How to eat, drink and be merry without gaining weight!

Three shocking facts about us:

• Optimum Fitness does not recommend abstinence from alcohol
• Optimum Fitness does not recommend giving up chocolate, sweets and candy
• Optimum Fitness does not recommend giving up carbohydrate, wheat, gluten or lactose

WHAT???  This is shocking!  How on earth (I hear you ask), can we genuinely call ourselves fitness and nutrition gurus?????

Well…… what we actually recommend to our clients is GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT!   Or you might want to say, we completely and agree that ‘A little of what you fancy will do you no harm‘.   We also agree that a lot of what you fancy might do you some harm!

It is the festive season, and we want our readers to have fun, let their hair down, spend quality time with family and friends, and do a spot of over-indulgence.

We believe that the best you can aim to do over the festive season, is simply to MAINTAIN YOUR CURRENT WEIGHT!

So, having said all that, here are three top tips on how to survive and enjoy the festivities without gaining weight!

1.  Be a wise man (or woman)

TOP SECRET (Shhhh!):  Choose your drinks wisely and no-one will suspect you are trying to keep an eye on your weight!

The amount of  calories in a drink will depend on how large the drink is, how strong it is and what the other ingredients are.

Try making these swaps to save calories and prevent weight gain!

Pint of Beer ↔ Bottle of Beer (SAVE 121 calories)

Bottle of Cider ↔ Spirit with Mixer (SAVE 97 calories)

Large glass of wine ↔ Small glass of wine (SAVE 55 calories)

Spirit with fruit juice or sugary mixer ↔ Spirit with diet mixer (SAVE 50 calories)

	Serving Size	Calories	Units of Alcohol
Pint of Lager (example = Stella)	Pint	256	2.7
Pint of Guiness	Pint	210	2.3
Bottle of Magners	500 ml	205	2.2
Bottle of Lager (example:  Budweiser)	330 ml	135	1.6
Large Glass of Wine	250 ml	185	3.0
Medium Glass of Wine	175 ml	130	2.1
Baileys	50 ml	175	0.8
Vodka and Orange Juice (Screwdriver)	25 ml (vodka)	108	0.9
Jack Daniels and Diet Coke	25 ml (Jack Daniels)	58	1.0

2. Watch what you eat!

Here is the bad news:  alcohol can’t be stored in the body.  We can store fat in unlimited quantities, but there is no storage tank for alcohol.  All those calories we’ve drunk (see chart above to make the calculations) are used to provide us with energy  – even if that is energy is needed just for standing in a bar and chatting!

So what happens to the energy from the food we eat at around the same time?    Yes, you guessed it!  It gets stored – primarily in your fat cells!

As alcohol is being used to supply the energy we need, the other foods and drinks that we consume around the same time (containing fat and carbohydrate) get stored in the body. This leads to both water retention and fat gain!

Did you know?  An excess intake of about 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 lb of fat?

 3.        Don’t get too drunk!

We are not party-poopers!  By all means, enjoy a few drinks – ‘Tis the season to be jolly after all!  Getting very drunk and out of control from alcohol is however, a recipe for weight-control disaster!

Firstly, as you are probably already aware,  alcohol lowers inhibitions.  Secondly, contrary to popular belief, alcohol actually lowers blood sugar levels.  This results in a wee signal going to our brain and suddenly we WANT FOOD!    So these rational, logical food choices we normally make when we are sober, go out of the window and all of a sudden we are packing our faces with pizza, kebabs, potato chips, fries, burgers.

So, there you have it, if you are keen to have  drink and be sociable but don’t want a beer belly to rival Father Christmas’s, you need to make some smart choices, try not to eat too much at the same time, and avoid getting too drunk!

Good luck!