16:8 or more and beer

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  • For most of the time we’ve had social distancing guidelines I’ve been doing 16:8 and often stretch it out to 18, even 21 some days and find this easy enough.
    I tend to eat 2 eggs fried in coconut oil to break the fast and then have protein and fat for my evening meal sometimes with salad/veg, sometimes none. Sometimes a little bit of food based carbs, sometimes none.

    I do, however, like a beer/glass of wine or both in the evening – to what extent is the alcohol undoing the benefits of my fast? I’m still keeping within 1000, 1200 calories for the day.

    Also – I can run 10k+ after eating but struggle to go more than 5k at the end of/during the fast.
    Is it most beneficial to exercise before eating?

    Hi Aldehulme,
    I am pretty sure that exercise is good, whenever you do it! 🙂
    Re the alcohol, my understanding is that your body will first use the alcohol (ethanol) for energy, then the sugars in the drink and only then move to your body’s stored energy. That makes it one of the worst foods if you are trying to lose weight. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your beer or wine. Maybe try to have it just 2 or 3 nights a week rather than every night?

    Hi Aldehulme,

    In my experience, for weight loss strictly the only thing that really matters is calories. Whether they come from alcohol or fat or protein or carbs, if you eat less than you burn you will lose weight. If your average calories are still 1000-1200/day you will be fine, that glass of wine won’t undo the benefits of the fast. Just make sure you count the calories of alcohol religiously (for reference, a 330 mL blonde beer has about 150 Kcal and a 250 mL glass of wine has about 200 Kcal, which is quite a lot. So if you drink both a beer and a glass of wine in the evening you are adding 400 Kcal every day).

    But one thing is weight loss and another thing is health: in terms of nutrition, 100 KCal of wine is not equal to, for example, 100 kCal of lean proteins or whole grains. Alcohol is not nutritious (hence, it doesn’t make you feel full or give you any nutrients), it causes dehydration and it’s toxic for the liver in large quantities. Moreover, it often makes you feel peckish and craving for something salty and clouds your judgment on eating moderation, which might lead you to eat more.

    All that being said, I think that the secret to be able to stick to a diet long term is that you should never feel too deprived and you shouldn’t give up what you love completely. That’s why I love the 5:2 fast diet! So have the wine (or the beer), but in moderation. Maybe you could try to reduce it to just a few times a week, instead of every day. And I find that with drinking, a lot is habit too: if you are used to drinking every day you’ll find hard to switch to, say, 2 days a week. But you’ll get used to it, usually in a couple of weeks.

    I am totally with you on this one because I love wine and beer too and they are my favourite diet “sin”. I can live without cake and chocolate but nobody touch my prosecco! If you find a way to work it into your eating plan, you’ll see that you’ll still be able to enjoy it without necessarily having to compensate too much with something else like adding extra exercise (although exercise is always good, but I wouldn’t use it to compensate calories assumed with food or drinks)

    Good luck!

    That makes it one of the worst foods if you are trying to lose weight. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your beer or wine

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