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You may be hearing a lot about the sober curious movement lately, but throughout history, the percentage of the population that drinks alcohol has remained relatively steady. Among Americans, that figure was 63 percent, about the same number it has been for decades, according to a 2022 Gallup poll.
If you’re among the majority who enjoys drinking, you may wonder how beer, wine, and spirits fit into your weight loss journey. While it’s true that consuming alcohol can make weight loss more challenging, drinking in moderation doesn’t have to take you completely off track.
Here’s how to find a healthy balance between drinking and losing weight.
Alcohol Moderation Tips
Want to enjoy alcohol but still achieve weight loss? Try these expert-recommended strategies.
1. Stick to recommended serving sizes
When you’re at a social gathering or a bar with friends, it’s easy to lose track of how much you’re drinking. (Was that beer number two or three?) By committing to a pre-set maximum, you’ll decrease the likelihood of overdoing it. “Stick to one drink (for women) and two drinks (for men), max,” recommends Danielle VenHuizen, RD, of Food Sense Nutrition in Seattle. “Just reducing the quantity alone can make a big impact on overall calorie intake.”
While you’re at it, do what you can stick to official serving sizes. One serving of beer is 12 ounces, a serving of wine is 5 ounces, and a serving of spirits is 1.5 ounces. Using smaller glassware or even a measuring cup can help you imbibe these amounts, not more.
2. Save it for a special occasion
Events like weddings, holidays, and vacations deserve a little something special. If you’re used to celebrating occasions with alcohol, you don’t have to stop just because you’re pursuing weight loss. However, it can be helpful to think of alcohol as something you do for festivities, not every day. And when you do celebrate, keep parameters in place for how much you consume.
3. Make your drink your indulgence
Especially when dining out, we’re faced with a barrage of food and drink options — do we want appetizers, drinks, desserts? Try making an alcoholic beverage your “plus one.” In other words, choose a drink but not other extras like an appetizer or a post-meal slice of cheesecake.
That said, it’s never wise to save up calories or skip meals so you can drink more at happy hour. “Stop the mentality of ‘banking’ calories for alcohol,” advises Enright. “Don’t starve yourself all day so you can splurge your calories on alcohol later. This is a surefire way to set yourself up for a binge-fest.”
4. Choose low-calorie alcohol options
Drink smarter, not harder, by choosing boozy drinks made with reduced calories and carbs. These days, lighter alcohol options abound. “Beer drinkers can look for light beers to cut down on calories and carbs,” suggests VenHuizen. “Picking wine over beer or mixed drinks can also be a smart choice, especially to reduce added sugars and carbs. One 5-ounce glass of wine typically has around 120 calories and only 4 grams of carbs.”
You can even halve the alcohol in a cocktail by choosing a zero-proof mixer. “Lower-calorie mixer options include seltzer (or soda water), citrus juice (such as a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice), and diet or no-sugar-added sodas,” says Enright.
Of course, there’s always the option to go alcohol-free with a mocktail, too — just remember that these can be as caloric as the real thing. With canned or bottled beverages, read labels to be sure you know what you’re getting.
Why Drinking While Dieting Is Tough
It’s not hard to see why drinking and dieting aren’t known for being simpatico. Straight alcohol contains 7 calories per gram — an amount that’s often compounded by extra calories and carbs from syrups, mixers, hops in beer, and/or naturally occurring sugars in wine grapes. All told, alcoholic beverages come with a high calorie “cost.” One 12-ounce serving of beer contains about 150 calories, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a 5-ounce glass of wine has about 125 calories, per the USDA.
Though these drinks may make us feel nice and relaxed, they don’t tend to give us feelings of fullness. Research has found that chewing is part of what triggers satiety, and because beverages of any kind don’t need to be chewed, we don’t feel any fuller after drinking the way we do after eating a meal. Plus, alcoholic drinks usually don’t contain much nutrition besides calories and carbs, making them a classic “empty calorie” beverage.
Meanwhile, alcohol appears to influence our hunger hormones, and not in a weight-loss-friendly way. One study of more than 1,500 adults who drank occasionally found an association between consuming alcohol and elevated levels of ghrelin, known as the hunger hormone. This increase in ghrelin may explain the urge to eat after having a few alcoholic beverages, says Mandy Enright, RDN, author of the 30-Minute Weight Loss Cookbook. At the same time, research shows that alcohol may suppress the hormone leptin, which signals the brain when the stomach is full.
In addition, by lowering our inhibitions, alcohol could reduce our restraint when it comes to food choices, a phenomenon that has been studied. With our usual good sense impaired, we may be more likely to overeat.
The Wrap-Up
It’s not impossible to lose weight while continuing to (moderately!) enjoy alcohol. Stick to the strategies above for aligning your intake with your weight loss target. As you limit your drinking, you may savor each glass even more.
