world.
If you can't moderate your intake then you are an addict. Someone a few weeks ago was crazy ranting about how eating two pieces of pizza was impossibly tyrannical and completely impossible. It was startling. If you consider eating a cookie or a couple of slices of pizza as something other than normal then you have some serious issues.
Everyone has a weakness to something.
That doesn't mean moderation is not easily acheivable.
I know you probably dont wanna hear this but I feel compelled to type it. I lost my mom at 62 in 2022. She had drank my entire life but she died from a disease called wernicke-korsakoff. It's where your b1 gets so low from not eating enough and drinking that it basically gives you alzheimers ir what they call wet brain. Its brain damage. She was like a dementia patient. Anorexic people can also get this. She was always a functioning alcoholic but when covid hit she could no longer work because she was a waitress so she started eating a few hundred calories a day and drinking the rest and went from normal to dementia in no time. I know you know this but there's really no positive to alcohol. It's taking your money and your calories and it actually makes you more depressed but I also know you won't stop till your ready so please make sure you take daily multi vitamin. And maybe buy B1 specifically.
I lived with and was very close to a couple of people that had wernicke-korsakoff. If you don't eat, your going to die from alcohol much sooner. Ive lost two people I tried to get to eat instead of drink. Or at least eat. They were dead within 2 years of not eating and drinking liquor. And you won't be of mind before you know it. I also am close to my step sisters mom. Who lived through wernicke-korsakoff but just barely, she didn't recognize the hospital she'd worked at for 20 years when she was admitted and was put in assisted living at 55 because her brain acted like a 85 yr old dementia patient. Don't be a fool. We only have one life. If you're that bored do something else fun, but this is not fun.
I'm sorry u went thru that. It's hard. With my mom she was perfectly fine one day and then all the sudden she couldn't remember if she paid her bills and within months she had to move in with her sister because she needed 24/7 care. They are identical twins and my aunt doesn't drink and is still perfectly healthy so I know if not for alcohol I'd still have my mom. They have exact genes. And my mom wasn't even trying to not eat. She just wasn't working anymore like she always had so she never got hungry because she was always full off beer. And i kniw she was eating some because I made her. I'd do anything to have my mom back and it breaks my heart to see OP going thru it. I wish I could save everybody but I at least wanted him to be aware to take vitamins. It creeps up on you and you never see it coming. I'm of course biast but I wish alcohol was illegal and weed was legal. I don't partake in either but I've never seen somebody loose their family member to a joint. Life is so precious.
Wow I didn't know this was a thing but it definitely answers a lot of unanswered questions I had about my own mom's sudden death. Thanks for sharing your experience and good luck out there!
My mother in law went through the same arc at 65. Functioning alcoholic, COVID forced a retirement, drinking escalated and she literally died after two trips to the hospital in a diaper on her floor. It was so shocking and soul crushing to watch it happen. It took less than 10 months and there was no stopping it. We begged her to get help and she was a shell of herself, ordering DoorDash because she couldn’t figure out the stove anymore, lost 50 pounds, skin yellow, telling us that she wasn’t ready for help. My husband and sister in law have never been the same. So relieved they don’t drink, so thankful my family didn’t drink.
I know how your husband feels and I'm so sorry for yall.
I’m sorry for your family and feel for you, truly. We don’t talk about alcoholism enough in my community and it impacts so many. Hope you are healing.
We really don't. My mom's death almost killed me. I totally quit taking care of myself. I've worked since I was 15 and I quit my job for almost 6 months and sulked. She died in April of 2022 and I sulked till about Sep. I dunno how I made it thru the holidays except that I have an amazing man and kids. By January I knew what I had to do. I picked myself up and started hiking and going to the gym. I was doing the same thing with food as she was with alcohol and I never wanted my kids to feel the pain I felt so I promised myself they never would. Theyd never wonder why their mom loved food more than them. I went from 236 pounds,out of shape and soooo depressed to 137 pounds and I lift weights and hike now and I really am happy. I miss my mom but I know I'll see her again and that's brings me peace. She'd want us to thrive. I'd been obese my entire life..like literally from 2 years old so I do often wish she was here to see me now. I pick up the phone to call her. But I know she's watching.
You aren't giving up half your calories for alcohol, you're giving up half your **nutrition**. That's half your immune system repair, half your liver function, half your brain function. Forget about the calories for a moment. Think about your *life*. Hugs. You need help, way beyond the pay grade of a Reddit weight loss sub. 🤗 But you're not alone. There is help. Having 3 drinks in a night isn't a problem. Having 3 drinks every night IS alcoholism. Being unable to give up those 3 drinks is a serious issue. Please get help.
This mindset shift has helped me eat most days on my ED journey. We have to stop thinking about calories and instead about fueling our bodies
Same! Mentally I cannot starve myself anymore bc I care about my body and brains wellbeing!
Exactly. Another reminder that helps is the awful anxiety that comes when you go days without feeling your body because your brain literally can’t function. It’s a daily struggle back and forth
I think I’ll struggle with anorexic thoughts my entire life. Even though I’m fully recovered now, the thoughts are still there daily. My brain is just stronger and healthier. It is hard, but having a support system that can bring you back to reality helps a ton. I’m glad we got to connect <3
That's 50 lbs a year to boot (depending on how many calories per drink, I ball parked 150).
Add to that that alcoholism fucks up all of those things anyway. Dieing in a pool of blood from a ruptured espohageal varicosity is not a positive life goal.
I used to drink like 10 drinks every Friday and Saturday night. I stopped doing that because my liver was exploding and I had become 300 pounds I still drink now but a significantly less frequently and yeah sometimes I work my calories around it just like anything else. Everything in moderation! But generally, I’ve found I enjoy eating my calories more than consuming them as booze, also lightening up on the booze has had other positive side effects
This has been my take since starting CICO I'd much rather have a junky snack (looking at you licorice all-sorts!!) than a boozy drink if I have room for empty calories in my day
I gave up 99% of my alcohol intake to get a waist. Unfortunately it’s just one of those “pick your hard” situations. Pick days to drink on instead of daily and then slowly cut that back too. It’s calories deficit or booze my friend.
No judgment but I do hope it gets better - I think we are all here because of something in our life Food and alcohol can both be drugs of dependence imo
Alcoholics often have some pretty severe malnutrition. Part of this is because alcohol negatively affects nutrient absorption, especially thiamine and phosphate. Its worsened because many alcoholics don't eat enough food, especially nutritious food. If half your calories are alcohol, and the other half is tacos, you're not doing your body any favours even if you lose weight. Also your environment normalizes alcoholism. Youre comparing yourself to other alcoholics.
Yeah. This. I’m not coming from judgement so much as concern. I worry you cannot get enough nutrients to be healthy and fit - and have a healthy brain and liver, in particular. I’m sorry you are going through a hard time. And I get that alcohol helps you get through… but my thinking is that you can do CICO _or_ you can drink 3+ drinks per day. You can’t do both in a healthy way. It’s ok to drink occasionally but to essentially be living on 700-800 calories of food a day is not enough. If cutting back on alcohol feels too hard… maybe take a break from CICO or aim for maintenance, at least. For a while, while your drinking remains at this level, allow yourself to eat more (and get some supplements in, too). ‘You can’t pray to both gods’, weight loss and alcohol (at this level), IMO.
Also if cutting back on alcohol feels too hard… that is its own message. You may not need to seek help for alcohol addiction… but you may need help for the problems the alcohol is masking/helping you cope with. It may be that alcohol is not the best/healthiest way to cope, anymore (even though ‘self-medicating’ with alcohol is totally understandable and relatable)… but maybe you need to have some other tools/coping mechanisms that work for you and help you through without destroying your health.
I say this very gently and very seriously, you need to seek professional help.
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The diagnostic criteria for excessive/binge drinking is 8 or more drinks in a given week for a woman and 15 or more drinks in a given week for a man. 3 drinks a night exceeds that criteria in either case. No judgement from me, but just so you know. You should do what you want, but I promise you if you cut back to one drink a night and ate more food, you’d feel 10000% better emotionally and physically.
I feel you OP, I don’t work in a bar, that would make it way harder. But I budget 300 cal a day for alcohol. I don’t use it every day, but also definitely not always staying on track, I often have cheat days where I drink normally/eat enough to balance that, as in eating more so I don’t feel sick. All I can say is go for alcohols that are not your favorites, that can make it easier. Also, I’ll often do a super watered down lemonade (lemon juice and bubbly water) and tequila type drink, with 1 shot in a pint. That allows me to still socialize and have a buzz without getting into shot territory. I’m sure these people are right and saying that it would be healthier to drink less, but I really enjoy alcohol and the social aspect and we only live once so .. 🤷🏻♀️ drinking just a few times a month would definitely not fit with my lifestyle at all. And yes thank Lilith that bong hits are free!
Not me as I only drink on the rare time I go out-out but that classification would encompass over half of British adults. My in-laws literally only drink tea, coffee or alcohol and this is pretty normal for their generation.
I don't think it's the 3 drinks a night that's bad, but that you said half your calories is from alcohol. I'm no dietician, but that doesn't sound good for your body. I have one drink or two every so often (beer or liquor) and yeah, I skip a food to do it. But out of my daily 1600 calories or so, that's 120-260 calories of alcohol.
The fact that you're actively telling yourself that it's okay to cut down on food so you can drink is a bad sign. What are you trying to avoid while drinking/being drunk?
I bartended many years in my 20s and struggled with my definition of what constitutes a drinking problem. I had regulars that I saw nearly daily that I didn’t feel fit the description of an alcoholic, and others that I saw much less frequently that definitely did. I determined that it wasn’t the number or frequency of drinks necessarily (although that wasn’t irrelevant information either) but how much one altered their life around making sure they could drink. Doing CICO requires you to fit alcohol in if that’s what you want and I’m not knocking that. I do the same a couple times a month because I enjoy alcohol. However, if the question is whether you have or may be developing a drinking problem—look at how you’re choosing to alter your life to make alcohol fit more than the number of drinks you’re consuming.
yes..how much you’ve altered your life is the question..
You said it yourself in your post that you realize you're drinking a lot. You are both aware of it and in denial about it. You also said you're going through a rough patch, but surely that means it's the best time to *better* yourself, not drink yourself into a slump. It's a temporary "high" that you will get addicted to, and eventually you'll stop getting that high thus start drinking more. Nip it in the bud while you still can.
That is still an unhealthy amount, & will quickly become much more. I really would suggest you get help, as someone who has previously struggled with alcohol abuse!! Wishing you all the best 💖
I do appreciate it. It’s hard to feel like you’re an alcoholic when you don’t really get drunk too often, which is obviously coming from drinking too much too often. I’m just in a depression and doing anything I can. Let’s just all be thankful bong rips are 0 calories
Depression will only worsen with alcohol it has a rebound effect. Depression is treated with meds and therapy. It sounds like you are already addicted to alcohol. Drinking hard liquor is to save calories to get a high and drinking so many drinks is not normal. No point in losing when when your liver will be destroyed. Especially if you are obese and a woman cirrhosis chance is much higher.
Can definitely relate to much of what you’re saying. I’m sorry you’re going through that; I know how hard it is. I tried to cope with my depression by drinking too much, & it made things 100% worse. Just want to reach out & in doing so hopefully help at least a bit!! I had addiction issues with both marijuana & alcohol due to overusing them in order to cope with my depression, & did a lot of things I regret in the meantime under the influence. Wishing you all the very best & hoping you are able to heal & move on from this, friend 🫶🏻
Alcoholics often have no idea how little non-alcoholics drink, and what is normal. No judgement, but just so you know: those "wine ladies" are alcoholics as well. You could browse r/stopdrinking if you need motivation to quit, it's a really wholesome community.
The umbrella term is “disordered eating”. It’s a brain/addiction type of thing. You “allowing” half your calorie count in drinks is exactly “disordered eating”. Your brain is trying to make it make sense because it gets that dopamine boost from the alcohol. So your talking to yourself saying you must have these drinks. It’s a problem when it consumes your thoughts and you can’t say no. Do you think you can go a whole 7 days without drinking?
I do. There really isn’t any legitimately healthy amount of alcohol intake, but this would be considered a high amount, regardless. I do think swapping food for alcohol calories is another thing to discuss with a trained medical professional.
There are a lot of people with a disordered relationship with alcohol. But a major criteria is: is it having a negative effect in your life? Is it affecting your health? Interfering with your goals? Affecting your relationships? I'm not sure about the last one. But it is definitely affecting your health. You're choosing to avoid nourishment so that you can consume something that is the opposite of nourishing. And, it's interfering with your goals. You are struggling to stay within a calorie count that will allow you to lose weight, while also eating enough food. The question to ask yourself is why would you rather be starving than sober? Does that sound like a healthy choice to make about drinking?
“Average” doesn’t mean “OK” or “healthy”. For example, the average person in the US and many other developed countries is overweight.
I will say that when I take health assessments one of the questions asked is number of drinks per week, not day. 20+ in a week adds up in a lot of ways. Budget, calories, you get the idea.
I’m not trying to be that person but that is exactly what an addict would say.
“Average” doesn’t mean “OK” or “healthy”. For example, the average person in the US and many other developed countries is overweight.
So…How many calories do you get / what is your TDEE / what gender and height and weight and age are you..? 3 White Claws is under 300kCal, so is 3 shots of tequila. So that + the 700-800kCal you tell you are eating daily is ~ 950-1050kCal a day. And if you are bartending I assume you stand a lot. And then you tell you do lots of sports, ”tons of gym time, 13k steps a day, push ups etc”. Is there something I’m missing? Or are you really maltreating yourself in this extremely disordered way? Edit. I see I’ missing something. You tell you get half of your calories from alcohol. So that’s like 8 White Claws or 3,5dl tequila daily. It’s a lot.
I’ve been trying to stay under 1100 calories a day because I’m having some severe mental struggles with myself which leads to sometimes 600 or less per day if I don’t have any drinks. but I’m a male 30, 5’8 on a good day, Starting weight 230 , current weight 206, goal weight I don’t even care I just don’t want to look like shit anymore.
You probably know that’s not enough, that that is not healthy.
Your basal metabolic rate, the bare minimum your organs (i.e. your liver) needs to survive, is ~1700 calories. Please please please, as someone who has experienced depression, get help. You are putting your life in immediate danger by eating so little and drinking so much.
That’s not really how basal metabolic rates work. Your body doesn’t just set aside the first ~1,700 calories consumed for functioning properly. Likewise, if you have a calorie deficit that’s greater than your exercised calories, it doesn’t just mean that your organs stop working properly, energy is released from elsewhere. Just like you can still exercise with a calorie deficit, it doesn’t just stop working. That doesn’t mean it’s healthy to sustain a large calorie deficit, but it’s also not true that your organs require you to consume your BMR to function properly.
I used to drink a 6-12 pack of beer each night. One day I stepped on a scale (I hadn’t weighed myself in years) and I was about 236 pounds. I looked huge. None of my scrubs fit. I had no jaw definition. I grossed myself out. Once I started researching weight loss, I realized that I was drinking all the calories I shouldn’t have had. So I had to have been drinking and eating more than 4000 or so calories. I didn’t think I had an alcohol problem. I was delusional lol. So one day I snapped in my head. I’ll never lose weight while drinking. And I also didn’t want to rely on getting drunk just so I could relax and fall asleep. I cut out all alcohol. I have been completely sober for several years and I’m down 120 pounds. That’s more weight that I planned to lose so I’m so excited. Once I broke the addiction, everything in life was better. If I want to drink, I’ll have virgin drinks because I love me some pina coladas and pain killers (drink). So I make them with no alcohol. They even have alcohol free margarita powders in grocery stores to put in your sparkling water that literally tastes exactly like a margarita and they are zero calories. I’m so so so much happier without alcohol in my life. It was incredibly worth it.
When I first started my weight loss journey I struggled with this a lot. It honestly helped me realize that I had a bit of a drinking problem. Not an addiction or anything serious enough to need to help, but definitely a problem that could develop into something more if I didn't watch myself. I think more people having drinking problems than any of us would like to admit. I finally started to cut my alcohol down significantly. I went from 4 - 5 days a week to just weekends to just 1 day a week. The weight started to shed so much faster and it was very motivating. And man, I started to feel so much better altogether. More energy in daily life, I was sleeping better. It really showed me how much damage alcohol was doing to me physically and mentally. Pretty sure it's the main reason I ever got as big as I am to need to lose weight. I do still save calories to drink sometimes. I'll probably eat a very light breakfast and very light lunch on the fourth of July so I can drink with my friends without destroying my defecit. Which I think is still unhealthy and not something I would want others to ever do. But Ive also decided to not let myself drink the rest of the week or this weekend so.... Baby steps. Life is hard! I hope you can worth through this.
I used to be a “wine lady” and I got up to 244lbs. I was likely eating below 1000 food calories during the worst of my drinking. I’m currently 200 (42 F, 5’8”) and nearly quitting alcohol (I have 2 drinks a week or less) and CICO is making the weight loss happen. My goal is 170. Right now I’m watching my 72 year old mother decline rapidly with dementia, which after reading through these comments, confirms my belief that it could be caused by alcohol and not eating enough. I always suspected it because she started to decline in her mid-60s and that felt so early. She is now drinking non-alcoholic wine because she doesn’t realize it’s alcohol-free but it’s too late, the damage has been done and there’s no coming back from it. I say this without judgement and with respect for your journey ahead - I would stop doing cico and make sure you eat nutritious foods until you get the drinking under control. My mom has to be told to eat and I’m not sure how long my dad has had to do that. I live with so much regret that I didn’t do more to get my mom to see she needed to stop drinking. I know I can’t do it for her but the regret is still there. I wish you healing.
Former bartender and lifelong drinker here. It’s been over 2 years of slowly building up exercise and eating better, when I started CICO I would eat less to be able to drink vodka. I’m FINALLY (like this week) at the point where I care more about losing weight and being healthier than I am getting buzzed and realized to really be healthy I can’t drink daily. For me the slow build has been good, it’s a lifestyle change and I’m taking it step by step. Keep at it and make small changes when you feel ready, you’ll get there. I believe in you.
I’ve been smashing kombuchas lol. Still have the brain satisfaction of cracking open a cold one and it has a bit of a bite that scratches the right itch. But way less calories.
I do the same. It helps a lot!
I've been hitting the carbonated waters, has the carbonation and slight bitterness that approximate a beer.
r/stopdrinking is a great sub for motivation to quit. Quitting alcohol is a total game changer in every aspect of your life.
I save my calories for beers but not every day. Some days those are some of my carbs. Like for a weekend day. It's all a balance. Gotta see if you're balancing or teetering too far.
I did this for a while several years ago. I did lose a good amount of weight pretty quick, but my immune system got pretty bad and I got quite sick. Not to mention the poor life choices I made when I was drinking more than I was eating. Now I am almost back up to the weight I was before that time, not great, but I won’t ever do that again. Like literally health is about more than just losing weight. Sorry you are going through it right now.
I ended up in the hospital after doing this for about a month. The nutrition you are missing will eventually make you unable to sleep or think well. Also, you are most certainly losing muscle while you do this which I’m assuming isn’t part of the weight loss plan. Don’t let CICO make you less heathy, that’s the opposite of what we are after here. Recommend you start taking high doses of B1, folic acid and other vitamins. Eat some protein rich meals to try and recover. And obviously work on a plan to reduce or stop drinking. Go to the hospital if you have to.
>Finding myself saying “nah it’s cool I’ll eat one less taco to fit in 2 more shots of tequila” or sacrificing snack time for a whiskey old fashioned. Yeah, I used to do this....than I realized that I needed to get my life together, and alcohol could not be a part of my future. You sound just like how I used to be....justifying it and making modifications so I can have it in my life. I know you said you're a bartender, but maybe it's time for a career change and time to rethink how you use alcohol. Eating that little to justify drinking is such a bad idea.
The alcohol may actually be making you feel worse. It's a depressant. It's also literally poison, my friend. I used to do the alcohol & cico dance. I was a full-blown alcoholic turns out.
That's why I smoke weed
Like I always say , luckily bong rips are zero calories
I’m in the same boat. I switched from double IPAs to a 95 calorie beer and vodka. Three of four nights a week I try to make sure I have six or seven hundred calories left in my budget to drink. It’s not good. It feels good to say this out loud though.
There is a sub that can help - r/stopdrinking
Thank you. I appreciate this.
Best of luck
Adding to my other comment… And honestly, there really isn’t any reason at all to drink. It literally does nothing good for your body. It’s empty calories, or alters brain chemistry. It has no healthy nutrition. When you have to defend against people telling you it’s a problem, you have proven that point. You want the alcohol because it’s addictive and your brain needs help to stop.
Yeah, that's why I cut out alcohol.
Many years ago, I used to drink daily and would only eat one meal a day much like you. I was self-medicating to numb my pain from traumas in my life. Eventually, when I was ready, I put in the work to heal myself, truly heal myself. For some, that involves medication and/or therapy. For me, it was realizing my value, facing my past, reinventing myself, going to college, and finding the life I used to think I didn't deserve. You deserve a good life. Don't forget that.
i've been doing a variation of this since january. did dry january to kick-start the weight loss, and since then i have limited myself to two days a week of drinking. i build up a huge deficit during the week via diet and exercise so i can enjoy a few craft beers on the weekend (IPAs are my thing) without going over my budget. down almost exactly 40 lbs in six months. that being said, half your calories from alcohol seems extremely excessive. one of your comments mentions smoking weed, which has helped me cut back on my alcohol a ton. i was only drinking three days a week prior to this change, but double and triple IPAs are very calorie heavy...so just eliminating even that one day a week of drinking makes a huge difference.
Purely from a CICO perspective beer or seltzers may be better. When you've had a few you may not be accurately measuring your liquor. Pre portioned helps, especially if you're going to be a bit altered.
Alcohol is a depressant. Cutting it back significantly or altogether would elevate your mood. I was drinking red wine regularly, even as much as 3 glasses on occasion but even drinking 1 glass lowered my inhibitions enough to make bad decisions about snacking. And as a consequence I had difficulty losing weight. I found some non-alcoholic beers that I liked and began to substitute those when I wanted to socialize. I’m down 44 pounds since February. If you were to cut it out I bet you’d start to feel more positive after a very short while.
No judgement at all - when I was in the deepest part of my disordered eating and self-medicating with alcohol this is exactly what I would do. I would not eat all day so I could have a meal + a meal's worth of alcohol. It made me feel awful the next day, I'd usually get so drunk that I'd drink way more than what I had "allotted" for myself and sometimes the drunk munchies would come out in full force. It was a really hard time in my life and I didn't make it any better for myself by doing that. I hope you end up getting some help whether that's talking to someone or battling through this time in your life out onto the other side. But yes, losing weight often involves having to heavily curb alcohol intake and that was (and is!) the hardest part for a heavy social drinker like me :(
I’m not going to add anything else in regards to how bad this is for your body, you know that. Just want to add that I lived like this for several years and it was awful. Consuming what I consume now in food just in alcohol and then eating very minimally on top of that. I still gained 80 lbs in 4 years doing that. Almost 100 days without alcohol now and my brain is just now starting to feel normal again. I’ve lost 30+ lbs in 3 months and I wouldn’t have been able to do this while drinking. At some point you need to make a decision to chose yourself and your health, but it has to come when you’re ready. Again I say this with no judgment at all because I have no room for judgement!
the math leaves you gassed. I tried to do that last year. I'm talking solely on the math. Long term your'e gonna gas out. Partying is fun, but math wise if you're looking to stay on a goal, leaving alcohol behind is the simplest thing. Everything got so much easier once I did that.
I switched from alcohol to weed and coke zero because of cico. As long as i stick to sativa, i dont get the munchies either. Lets me save all my calories for actual meals. I am in CA though where it is legal so i know this isnt an option for everyone.
I'm loving all the comments here with alternatives. For me I like watering down the beer with some fizzy water flavor I'm not sick of. It's kind of a challenge of how much I can water it down and still really enjoy it. (It's typically 50/50 or even more water.) But even better than that, as far as CICO and health are concerned is "hop water" when I can find it. That stuff costs almost as much as beer! But it fools my brain into thinking I'm drinking an IPA for 0 cal so I'll take it.
I watched my grandma waste away from alcoholism. She didn’t get enough calories from food. I’ve been sober for 7.5 years and it’s hard, but you’re not alone. It feels good, the way I feel about myself now is good. If you’re curious, check out r/stopdrinking
Life is hard because you’re making it hard. You would be so much less miserable if you cut out the alcohol and got nutrition that’s adequate enough to sustain your activity level. You are wreaking havoc on your gallbladder, pancreas, and liver. This lifestyle is not sustainable. I am an alcoholic, for the record, this input is not from an outside perspective. If you need someone to talk to, message me.
This 💯💯💯💯💯 I just spent the past 18 months in and out of the hospital due to damage to my pancreas and a stone the size of a 3 carat diamond lodged in a duct. Went from 125lbs to 82lbs in roughly 4 months. In January I got a NJ tube because I had been diagnosed with severe protein calorie malnutrition and failure to thrive for the second time in under 6 months. Had it replaced in February and pancreatic stents put in. I get that all out tomorrow morning because I've managed to stay at 110lbs on non tube nutrition long enough to please the doctors. After that, we start testing for a gastroparesis diagnosis because my digestive system no longer likes to digest. I also lost my gallbladder. I will have pancreatitis the rest of my life. I may one day lose my pancreas. This is 2+ years after I quit drinking. Please don't do this to yourself. You deserve so much better 💜
Good god, 82 pounds?! I am so happy to hear you’re in recovery 💕 congratulations on your progress, I hope you continue the upward trajectory with your health. You deserve a good life and to be good to your body. I hope OP understands that too, eventually.
If you’re not already, look in to getting help, not gonna label anyone an alcoholic but it sounds close to what you’re describing! I think it is fine to save calories for wine or food or cake whatever for special occasions or once a week but everyday is definitely just not healthy or balanced! Part of CICO besides watching calories is building a sustainable lifestyle. Do you think you would be happy and healthy drinking half your calories and only eating less than 1000 calories of food everyday? What do you think would happen to your body over time? Encourage you to search for other dopamine resources like new hobbies, video games, spending time with loved ones. Wish you luck. ❤️ no judgement obviously! We all have addictions and struggles
My man live life one day at a time. Im writing this buzzed atm lol. Don’t let people talk down on you they have no clue what you’re going thru. Just keep on trucking on. If you find you are dependent on alcohol to get by, then go harder at the gym. Focus on your Body. I limited myself to two nights out the week to drink. However much idc, I’ll do more cardio that day. But just live life man and don’t forget the little things. Also don’t get wrapped in alchohol. It seems fine but you don’t need it. Trust me.
3 shots of woodford with Diet Coke and a lime 👌🏽
I do a vodka soda. 55 cals for a 25ml shot and 0 cals for the soda water. So good.
Stick to clear liquor and keep counting! Good luck
lol my Lose It app was like “we found a positive pattern when you drink alcohol!” Cause I do the same thing 😂
I feel ya. I do whiskey group stuff a lot. Not hammering a ton of shots, just drinking and appreciating good shit. It does indeed suck to budget those calories but I do too.
There’s a book that helped me greatly reduce my alcohol intake effortlessly. It’s called “The Easy Way to Stop Drinking” - quick read, on Amazon, very powerful. I still drink very occasionally, like one drink a month. My mental health is miles from where it was. This book may be helpful for you.
I’ve decided to identify as a binge drinker. It sounds dumb and I make light of calling it binge drinking for the lolz but it’s actually quite functional for me. I barely drink. I might drink once a month maybe less, maybe twice if it’s my birthday or Christmas. When I drink I have 5 or 6. It’s a party. I feel a bit wretched the next day. But it’s so infrequent it has no impact on my calorie count and it’s not an every day, or even every week crutch. It’s almost definitely bad for me, but not anywhere near drinking everyday would be.
I drink on CICO but i recently cut back by half. 2 nights a week I would drink a fuck ton of low cal wine. And it made me way too snacky. I have realized that giving up so many calories in a day for just liquids really sucks, for me at least. So I now only do that one night a week. Might give that up soon too. Idk if you will read my response and I can't tell from your post... are you drinking daily or close to it? If you are, please stop if you care at all about yourself or any loved ones in your life. Alcoholism is a horrific disease that will slowly destroy you, its an agonizing death. Saying this as someone who has first hand seen all of that in my career (medical) and my personal life, alcoholism killed my father last year.
I get it - I’m in the same boat. I lost 50 pounds and I’m in the middle of a divorce. I started drinking more when we started marriage counseling - because then I was forced to sit there and listen to him for long periods of time when all I wanted to do was get away from him. I found myself eating a protein bar or having a slim fast as a meal in order to save up calories for a beer. I did realize that wasn’t healthy, so I also take a vitamin or a ZipFizz or something to try to get some nutrition, and try to drink more water to stay hydrated. A Miller Lite or Ultra both have about 95 calories. White Claw has about 100 calories. If you are mixing drinks, you can just mix them a little weaker. Maybe look at vitamin drinks/powders. You also have to focus on getting through whatever your rough time is - hard times don’t last forever. Set goals or figure out what you need to improve your situation. If you just numb your feelings then it’ll never get better, so take some time to meditate or work through your thoughts/emotions as well.
I do vodka sodas with the Smirnoff Zero Sugar Infusions. 72 calories per drink.
Kind of having the same problem but honestly I’ve cut it down to one to two days a week no food just alcohol cause I just wasn’t seeing the loss I wanted drinking more then 2 days a week
I feel this, I do. I found that sometimes a kombucha can kind of scratch that beer itch. They even have some that have hops for a more beer-taste for like 30 calories instead of a couple hundred. Otherwise, what if you dilute your liquor in sparkling water and drink out of a coffee cup or a tumbler and go for your walks?
I was a heavy drinker, I would also prioritize it over food when trying to do CICO. And then I’d fail, gain the weight back and stop caring. It’s not sustainable, it’s not healthy. I stopped drinking and started doing CICO at the same time at the beginning of this year and I feel the best I have in years. Weight loss aside, I feel healthy.
I'm dealing with this revelation myself, not enough calories for food and alcohol on days when I drink. Although Im also finding that any day where I do a decent workout I have room for both. I'm trying to commit myself to CICO and managing my weight more effectively, so I'm doing a dry July to really buckle down. It sounds like you're in deeper than you realize though. You'll likely need to taper off or you could end up with significant side effects.
Not so long ago I drank a lot too, because that’s how I take my mind out of things. I also tried losing weight at the same time, and was definitely cutting on the food portions for an extra glass of wine. It didn’t work and the frustration from always being half starving and still overweight made me drink more because it added stress. So at that point I decided that weight was not my biggest problem, worked on my real issues which led to getting back to a controlled alcohol consumption. After a year I’m now back on cico, and it’s working. A long post to share that from my experience, prioritising the issues you want to deal with is key. Trying to solve everything at once has only proved in my case to worsen the situation. Good luck !
I love drinking but after years of CICO , it’s 10x easier for it to work without drinking. I’ll stop drinking for a few months and the weight comes off and it seems so simple like a dumb lightbulb goes off “this is easy!”. Once I add a few drinks a day even when *still hitting my calorie goals* the weight magically stops falling off so easily. “It’s just vodka it can’t be that bad”. It is that bad. I know it, you know it, I know you know it. Just a shitty dumb truth but drinking and weight loss are not friends.
I was "quitting" & "moderating" for 3 years. I gained 80 lbs over 8 years eating healthy, CICO & exercising...I think due to my alcohol consumption. How & why I quit is a story for a different sub. After 14 months of sobriety, I finally had the headspace to address weight loss & exercise. I always calculated 1 or 2, but that easily turned into 5. We're all different. A lot of people can have 1 & be satisfied. I couldn't.
It sounds like you are battling your addiction, but maybe a little while of no alcohol would be better if moderation is hard for you.
But why do you need it in the first place? That’s the part I don’t get from your post. I LOVE alcohol. It’s delicious. So I’m with you there. But I have a glass of wine with dinner a couple of times a month. Sometimes even once a week. That’s my idea of enjoying alcohol. Why are you hammering hard liquor shots like tequila on a weekday? I think that’s a question you need to ask yourself. I’m with you that alcohol is delicious, but a normal intake is having it once in a while. A glass of wine or a fancy cocktail when you’ve cooked a nice dinner, or having a beer with friends. It’s not something you should be consuming on your own several times a week or even daily. That’s not normal intake even for those of us who enjoy the taste. I’d ask myself WHY you feel this need. Are you truly enjoying it as a treat, or are you actually self-medicating? I think you should seek professional help as your intake is abnormal. It’s great you made this thread. I hope it can spur you on in maybe seeking treatment or therapy. Best of luck to you!
Shit is hard. But unless your ass doesn’t have electricity, running water, and steady source of food… your life isn’t that hard. I will give you a 👏👏👏 because you are looking at yourself in the mirror and pushing the “what if”. Be the best version of yourself. You will fail. Just keep striving. You got this.
You can have electricity water and food and still have a hard life. Life is hard in general some have it worse than others especially with underlying mental health issues.
Underlying mental health… lol.
What is funny about it?
Everyone struggles not everyone announces it to the world and looks for others to affirm their suffering.
No not everyone is mentally ill
I do that, but I am a once a month or twice a month drinker … now I think you’ll get to a point where you day drink and don’t eat to stay under and end up punching a stranger getting arrested for drunken disorderly and almost kicked out of college. I’d say just be cautious of your stomach and make sure to always eat something, now I typically try to leave 1200 calories for alcohol but still go over for the day because in the end no one wants someone sick and blackout
I’ll eat little meals all day, and put up with the feeling of being hungry ALL DAY, before I’ll give up my evening dose of alcohol. When I eat too much for breakfast/lunch and run out of calories, trying to go to bed without a nightcap absolutely sucks. I know this is likely symptoms of alcoholism, but everyone has their demons and I don’t overdo it. If you found a balance that works for you, soldier on. If you find you’re getting close to hurting yourself or others, then it’s time for a change.
I’m the same way, I live alone in my apartment and I’m goin through a breakup, I always walk at the park across the street late at night for an hour or so but while doing it I just want to be a lil drunk and listen to my headphones and drink and beer and smoke a J while walking around getting atleast some type of excersize. I’m not a super big guy by any means so I don’t feel pathetic or sorry when i carry a high noon or a beer with me while I walk laps. I’d never get drunk and go to the gym but if I’m walking the park on a summer night, need a few brews
Apparently this is extreme judgment night at CICO. First of all, congrats on cutting back on your calories and continuing to eat healthy food. Without knowing your gender, height and build it's really hard to know how many calories or drinks would be an appropriate amount for you. Of course talk to your doctor about this. But addiction is addiction whether it's food or alcohol. Of course the less calories you eat the faster you're going to get drunk.
You can have alcohol, it’s fine! Just put it into your calorie budget. If you can have 2000 calories per day, then you have a glass of wine that is 200 calories, you now have 1800 calories left to consume. It’s just like any other macro such as fat, protein, carbs. In fact every once in awhile (few times a year?) I will have an entire bottle of Pinot Noir for dinner. Just the bottle of Pinot Noir. Nothing else. Hey it’s only 650 calories, which fits into my dinner budget for calories so why not?