A hangover binge can be more impactful to your weight loss progress than the actual social event itself.
No doubt you want to get into great shape, but you also want to keep some form of social life. Now just like the people who say you can’t eat carbs and lose weight, they will also say that you can’t drink alcohol and lose weight.
And although it may not be the best for your health, you can definitely still drink (in moderation) and achieve your weight loss goals. Although more than often it is not just the alcohol to blame, but the decisions made (or not made) when you are intoxicated that lead to you yo-yoing and not achieving the body transformation you want. This is why you will often lose weight during the week and regain the weight after a social event on the weekend.
Let me explain…
Let’s say you drink 5 pints of beer and 3 rum and diet mixers, which would equate to approximately 1000 – 1200 calories. Which is a decent amount of calories to come from alcohol alone, however you add on the pizza after the night out and some comfort eating the next day this number can quickly double or triple. Which will then bring you out of the deficit for the week and prevent you from losing weight.
The hangover binge occurs the day after a night out. Let’s say a friend’s birthday party on the Saturday got a little out of hand and you end up drinking one too many beers, wines, cocktails or shots. You wake up on Sunday with a mouth dryer than the Sahara desert, you feel lost, sorry for yourself and not prepared for the day ahead. The last thing on your mind is doing exactly what you should be doing to get in shape. Going out for a walk, working out and/or eating fresh and healthy foods.
But instead you have no energy to exercise, you don’t want to leave the house to walk, you’re not fit to drive and so it looks like your only option is to order a takeaway. Pizza, Chinese, Indian, Ice cream etc. These days you can order just about anything you want and it will be at your door within the hour. So you stock up on the calorie dense, greasy and rich food and go hibernate under your duvet until Monday.
Does the above sound familiar to you? I know I have been there on multiple occasions, but I now have a solution I want to share with you.
For me It is all about the preparation. Remember failing to prepare, is preparing to fail. You need to have the day mapped out and in my opinion more importantly the day after. On the day itself give yourself some structure, plan the meals you will eat that day and ensure you have had a substantial meal before you head out. Although it may seem like a good tactical choice to cut out most of your daily calories to allow for more alcohol, going out on an empty stomach is a fast way to get drunk, but also leaves you wanting to immediately correct your mistake with some fast food to help sober yourself up.
So I recommend you give yourself a target number of drinks and the type of drink you’re going to stick to, just so it eases the hangover the next day. I know this isn’t always easy or your strategic plan may go out the window after someone orders a round of shots. However, a plan is better than no plan.
Now before you head out you should prepare the following:
A meal or snack for when you come in, again this will help ease the hangover but will also be a much more calorie friendly option compared to a drive through McDonalds or pizza takeaway. 300-500 calories for a prepared home cooked meal or snack. Or 1000-1500 calories for a takeaway that’s double or triple the calories. Have a litre of water in the fridge ready to help hydrate you after stumbling through the door at 2am, alcohol is diuretic and will dehydrate you. This is one of the reasons why you feel so bad the next day, for extra bonus points you can add some electrolytes. The electrolytes will help balance back out the minerals lost due to the alcohol and sweating if you like to dance.
When you are hungover you don’t want to think and sometimes you don’t have the ability to think, so you need to organise the next day’s food before you head out whether that’s a food shop and/or meal prep. Not only will this save you time and effort but also minimise the chances that you will spend extra money on a takeaway and more importantly take your calories over your daily target.
In return this means you spend another day in a deficit which will contribute towards your weight loss goal. Even if the hangover is so bad you don’t intend on leaving the house to get your steps in, at least you can control your nutrition. It is also important to remember that after a poor night’s sleep you are much more likely to make poor nutritional choices, so if you have already prepared the food in advance you are good to go no matter how harsh the hangover is.
Taking this approach has saved both mine and my clients progress on numerous occasions and will get you back to your regular self in no time. The key here is preparation and the end result means you still get to go out and have fun and not spend the next two weeks trying to drop the weight gained because of the hangover binge.
