scintillady

I need to lose about 60 pounds and I know that giving up drinking 2 or more bottles of wine per night will help, but I also just got back to my low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet, and that is helping me to stay sober. See, I can eat as many calories as I want as long as I don't eat more than 20 carbs, and I eat whenever I feel a craving for food, as long as it's permitted. If I were to decide to drink wine at the end of a very high calorie day, all of a sudden the calories would all "count". So being on the low carb diet is helping me decide not to drink, since I want to lose the weight. I would have caved by now, I'm sure, and had some wine, which would have meant a couple bottles, at least, but I had already had my carbs for the day, and didn't want to undo everything I had accomplished. Another benefit of not drinking is that I have more money for high quality meats, cheeses, and veggies. Drinking wine also makes me crave snack food that's not good for me, and I end up eating a lot of junk I shouldn't.

FlygirlJ

I commend you for finding a way to not drink!! Though I am no doctor or nutritionist, I am pretty sure a high-fat diet can't be good for your or beneficial to you, especially if you have been a drinker. In fact, I have never even heard of a high fat diet. It can't be good for you since especially since excess fat can lead to many different health problems, and not to mention that heavy drinkers are prone to getting fatty liver anyway, a high-fat diet is probably not in your interest. All calories count- if you want to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. Cutting out carbs just means cutting out the food group that contains the most calories per gram. Fat contains the second most, protein third.

scintillady

As you said, you are not a doctor or nutritionist, and neither am I, but the reason high fat works and is beneficial to your health is that it is in the absence of carbs. In the absence of carbs your body must burn fat which is converted to glucose to keep your body functioning, especially your brain. The typical American diet is high fat and high carb, which is not a good combination. The excess fat is not the problem. Many cardiologists even recommend a low carb diet. The ideal low carb diet aims for about 20% protein, 70% fat, and less than 10% carbs per day. Fat actually contains the most calories per gram, protein second, and carbs third. Hard alcohol such as vodka or gin doesn't contain any carbs, but the body burns alcohol for fuel first and slows down fat loss, so it still is not recommended even if you don't have an alcohol problem. Wine, my drug of choice, contains carbs, so is not part of the diet. When people quit drinking a lot of people gain weight because they eat a lot of carbs and sugar to replace the sugars they had been getting in alcohol. One would think that by not consuming all the calories that they had been consuming in wine, the weight would just fall off, but that is usually not the case. I have been told that cutting carbs and cutting alcohol together will be difficult, but in my case, having a glass of wine, at least so far, is not tempting enough to make mess up my low carb way of eating.

FlygirlJ

I didn't want to sound like I was attacking you or anything, I was just sharing what I knew about the subject. You seem to know what you're talking about. Kudos to you and hey like I said if it's working to keep you from drinking, keep it up as long as it doesn't begin to affect you negatively!
I had the experience where I shed weight quick by cutting out the alcohol, but I maintained a low carb diet even while I was drinking, and continue to do so now. I'm now struggling with my body wanting the same amount of calories in food!

ReadyAtLast

A high fat high protein diet IS good for people. Low carb means low sugar which is where the problem lies.People eat too much sugar and keep eating it as your body never feels full. With a high fat/high protein diet you don't actually eat THAT much fat as your body feels full after just a little bit. The body needs fat and as long as it's good fat that's being eaten then it's a good thing.All the diet low fat/no fat stuff sold that people think is good for them is actually really bad as pumped full of sugar to replace the taste when the fat is removed

NoelleR

Ah yes, the good ole Atkins diet; I remember when it was quite the rage. However, recent studies (2014) seem to show that eating a high-protein, low-carb diet could actually make you unhealthy and more likely to die younger.

While high-protein diets might make you slimmer and feel more attractive, the best diet for longevity is one low in protein and high in carbohydrates; ones that had the lowest protein, 5 to 10 to 15 per cent protein, the highest amount of carbohydrate, so 60, 70, 75 per cent carbohydrate, and a reasonably low fat content, so less than 20 per cent.

Interesting fact...........check 'em out...........

(o:
NoelleR

ReadyAtLast

It's not Atkins, it's low sugar - totally different

Each to their own though

ScottFromWI

Glad you are a able to work sobriety into your diet plan. With any diet, especially when losing large amounts or weight, its a good idea to check with your Dr.

GreenEggsAndHam

I did this for a while. Then started saving calories on saturdays for dirty martinis. Then it all went downhill again from there. I hope you can do it!

scintillady

Since I don't count calories I won't be saving them for alcohol. So far, so good, though. My roommate is away for the weekend, and normally I'd be tempted to have a couple of bottles of wine, but I'm just sitting here eating my bacon, smoked oysters, and ribeye steak. I feel like I really can do without the wine tonight. This is day 6, and it's the first day 6 I've had in a long time!!!