Day 17

Booze.

Alcoholic drinks have a lot of calories in them. No way around it. A 12-ounce bottle of beer has about 150 calories. A five-ounce glass of wine has 125 calories. A jigger of gin or vodka has about 80 to 90 calories. Do the math. Drink 3 beers at night and you’ve added 450 calories to your daily total. Two martinis add 180 calories. On a per gram basis, alcohol has just about as many calories as fat (7 cal/gm for alcohol, 9 cal/gm for fat).

If you want to lose weight, the fewer calories you take in the easier it is to be in a negative calorie balance. Cutting out the booze seems like a no brainer, but lots of people like to unwind with a drink or glass of wine at night. My advice is to limit the drinking to special occasions. When you are out at a nice restaurant have a glass of wine or two. If you are at a cocktail reception, have a drink. I suggest sticking to red wine because, as noted above, wine has a few less calories than beer. Red wine may also have some additional health benefits in terms of cardiovascular disease. If you have two glasses of wine one evening you may want to balance out the calories with an extra-long walk that night.

On a day-to-day basis, avoid drinking. You’ll get to your ideal weight quicker. You’ll also feel better when you wake up in the morning, and be less likely to end up doing balancing acts on the side of the road for the benefit of the nice state trooper.