The FastDay Forum

just a quick question as I have searched the forum and can't seem to find my answer.

Is it ok to drink alcohol on the weekends as long as the calories fit into your TDEE? I usually drink a few glasses of wine on Fridays and Saturday nights but I am sure that alcohol (along with my over indulgence of 'snack foods') has contributed to my weight gain this last few years (especially my mid section where I unfortunately seem to carry it!)

I really don't want to give up my wine but if it is counter productive to what I am trying to achieve with fasting and the 5:2 plan then I might have to reconsider!!

ALSO...
I am a little confused. I have read in a few places that people are consuming their TDEE minus about 500cal per 'feed' day in order to lose weight? While others say consume your whole TDEE on feed days and just 500cal on fast days, and that this is enough to lose weight and reap the benefits? Can anyone clarify this for me?

Thanks a lot, and sorry for the newbie questions

[Moogie]

Hi Chaostocalm

No foods or drinks are forbidden on 5:2, but yes it is recommended to keep within TDEE (aka 'eat normally') on your feed days so any alcohol should ideally be within your TDEE allowance. Alcohol is empty calories, no nutrition and often is a key factor in weight gain. A few glasses of wine could easily be an entire meal's worth of calories. I tend to stick with the low alcohol stuff these days and use a small glass - but then I also get tipsy much easier now than I did 3.5stone ago!

Some people may tweak their feed days if they aren't losing - and as the TDEE calculation can be out by as much as 30% (we're all individual and no one formula can be accurate for all of us all of the time) if people are cutting back their TDEE on feed days it's probably because their TDEE is inaccurate. Some of us instead cut back on our feed days in the week to allow a higher calorie intake over the weekend (which also seems to keep the metabolism guessing a bit). I try to eat a bit under TDEE Sun/Tue/Wed so I can enjoy a few extras on Fri/Sat.

Hi,
Here's my view on your two questions, I'm sure others will have other opinions.

Alcohol is quite high in calories, a fact you can't help but notice if you log your calorie intake on MyFitnessPal (or other sites) and as you mentioned often leads to snacking which makes the problem worse. Personally I try not to drink Monday - Thursday, but tend to throw caution to the winds on weekends, - what's known on here as a "Wey Hey Weekend".

Fasting 2 days a week results in a calorie deficit of about 3,000 calories or just under 1 lb a week. Some people choose to speed up their weight loss by going under TDEE on eating days, but part of the beauty of this WOE is not having to calorie count on a daily basis.

In the end we all make compromises, and it's up to you to decide what your priorities are

(.....and what Moogie said, as I was slowly typing my reply)

Excellent! Thankyou to both of you!! That clears it up for me, thanks

Moogie and Sian are right. You can have whatever you want so long as you keep within your TDEE, but alcohol calories can creep up quite quickly (and too much can give you the munchies). If you are interested in alcohol, I wrote something about it on my blog this morning.

I have continued to drink wine 4-5 nights a week since I started this three months ago but perhaps won't have the crackers with cheese to accompany it.

Also, it does seem to affect me more so these days I tend to have no more than one or two glasses on Tue and Wendesday (but had three glasses of a lovely McLaren Vale shiraz tonight).

Hubby and I used to drink red wine nearly every night before we started the diet(probably responsible for some of our weight gain along with the snacks that you tend to eat with it!) Now we stick to a glass or two each on just Fridays & Saturdays. It's what we enjoy and appreciate a lot so why not? We don't worry too much about our TDEE on those days and it (the diet) seems to be working really well.

I have always only regularly drunk alcohol over the weekend ( Fri ,Sat and to a lesser extent Sun) and part of the reason this works for me is that I can continue to do so