Can You Drink Alcohol AND Still Lose Weight?

Jim Hill:

Welcome to Weight Loss And, where we delve into the world of weight loss. I'm Jim Hill.

Holly Wyatt:

And I'm Holly Wyatt. We're both dedicated to helping you lose weight, keep it off, and live your best life while you're doing it.

Jim Hill:

Indeed, we now realize successful weight loss combines the science and art of medicine, knowing what to do and why you will do it.

Holly Wyatt:

Yes, the “And” allows us to talk about all the other stuff that makes your journey so much bigger, better, and exciting.

Jim Hill:

Ready for the “And” factor?

Holly Wyatt:

Let's dive in.

Jim Hill:

Here we go.

Holly Wyatt:

Today, we're going to tackle a common question we get, Jim. Can I drink alcohol and still lose weight? Do I have to give up my alcoholic adult beverages? And also, what about keeping it off? Do I have to give it up to keep off the weight?

Jim Hill:

Oh my gosh, Holly, this one is complicated. When we started out, I thought we were going to have a clear-cut answer, and we're going to tell people how it really is. But when you and I dug into the science, what we found is it is very complicated. No question, alcohol affects your metabolism. It affects your appetite. It affects your decisions, and oftentimes even something we've talked about many times, your identity.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I agree, Jim. And this was a shocker for me because I thought I knew kind of how I felt about alcohol. And then when we dug in and did a little bit more research, I think we were both shocked a little bit about some of the research. So we're going to dig into the science today, like always. We're going to challenge some assumptions and we're going to talk about what it really looks like to enjoy alcohol without letting it sabotage your progress. And if you've ever wondered whether wine, weight loss, and willpower can coexist, we'll talk about all three today. You're in the right place.

Jim Hill:

Are we going to answer that? Really?

Holly Wyatt:

Yes, of course, Jim.

Jim Hill:

Okay. I knew that. Okay. Let's start out, Holly, with sort of alcohol 101. What do you need to know about what alcohol does in your body?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. So I think the first thing is to understand how many calories is in a gram of alcohol. We talked about that before. We talked about carbohydrates. There's four calories per gram and protein. There's four calories per gram. When it comes to alcohol, there's seven.

Jim Hill:

And fat is nine, by the way.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah.

Jim Hill:

So alcohol is a little less than fat, but more than carbohydrate and protein.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. So it's seven. So it's in between. But I think the other key is it's seven calories. So it counts as a calorie. It counts as energy. It counts in the energy balance equation that we always talk about. But it really offers no nutrients, no fullness. It's not a macronutrient or a micronutrient. It's the energy, but not with any of the nutrient piece or really fullness, helping you feel full.

Jim Hill:

Well, one of the other things, Holly, is there's no place to store alcohol in your body. For protein, carbohydrate, and fat, you can take some excess and you store it in different places in the body. So all of the alcohol you take in has to be essentially burned for fuel. And that's different than the other macronutrients.

Holly Wyatt:

And I always tell people that makes sense. Alcohol is toxic. If you couldn't burn it off, your body's going to immediately say, oh, I need to burn this. I need to get rid of this. There's nowhere to store it. And if too much comes in, that's alcohol toxicity, right? You're sick. So that part makes sense. I think the other piece is when people drink alcohol, they rarely drink it alone. I mean, I guess you can do a shot of alcohol, but you usually combine it with things.

Jim Hill:

A mixer or something else that has calories.

Holly Wyatt:

So the calories then usually go up from there. So I think a typical drink has anywhere from 100 calories to 400 calories in a drink, an alcoholic beverage.

Jim Hill:

So you hear oftentimes about moderate intake. I looked that up, Holly. Do you know how much intake is considered moderate alcohol consumption?

Holly Wyatt:

No, I'm glad you looked that up. Tell me that.

Jim Hill:

So for men, it's one or two drinks per day. For women, it's one. That's what people refer to most times when they talk about moderate alcohol intake.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, and I wonder what, like, you know, there's big wine glasses and there's little wine glasses.

Jim Hill:

Exactly. Just get a bigger glass if you're going to have one drink a day.

Holly Wyatt:

Because I have a feeling people, you know, kind of do a big pour versus about four ounces, I bet, is what they're considering.

Jim Hill:

Right. And as we look at this too, there's a difference with people that are heavy users, almost abusers of alcohol, and people that actually do somewhere in the moderate range.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, Jim, let's start out talking a little bit about how does alcohol impact your appetite and metabolism?

Jim Hill:

Yeah, it's funny. Alcohol is a beverage, and we've talked before about beverages. Drinks are regulated differently than solid food. And in some ways, alcohol sort of seems to bypass the normal appetite regulation. What we know is the body's complex. There are many, many signals that affect your appetite, but alcohol seems to bypass at least some of those and theoretically might actually increase hunger.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, and I think that's important, maybe the alcohol, it may be the fact that it's usually the beverage, because we know, like you said, that beverages and solid food kind of are regulated a little bit differently. What about fat oxidation? This is where I think it's important.

Jim Hill:

Yeah, no, I agree. So let's go back to what we said. You don't store alcohol. So when you take alcohol in, you have to burn it as fuel which means there's something else you're not burning. If you're burning 2,000 calories, alcohol comes in, maybe there's 100 calories you burn. It means you're not burning 100 calories of something else. And that something else seems to be fat. So in a way, as you take in alcohol, you're burning the alcohol and reducing the amount of fat you burn.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I think about it as it's turning off fat burning for some period of time, not forever. But for a while it's got to get rid of the alcohol because like we've talked about it's toxic if it builds up so the body knows that. It's gonna go for it first and kind of a priority situation saying this is the priority and when it does that it turns off fat burning for some amount of time. Now the question is how important is that? Turns it off and then it'll obviously turn back on. How important is that? What do you think.

Jim Hill:

So I think if we stopped right now we would have a wonderful conclusion. Alcohol intake turns off the fat burners, creates weight gain. The problem is we dived into the literature and that's not what we found.

Holly Wyatt:

I know. I felt bad because I tell all my state-of-slimmers, just if you're drinking every night, you're just turning off your fat burners. And then I started looking into this and I'm like, well, maybe I need to rethink a little bit about what I've been saying.

Jim Hill:

So let's start out with, you know, a lot of research that's done is sort of following cohorts of people over time. And so one question is if you look at weight or weight gain and you compare people who consume alcohol and don't consume alcohol with what we said before, what you would suggest is people that consume alcohol weigh more or gain more weight. The data suggests they don't. What's going on, Holly?

Holly Wyatt:

I don't know. That makes no sense to me. And it doesn't match up with what I see clinically either, you know, but I agree. We pulled a bunch of papers and even some kind of reviews and meta-analysis, and I was like, wow, there does not seem to be that association you're talking about with low or moderate drinking.

Jim Hill:

Yeah, let's talk about heavy drinking binge eating, clearly an association there. So lots of alcohol intake, really bad for weight. What we're looking at is those people who consume a little bit of alcohol, not binging, not abusing, but they may have a drink or two a day or a few a week. That's what we're looking at. The real question, can you have one drink a day and still manage your weight or is that something that's really going to hurt you?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah.

Jim Hill:

Holly, why the confusion from a theoretical basis? Everything we know about physiology, alcohol should promote weight gain and people drinking should weigh more and gain more weight. Why don't they?

Holly Wyatt:

I think it's because when we get into these association studies where we're looking for an association between drinking and weight, there are so many other factors that come into play. Sometimes I think it's hard to see the signal because other factors are coming in and maybe overriding it, making it more complex. And it's not just a direct relationship. There's maybe other factors that are associated with having a drink a day that actually help your weight.

Jim Hill:

So we've talked about this before. People make a big mistake by focusing on one thing, sugar intake, fat intake, physical activity. And what we know, those are so all interconnected. So one possibility is a lot of these people that are consuming a drink or two a day. They may be getting physical activity. They may be eating a healthier diet. So it's not that the alcohol is a positive thing. It's they're doing other things which counter.

Holly Wyatt:

Right. We don't know what that association is. We don't know the people who drink a day also, like you said, exercise more or do something else with their diet or have decreased, you know, in stress maybe. I don't know. Something else may be going on.

Jim Hill:

So Holly, does it matter what you drink, you know, cocktails, wine, beer, white wine, red wine? Is there anything you can point to and say, if you're going to consume alcohol, this is the better type to consume?

Holly Wyatt:

Well, I don't know that we have research data, you know, to say that. From my experience, I'm looking at calories. And if you're going to drink some alcohol, I would say, let's not put a bunch of sugar. Let's not add a bunch of calories to it. So your drink isn't 500 calories. Can you have an alcoholic drink that's 100 calories? To me, that's the way to go. But once again, Jim, when you look at the research, I don't know that we know that.

Jim Hill:

Maybe you should avoid those drinks that come with those little umbrellas. they generally have a lot of other calories.

Holly Wyatt:

That's a perfect example, because if you track that, if you said drinks with little umbrellas, you might see some type of association or not see some type of association. It wouldn't be the little umbrella.

Jim Hill:

You think we could get a grant on umbrellas and drinks or not and wait?

Holly Wyatt:

There's some grants out there that surprise me, so you never know.

Jim Hill:

All right. So, Holly, let's talk about alcohol and behavior. So, what we've done so far is we said, theoretically, alcohol should be associated with worse weight outcomes. The data don't suggest that, but what about your clinical experience? What have you seen in terms of people with alcohol and behavior? And you've dealt with a lot of people that have lost weight. So what's your clinical experience here?

Holly Wyatt:

I do think that alcohol can slow weight loss or prevent weight loss in certain individuals. I have seen it on an individual basis. The person that's coming home and frequently having a drink every single day and we take that away and it seems to improve things. It's not just the alcohol. It's kind of what does the alcohol, kind of how does it impact your other behaviors too. Does that mean then you decide to go off plan in terms of what you're eating? Does it mean then you don't get your physical activity in? So from an individual basis, if someone is struggling losing weight and they're drinking alcohol every night, that is one thing that I tell them to stop. Once again, I don't know that I have the data to support that, but from a clinical standpoint, I do. I've seen many individuals where that is a problem. And during weight loss, I do have them pull back on that, not drink the alcohol. It doesn't mean we can't add it back in in weight loss maintenance, but in weight loss, when we're really working on being in that negative energy balance, I do think it can be helpful in some individuals to really hold back on the alcohol.

Jim Hill:

Well, that's an important part. Not everybody's the same. I think that's one thing the field of obesity and nutrition is really focusing on is same thing doesn't work for everybody. And so as a general rule, some of these studies finding no difference, it doesn't say what's going to happen as an individual because there are some people that are probably higher in weight, some people lower weight, drinking. So you make a good point. The other point I was thinking about is think about how we consume alcohol, what we consume it with. If you're at home and you're having happy hour out at a bar, you don't say, let's have a little bit of broccoli here with our cocktails, right? You say bring some cheese and crackers or some nuts. So oftentimes it's associated with higher calorie intake.

Holly Wyatt:

I say bring nachos.

Jim Hill:

Oh, nachos.

Holly Wyatt:

Nachos. That's the perfect, right? Have a margarita and some nachos. But you're right. It's usually not my, I'm usually not asking for my veggies when I'm out doing that. And I definitely think that's where alcohol tends to be associated with things like you're talking about. So there's habits that are hooked to drinking alcohol. It can impair decision-making.

Jim Hill:

That's a good one. I was thinking about that one. One of the things that we know is that consuming alcohol may negatively impact the decisions you make. It's like the idea of eating. Oh, nachos, that's not on my game plan, but I've had a couple drinks. What the hell? I'll have some nachos.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, worry about it tomorrow.

Jim Hill:

So that could be one of the other negatives of alcohol consumption. It's a little bit easier for you to let down your guardrails and get off what you plan to do.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. I think then it can also lead to overeating. Once again, you maybe eat a little bit more portions. You might not restrict as much. You're not thinking about how much do I need, and you may just be eating and drinking and kind of go past that point and consume a little bit more calories than you would otherwise.

Jim Hill:

So, Holly, in all your reading, did you get any information about how alcohol intake might relate to physical activity or sleep?

Holly Wyatt:

Sleep is the one that I think is really interesting. And this may be where it's different in different people, especially. But I do think for some individuals, alcohol can cause sleep to be dysregulated, for you not to get as deep asleep. There's definitely some kind of data associated with that. And since we're really learning what is the role or the importance of sleep, and when you go to sleep, kind of resetting your metabolism, I think that could be a one way that alcohol might be having an effect in some people, but maybe not in others. Maybe in other people, it doesn't impact their sleep.

Jim Hill:

So the effect to sleep, it's just alcohol is a factor which impacts sleep.

Holly Wyatt:

Yes.

Jim Hill:

This is why we have a lot of job security here. This thing is so complex that we have to figure out how all these things come together.

Holly Wyatt:

I think I've heard people kind of, sometimes they'll go to happy hour or something and skip a workout, but I didn't know, I didn't see any direct research about physical activity like the amount of physical activity or anything like that in alcohol.

Jim Hill:

It may relate to when you do physical activity versus when you consume alcohol. I mean, for most people, alcohol is consumed later in the day, right? Before dinner, after dinner, in the evening, and maybe more of the activities done earlier. But it would be interesting to know if there's a link there if you consume alcohol in the evening, are you less likely to get your workout in the next day?

Holly Wyatt:

So, Jim, how do we kind of, if you're listening to this, I mean, I would be kind of confused as a listener.

Jim Hill:

I'm confused and I'm talking. Now, one of the things that I think we kind of conclude, there's no benefit. There is no way we should say drink more to manage your weight.

Holly Wyatt:

Yes.

Jim Hill:

I think it's the question. The different question I would ask is, can a little bit of alcohol intake be associated with maintaining a healthy weight? So that's the way I would look at it. And I think overall, the data suggests that, yes, that's possible. But then I worry that on an individual basis, there may be some people that do just fine and other people that don't. So number one, no reason to increase your alcohol intake to manage your weight. If you enjoy alcohol and you feel like you can manage your weight okay, I guess that's okay. I guess the message is you can incorporate some alcohol intake into maintaining a healthy weight. But you have to be careful.

Holly Wyatt:

I think it's possible, but you're an experiment of one, as I always say.

Jim Hill:

Right. That's right.

Holly Wyatt:

So I don't know what your experiment looks like, but you do. So I always tell people, if you're struggling losing weight and you're drinking a drink every night, stop it and see what happens. Do your own little mini experiment with yourself.

Jim Hill:

You and I are pretty adamant about people in our weight loss programs recommending they don't drink alcohol during weight loss. I still think I stand by that.

Holly Wyatt:

I do too.

Jim Hill:

I think if you want to maximize your weight loss, don't drink alcohol.

Holly Wyatt:

I do too.

Jim Hill:

Once you've lost weight and you're in maintenance and you're doing the things that we talk about in maintenance, I think it's possible to incorporate some moderate alcohol intake and still maintain your weight for most people.

Holly Wyatt:

That's the way to think about it. I think in weight loss, because weight loss is a short period of time, it really, you can stop drinking for a short period of time. If you can't stop drinking for a short period of time, that may be a sign that alcohol is another issue for you. And that's something that you may need to think about and get some help for. So stopping alcohol for the short period of time when you're in weight loss and then adding it back in in weight loss maintenance and see how you do might be the plan.

Jim Hill:

So, Holly, talk about, we mentioned early on, alcohol intake and identity. How do you see that?

Holly Wyatt:

I think it's like anything. People kind of get in their minds, you know, I'm a person that drinks wine or I like to go on vacation and have a lot of drinks. It can definitely be linked to your kind of self-image and your social connections, right? Maybe a lot of people, that's what they do when they go out with their friends. That's their identity or that's their social connections. So I think alcohol is definitely in there.

Jim Hill:

We talk about that with food too. Food is more than nourishment. It's social and other kinds of things. And let's face it, there are so many things you do for pleasure that might not maximize your health. So this is one of those things. It's a trade-off. If you enjoy it, I think what we're saying is you don't have to give it up. If you do really well in the other aspects of weight loss management, it's possible to incorporate some alcohol intake. But you have to be careful. Because you can slip up and can get you in trouble if you aren't careful.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. So I think I would say short term, I think it can improve your results for some people. So I would try it. But long term, add it back in and see how it does. I think that's really what you do.

Jim Hill:

So Holly, does alcohol affect the GLP-1? We hear so much about the importance of GLP-1. The meds are based on GLP-1. Does alcohol interfere with that or facilitate that? Do we know?

Holly Wyatt:

We know that GLP-1s slow gastric emptying. When you're on a medication and eating less, I think you have to be careful. There's no contraindication. You can drink alcohol on GLP-1s. We don't tell people you can't. But I think you've got to be careful because it can hit you harder and faster, right? One drink, you may really feel it.

Jim Hill:

So I wonder if people who are taking the meds automatically do that because GLP-1s seem to be involved in sort of addictive kind of behaviors. So I'm wondering if the GLP-1 meds might actually decrease the desire for alcohol.

Holly Wyatt:

I don't know if there's any, I didn't look up specific research on that.

Jim Hill:

Well, I think there is. I think the GLP-1s are looked at as anti-addictive and maybe a way to sort of help alcohol problems.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, I definitely know they've shown this anti-addiction piece. I just don't know if they've looked, does it help people drink less alcohol specifically?

Jim Hill:

Yeah.

Holly Wyatt:

But it would make sense. I also, though, would just point out that a lot of people in the GLP-1s kind of have that nausea, kind of that low-grade nausea going on, and so alcohol may make that worse. So they may not want to drink alcohol because they may feel worse when they drink some alcohol on there.

Jim Hill:

And that could be, you know, we talk a lot, Holly, about people who discontinue the meds and regain weight, and that's another thing to be mindful of. If you're on the GLP-1 meds and you want to stop and maintain your weight, you may realize your desire for alcohol might come back and that might be a factor you have to address to avoid regaining weight.

Holly Wyatt:

Exactly. Definitely. So that leads us, we've been talking about alcohol and weight, weight loss, weight loss maintenance, but what about the other health benefits of alcohol?

Jim Hill:

For years, we had this idea that a little red wine might actually be good for you and good for your heart. That's totally turned around now, Holly. I think most of the data is suggesting, from a health benefit, the effects of alcohol are negative, not positive on heart health and metabolic health. As I said before, we do a lot of things that maybe aren't optimizing our health, but it's trade-offs. And to me, alcohol would be one. But saying that you're drinking to improve your heart health or your overall health, I don't think the data support that anymore.

Holly Wyatt:

It was the idea that there was maybe be some polyphenols in the wine. There were some substances, antioxidants, some things in the wine. And now I think they really believe it's, you're better off getting that from grapes or tea, berries, things that have those, those substances in them and not the alcohol. It wasn't the alcohol that maybe has a positive effect for that. And I do think, and I don't know that the World Health Organization has come out and said that no level of alcohol is truly safe. And they do think there may be a link to cancer.

Jim Hill:

That's why they really felt like alcohol consumption was related to cancer. So that's why they said no level is safe.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah. Once again, I think we're still learning that. And that's probably not true for everybody. But I think that's something to keep in mind that you're not drinking alcohol to improve your health. The idea, though, is does alcohol hurt your health? Not as clear, especially moderate. If severe or extreme levels, absolutely. We know without a doubt, not good for your health, not good for your weight, not good for your health.

Jim Hill:

I think we need to take some listener questions and then we'll come back and we'll try to summarize what we've learned.

Holly Wyatt:

Okay. You go first.

Jim Hill:

All right. Is weekend drinking better than daily drinking? So, and there are a lot of people that they don't drink during the week, but on the weekends they may go have three, four or five drinks. Is that more harmful, sort of binge drinking versus drink every day? Do we know?

Holly Wyatt:

I don't know, Jim. What do you think?

Jim Hill:

I don't think we have data to show that.

Holly Wyatt:

My gut says binge drinking three or four drinks is not good. I don't know. I just, you're putting a lot of toxic, you know, the alcohol is a toxin. That is true, right? Your body sees it as a toxin. Now it can burn it and get rid of it. But now you're putting three or four drinks in it at one time, to me, that just does not seem a good thing to do. But I don't know that I have a study to prove that. What do you think?

Jim Hill:

No, I agree. I think intuitively, binging doesn't seem to be a good strategy. But, again, we were surprised at how the data support the negative effects wasn't as strong as we thought it was going to be when we dove into this issue.

Holly Wyatt:

Here's another one. I get this one all the time. What's the best alcohol for weight control? So if I'm going to drink something, what should I choose? And so I would go for the lower calorie options.

Jim Hill:

Avoid the umbrellas. If your drink has an umbrella in it, you're getting a lot of calories beside the alcohol.

Holly Wyatt:

Because the umbrella is associated with sugar and high calorie mixers, right? Not the umbrella, but the umbrella tends to be in drinks that have a lot of high calorie mixers in them. So I'd go for like wine, white wine, dry wine, light beer. The alcohol with soda, right? Because the soda or mineral water doesn't have any calories in it, and just really avoid things that have a lot of calories and a lot of sugar in them.

Jim Hill:

And pay attention on what you're eating along while you're drinking. You know, if the big plate of nachos and nuts, nuts may not be so bad. But again, you can get into trouble with what you're eating while you're drinking.

Holly Wyatt:

What do you mean nuts may not be that bad? Of course, Jim, nuts are like energy dense and I can eat a big old bowl of nuts.

Jim Hill:

Yeah, but you eat a few, it's okay.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, but I can't eat a few. See, there's the difference. You can eat a few.

Jim Hill:

You should have broccoli with your drinks.

Holly Wyatt:

No, I just have to be careful with nuts. So I just don't want you, oh, nuts are okay. No, got to watch the nuts.

Jim Hill:

In moderation, they're okay.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, anything's okay in moderation.

Jim Hill:

All right, all right.

Holly Wyatt:

Come on, come on.

Jim Hill:

I raised the white flag. I get that.

Holly Wyatt:

What about, can I drink on GLP-1s? I hear that a lot. Yes, you can. But we realize the effects of alcohol may be intensified. So I would start with small amounts and I would monitor for nausea. I wouldn't just down a drink. I would sip a drink, see how I'm going to do if you're on the GLP-1s.

Jim Hill:

All right. Do you want to do vulnerability?

Holly Wyatt:

Sure.

Jim Hill:

You go first.

Holly Wyatt:

All right, Jim. Let's see. Well, I'm just going to ask you, what's your personal approach to alcohol and your weight, in managing your weight?

Jim Hill:

So I avoid drinks with umbrellas.

Holly Wyatt:

And I eat nuts, right? There we go.

Jim Hill:

Well, I do. So I do. I would say I'm a moderate alcohol consumer. I enjoy wine with dinner. I enjoy a cocktail in the evening. I don't overdo it. And I guess in some ways I'm lucky. I've never really been tempted to overdo it. So even, you know, at a party or something, I'll have a couple of drinks and that's enough for me. So I don't have any desire to keep going. And the way I look at it if I can manage my weight with a healthy diet, physical activity, and incorporate some moderate drinking, I'm happy with that. And I recognize the trade-off. The drinking may not be optimizing my health, but it's a trade-off that it gives me pleasure while I can maintain my weight with the other things.

Holly Wyatt:

So you don't tell yourself I'm doing this for my health.

Jim Hill:

No, no, no. I'm doing it for my happiness, Holly, not my health. Some days it's actually good for my mental health, but that's another story.

Holly Wyatt:

Actually, that's a good point. You are doing it for your health if you're doing it for your happiness. I shouldn't say that. Yeah.

Jim Hill:

Yeah, exactly. So what about you? What's your approach?

Holly Wyatt:

I too am not. I don't have any addiction potential to alcohol unlike food, right? I definitely have food kind of addiction tendencies, I guess, but not with alcohol that, so I just don't have that. So one or two drinks and I want to stop. I don't want to continue. I don't want to escalate it. If I drink one day, a lot of times I don't want to drink the next day. And that's just how I'm wired. But I will say recently, I have changed in terms of my alcohol. And I don't know exactly why. But for some reason, I have really been noticing that when I drink, I don't feel as good the next day, even one drink.

Jim Hill:

Really?

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah, and I've been monitoring, you know, how I got the ring, the aura ring, right? I've been monitoring my sleep. And I definitely, when I even have one drink, I do not get into deep sleep. I sleep light.

Jim Hill:

So be an N of one. You're an experiment of one. And if you're finding it doesn't work for you, change things up.

Holly Wyatt:

You know, I recently went on a cruise and on a cruise, you know.

Jim Hill:

That's all you do on a cruise is eat and drink.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, you kind of feel like, oh my gosh, I paid all this money. I can try all these different foods. I can have all these different drinks. And you're constantly going to different venues that that's what they do. They serve drinks. And I just couldn't do it, Jim. I just could not. I just, I felt so bad when I would drink. And so I don't know what's changed, but it doesn't, it's not a positive experience for me anymore.

Jim Hill:

Wow.

Holly Wyatt:

Yeah.

Jim Hill:

All right, Holly, you ready for the pie on the plate?

Holly Wyatt:

All right. I'll let you do the key takeaways because they're a little bit muddy.

Jim Hill:

This has been muddy. But what I've concluded is even though there's a strong theoretical reason why alcohol should be really bad for weight, the data do not support that. Now, it doesn't mean that alcohol is good or bad. It means that there are a lot of people that seem to manage their weight while incorporating some alcohol. Definitely, we do not want to recommend drinking more. There is no way that's going to be good for your weight. But I've concluded that I think it's possible for people to maintain the weight they want to maintain incorporating some moderate drinking. Now saying that, I still think during the weight loss phase, I recommend giving up alcohol during that phase, but you can incorporate it back into your weight loss maintenance phase if you get all the other things right. And then at the end of the day, it's about you. We've talked about averages and norms, but if it's a problem for you, address it like for you, Holly, if you decide you feel better when you don't consume alcohol, do it. Don't worry about the data. Worry about your personal experience. So can you maintain a healthy weight and incorporate a moderate amount of alcohol? Absolutely.

Holly Wyatt:

Well, I think for some people, that's true. For some people, it can be benign. It can work out. Also, really important to realize for some people, it could be a problem. And that's really how you have to address it and really get to know your own metabolism, your own body, how you feel, and look at it from that standpoint.

Jim Hill:

So we would love to hear from our listeners on this. Have we totally confused you? Does this make sense? What's your personal story with alcohol? Because again, this is an episode, usually we go into these pretty certain that we knew going into it what the data were. This one is one that you and I actually, when we delved into it, we learned a lot. And so-

Holly Wyatt:

No, we had to rewrite the show.

Jim Hill:

We had to rewrite the show.

Holly Wyatt:

I had it written and I was like, wait a minute. And I thought, how could I be so off on this? But it's true. And so I think that's showing that scientists need to always have this open mind and really be continually updating what they know because things change.

Jim Hill:

And the other thing is it's complicated. You cannot look at one thing, whether it's alcohol, fat, sugar, it's a whole bunch of things. I hope we haven't confused you too much. Let us hear from you. And we'll talk to you next time on Weight Loss And.

Holly Wyatt:

Bye, everybody.

Jim Hill:

And that's a wrap for today's episode of Weight Loss And. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of weight loss with us.

Holly Wyatt:

If you want to stay connected and continue exploring the “Ands” of weight loss, be sure to follow our podcast on your favorite platform.

Jim Hill:

We'd also love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions by reaching out at [weightlossand.com](http://weightlossand.com/). Your feedback helps us tailor future episodes to your needs.

Holly Wyatt:

And remember, the journey doesn't end here. Keep applying the knowledge and strategies you've learned and embrace the power of the “And” in your own weight loss journey.