Do Giving Up Alcohol help?

[justjudith]

Hi there,

I'm Judith and I tend to binge drink. (naughty I know) I was wonderig if ther is any evidence that giving up drinking.... and using syns on other things.... actually makes for better results, weight loss, less inches etc. Or does it just seem like a longer journey to the same results:8855:

If there is any evidence I might.... just MIGHT consider going t~total for a while otherwise I think a couple of cans or 4 of cider once a week would be worth it.

Many thanks for your honest feedback to this question.

Judith & Pickle the wonder dog

 

[Sarah23fly]

When I got pregnant I stopped drinking. I didnt diet but lost half a stone in 3 weeks and that was just giving up my weekly wine.

4 cans of cider a week is a lot in terms of calories. It willake a difference.

 

[Sio]

If you're staying within your sysn, ther are there for you to choose your treats.

That said I've cut back as I tell myself I'll have 3 drinks, then after those I think, what the hell!
Plus after drinking I'm much more likely to get a take away or raid the biscuits.

Give it a try and see, but remember this is a lifestyle, not a diet so think long term too.

 

[BeckyT]

Personally I find my weight losses when I use more of my syns on alcohol rather than chocolate etc. Everybody is different and part of your slimming world journey is about finding out what works for you x

 

[paperclip]

I used to have the odd drink at night but soon after starting SW, I realised I'd rather a bit of chocolate or cake rather than the drink.

It's up to you what you prefer, but to follow the SW rules, it's 5-15 syns per day (not 105 a week, which some of us do, but it is bending the rules and you can't guarantee a weight loss doing that). The 5-15 syns restriction wouldn't allow you to 'binge' drink cider/beer - although you could have quite a lot of spirits, but still lets you have 4 ciders on 4 different nights!

Hope that helps a bit...

 

[Stringerbelle]

Well, I gave up alcohol completely in August (a month before I started Slimming World) and I actually put on weight. I believe this is because I was quite a heavy drinker previously and I think that my intake of sweets and chocolate increased because my body was looking to replace some of the sugar that alcohol gave me.

All in all though, as long as you stay within the Slimming World guidelines of 5-15 syns a day you won't really be able to binge drink to that degree, which i think is a good thing - as my liver would testify, NOT binge drinking has a lot more benefits than simply losing weight

 

[Maddysmum]

The problem is with using all your syns on alcohol means that if you accidently eat something which is syn'd (easy done if you think something is free but its 1 syn etc) then you wont loose weight.
But you also don't have to go alcohol free.
Could you cope with having 1 btle cider friday night and then not drink the other nights? if thats too hard, then you may choose to go tea total, because after a few weeks, just having 1 may suffice.
Let us know how you go on!

 

[Funky_Munky]

Personally I found if i saved my syns to use on alcohol at the weekend, even if I was within my syns, I wouldnt lose. I generally dont drink as much anymore for various reasons, but I tend to use my syns on other things now.

 

[vickidyers]

I was a bit of a thatchers gold monkey, I never did manage to find the syn value of a 400ml can, but in the book I found that other ciders START at 10 syns a can. It could be as many as about 20 syns!! So I decided that losing weight and spending my syns wisely was far more important to me than a can of thatchers!!

Saying that, I have been on the plan since end of July and have now just got 3stone award. I celebrated on Friday night with ONE can shared between my other half and myself... feeling very sneaky now!!

 

[tallsarah]

syns are there to be used, you just need to decide how you want to use yours. I was not a big drinker before SW and since being on the plan I have made the decision not to bother at all.

 

[xMandyDx]

I've been on plan for four weeks now. The only week during that time I drank, I only lost 0.5lbs. Other weeks I've lost 3 or 5...

 

[*Emsie*]

I would say that if you can stay within your syns and have a drink then you should be ok but that when I have a few drinks its easier to have a few more then foods that are synful and then the hangover food the next day lol
Do whats best for you to make it lessof a chore e.g if you would rather have your drinkies and maybe take a little longer to get to target etc then do it that way or if you would rather cut it out and get there quicker give it a go

 

[suespain]

I've virtually gone t-total, only problem is now whenever I have a drink I have a hangover next day - and thats only having had 1 or 2 glasses (used to drink like a fish and not suffer!).

Prefer not to have the alcohol now, and not have the headache.

 

[Illbethin1day :)]

I find that if i have a drink on the weekend then my loss is better. I dnt have many syns during the week tho have mre on a weekend after ive been weighed. I only drink vodka diet coke. I think every1 is different so u mite have to experiment over diff week see how it affects u let us kno how u get on n gud luck x

 

[mrsthunderbolt]

I barely drink since I started the plan & I used to drink quite a bit. My losses have really good. I personally would rather have my ice cream mars, nescafe cappucino etc than a drink now.

Spirits & diet mixers are the best choice if you do want to drink. Cider & wine were my tipples of choice but they are just too high in syns for my liking.

The Sainsburys 1 syn czech lager is a good substitute & lovely with a drop of sugar free lime

 

[hunca]

I've just syned my red wine for later - 250ml (my glass size) 8.5 syns. Worried now after reading posts saying weeks they've had a drink their loses were smaller :-(

 

[Maddysmum]

Hunca - i'm sure you'll be fine. On my first weigh i lost 5.5lbs and thats was after going to a champagne reception when i have 4 glasses champagne (i saved my syns for it)
so don't worry xoxo

 

[Bench]

I used to drink huge amounts of alcohol, and that was the time of my life when I was at my heaviest - late teens/early 20s. When I first gave up alcohol I didn't really make any other changes in my diet, and probably lost about 1st over the course of several months without even really trying - I felt better almost immediately, and I don't miss it at all now. I might be wrong, but I think that there's more than just the syns/calories in alcohol which makes you feel big/overweight - it seems to do so many really awful things to your body that just have a knock on effect to everything else. IMHO there's good a reason why a 'beer belly' has got that name.

 

[BuzzyBee]

Go for it, give up alcohol for a week or better yet a month and see how you feel and lose..
I know that cider is quite high in syns.. second best in terms of syns are spirits like vodka for example.

 

[wenchie]

I've never been a spectacularly heavy drinker and I've found those weeks where I do drink my losses are affected fairly badly - I think because it makes me hungry, both when I'm drinking and the next day and even with free/Sfree food it's false hunger so I'm over eating.

It'd be worth trying to see how your body responds, I'd think.