Is Alcohol Completely Hindering Results? If not, whats going on?

[motorol@]

I haven't posted here is years, but need a little help from the group. I'm 4 weeks into a complete lifestyle change hoping to get back to where I was 7-8 years ago.

4 Weeks ago here is what an example of my diet consisted of:
Breakfast- Red bull, fast food breakfast sandwich
Lunch- Pile of white rice and fried chinese meats, Regular soda
3pm- Cup of Raman, pepsi
Dinner- Fairly clean (thanks to a great wife) but large quantities of chicken, pasta, milk
After dinner- 5-10 beers depending on the night

With that discusting diet, desk job and 3 days of light workouts I hold a steady 292lbs. Keep in mind I am 6'-7" so its actually carried pretty well for pushing 300lbs.


Currently I am 4 weeks into the following example:
Breakfast- 2 hard boiled eggs, mixed nuts
Lunch- Mixed salad including, 1/2 chicken breast, 1 avacado, tomatoes, very light on the dressing
3pm- Small amount of raw vegetables
Dinner- Full chicken breast or steak, roasted vegetables, maybe a cup of butternut squash,
After dinner- 5 or 6 days a week 3-4 mixed drinks gin and soda water.

Only drinking water through the day.

3 days a week at the gym lifting heavy and 20 mins of interval treadmill work, 1 day a week of 3 mile run (10min pace), 2 days a week hitting BOMBS in softball, so a good amount of sprints. Overall trying to mix it up.

I'm not quite to the point of counting macros and cals in/out but by the examples above you get the idea.

So with this drastic change in lifestyle when will some large results come? So far I'm down to 285 but that cam off within a week I'm guessing due to decreasing carbs and water weight. I figured I would see some huge results by now and am not seeing much by the scale anyway. Figure is changing somewhat but nothing big.

On a good note, overall energy is much better, food cravings are gone, sleep is better, digestive system working great so all of those are enough motive to keep this going, but just getting impatiant to see some visual results.

Any ideas?

 

[musclemom]

I'll tell you what, Motor, I posted this little article I found on the women's forum when we got into a discussion about alcohol and fat loss. I'll share it with you and you can draw your own conclusions:

The liver cells are the only cells in the body that can make adequate amounts of the enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase. This is what effectively breaks down alcohol. When alcohol is present the liver cells are forced to metabolize alcohol (not fat) and the fatty acids accumulate. In other words the liver is too busy detoxifying the alcohol that has been consumed that it doesn't burn fat effectively.

Alcohol actually counts as 2 servings of fat per 4-5 ounces of wine, 1 light beer or 1 ounce of hard liquor according to the diabetic exchange system.

Alcohol is a harsh diuretic, but by being a diuretic, alcohol depletes the water soluble B vitamins. The B vitamins have numerous functions in the body (fighting stress and helping us digest food properly) but in terms of weight management they are important in supporting the fat burning process.

Rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into a substance called acetate. In fact, blood levels of acetate after drinking vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.

A car engine typically uses only one source of fuel. Your body, on the other hand, draws from a number of different energy sources, such as carbohydrate, fat, and protein. To a certain extent, the source of fuel your body uses is dictated by its availability. In other words, your body tends to use whatever you feed it. Consequently, when acetate levels rise, your body simply burns more acetate, and less fat. In essence, acetate pushes fat to the back of the queue.

 

[motorol@]

OK, so previously my body pulled energy from alcohol, then my carb intake, and probably didn't make it to fat. Now, it should be pulling from alcohol and move on to fat much quicker? Its interesting your body can turn a toxin into fuel.

Lets say alcohol wasn't a part of this discussion, have other people have similar results? Quick 5lbs at the beginning then slow response after?

 

[FitnessSage]

It's pretty normal to lose a lot in the beginning and to lose it fast. The key is in not getting depressed when the weight stops going down, you just have to keep up living a healthy lifestyle. In the beginning, it's mainly water to thank for the weight loss. Also, the heavier you are, the easier those first pounds are and the longer you will be able to keep up the fast pace of losing weight.

As for alcohol - apart from all biology and complicated stuff, which I find interesting, but is not common knowledge - we don't need to talk about liver to criticize alcohol in terms of diet. It just has a lot of calories! From what I remember, carbs and proteins have 4cal/g, fats have 9cal/g... And alcohol has 7/g! So it's nearly twice as much as in carbs and almost as many as in fat. Drinking a lot of alcohol in the evening, you take in many calories and waste all the effort and fasting during the day.

 

[musclemom]

OK, so previously my body pulled energy from alcohol, then my carb intake, and probably didn't make it to fat. Now, it should be pulling from alcohol and move on to fat much quicker? Its interesting your body can turn a toxin into fuel.

Lets say alcohol wasn't a part of this discussion, have other people have similar results? Quick 5lbs at the beginning then slow response after?

I'm not sure if you quite understood what I posted, I'll paraphrase it and bring up a couple of points.

When you drink alcohol your body stops burning fat, period. So let's take your three gin and tonics at night as an example. Assuming you're using 1.5 ounces of gin per drink that's a total of 4.5 ounces of alcohol. Your body treats that as being equivalent to a double amount of fat, so nine servings. Most servings of fat are 100 calories, so despite the fact a gin and tonic is "technically" low in calories, as far as your body is concerned you've just consumed the chemical equivalent of 900 calories that take priority over everything else. Your body has to burn that off before it goes back into fat burning mode, no matter how clean you've eaten all day.

Now, as for heavy drinkers dropping a lot of weight fast when they quit it's pretty simple. Alcohol is a diuretic. To combat the effects of the diuretic our body retains water. It usually holds that water for 48 to 72 hours after drinking, so if you drink every night you never get a chance to drop the bloat. I have a friend who went AA when he was diagnosed with diabetes. Dropped something like 14 pounds in about ten days just by not drinking any more, didn't change his diet or activity or anything else. It was just all water weight (basically the equivalent of two gallons, if you think about it, spread that amount out over a body, not that much).

 

[chewyxrage]

Your diet is pretty bad. What is that at most 75g of protein each day for a 280 pound person? Looks like around 1600 calories of food.

Throw 400 worthless cals of alcohol per day into the mix....yikes. Your body needs more quality protein/fat/carbs.

Track your diet for a week (drinks & all) and see what you are actually consuming. Use My Fitness Pal on your phone or PC - it's easy.

Then you'll have a better idea what you are actually putting into your body and can pinpoint what adjustments need to be made.

 

[stevesmi]

5-10 beers a night and you seriously are asking if that is hindering you?

daily drinking = alcoholic.

the first step to recovery is admitting it as much as you don't want to.

also the rest of your diet is pretty bad. soda, milk, pasta, fried foods, raman noodles, fast food sandwich, white rice, red bull are all JUNK FOOD!!! they aren't healthy. where the fuck are your fruits and veggies? the ONLY thing you should be drinking is water.

come on bro you know better than that, this is one of the worst diets I have seen on a fitness board since Axismundi posted his

you need a TOTAL makeover of your diet. here is a start for you.. google "alkaline diet"

 

[RickRock13]

Short answer is no, you won't see any respectable results without out cutting the daily drinking. The changes you have made were minor, and you still have to make a lot more if you want a true lifestyle change. Drinking once or twice a month is one thing but everyday is a huge problem

 

[motorol@]

got it I'll cut it down to a minimum and post results. Stevesmi read my post again, everything you listed (including the 5-10 beers) is what I used to eat before the diet started. Hopefully all of you can take something from this thread in the end if you are getting whats going on here. My previous diet was horrible with alcohol added in, then changed to clean diet with alcohol still in with no results. Now we will remove alcohol and see what happens.

 

[motorol@]

forgot to mention I appreciate the feedback. stay tuned