What Your Coach Can Do For You

Kids,

My good buddy Sterling Purdy sent me Coach Tom Venuto's answer to Eric regarding the effects of alcohol while trying to lose weight. It goes to show you the level of commitment our coaches have when it comes to helping people.

Nice work Tom!

Tony Horton 

QUESTION: Tom, if you are going to go out and have a drink or two with 
friends, which drink is the best when you're on a fat loss program
like BFFM? Would it be wine or a vodka mixed with soda? Is champagne
better or worse than the other two? Thanks, Eric

ANSWER: The first thing I would suggest is that you ask a better 
question! The answers you get are only as good as the quality 
of questions you ask. "Which alcohol is best?" is not a very 
good question when your goal is to get leaner. 
"Which alcohol is best" contains the presupposition that:
 
(A) that you ARE going to drink and 
(B) a best choice exists. 
 
If you asked, "How much damage would I do to my body and how 
much would I slow down my results if I drank drinking during 
my fat burning program?" you might get a different feeling 
towards alcohol. This type of question presupposes that there
 WILL be a down side, it's only a question of how bad it will be.
If you think about the consequences of drinking, instead of how
you can best "get away with it," it may change your emotional 
outlook towards alcohol. 
 
I get asked about alcohol and fat loss a lot. Almost every time, 
I have a sneaking suspicion that the person asking the question 
is really just looking for me to give them "permission" to drink. 
I'm not going to do that. Well, not exactly. But I do have 4 major
guidelines I'd suggest you consider if you're thinking about drinking:
 
[1] On fat loss programs, I don't recommend drinking alcohol at
all because alcohol suppresses fat oxidation and adds unnecessary
calories to your diet, which either displaces nutritious calories or 
erases your caloric deficit.
 
[2] For lifelong maintenance, I recommend that if you choose to
drink, that's fine, but only if you do so in moderation (1-2 drinks
 a day is considered moderation according to most health authorities) 
 
[3] I do not recommend daily drinking as part of a fitness lifestyle,
 because daily drinking can become habit forming. My recommendation
is limit drinking to weekends, holidays and or special occasions. 
 
[4] I recommend ALWAYS being cognizant of the calories that are 
added to your diet through alcohol and above all else know how 
many calories are in your drinks. 
 
If someone really MUST know which alcohol is worst on a fat burning
program, then it would be the one with the most calories. Conversely, 
the lesser of evils would be the drinks with fewer calories. 
 
For example, that would mean choosing light beers over regular beers. 
Bass ale and Sam Adams lager both contain 160 calories per bottle. 
Guinness extra Stout packs 176 calories per bottle. 
 
By comparison, Amstel light contains only 99 calories, Michelob Ultra
has 95 calories and Beck's Premier Light has 64 calories (Beck's 
pulled off that feat simply by lowering the alcohol content... I've
never tried it, but yes, I bet it tastes pretty watered down) 
 
On a tangent, I think it's a sin that light beers are marketed as
low carb and advertised with fitness images... but that will have
to be a rant for another day...
 
Champagne has about 96 calories per 4 oz glass. White wine such
as chardonnay has about the same caloric content as champagne. 
Any pure distilled liquor will contain about 65 calories per 
fluid ounce at 80 proof. When mixed with other calorie containing
 liquids, the calorie count goes up. A 6 ounce screwdriver will
 give you about 130 calories. A whiskey sour about 169 calories.
Naturally, mixed drinks may contain even more calories due to the
sugar in the drink mixes. 
 
A margarita is one of the worst, with an 8-ouncer packing about 500 

calories and a huge dollop of sugar! A couple of those with your cheese 

Nachos and enchiladas, refried beans, sour cream and guacaomole, and 

you've just knocked back about two days worth of calories in one meal. 

calorie bomb city! Fat loss is first and foremost a matter of calories in 

vs calories out, so the calorie counts are what you look at first.
 
If you wanted other criteria to judge the "best" alcoholic drink, 
you could also look at whether there is any health value, as in 
red wine, or whether there are any nutrients in the drink, such 
as what you might find in the vegetable juice of a bloody mary 
or the Orange juice in a screwdriver. 
 
However, I think that's a pretty moot point when you consider the
far superior way to get those same nutrients: eat whole vegetables
and oranges.
 
The fact is, you can certainly get leaner while drinking, as long
as you stay in a caloric deficit, but that doesn't mean it's the
smartest thing to do for your body and your health. 
 
Your friend and coach,
Tom Venuto