Anyone else give up drinking?
I only do it for work events to fit in with the bosses but that's about it. Might have a glass of really good red wine once or twice a year.
Ages the hell out of you.
Ages the hell out of you.
I decided the easiest 3-400 Calories I could cut were those beers, and stopped right then.
I still drink on occasion, but it’s like twice a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Those were the easiest calories to cut.
It’s sometimes tough, socially. But I’ve never (well, rarely) felt pressured, just “left out” sort of. But most people in my family are non-drinkers, so there’s that.
I’ll probably die never having been drunk. No real desire, other than fitting in socially, but that’s not really enough of a motivation for me.
But I do feel like it’s overall better for my health and mortality. Not that something like cancer or dementia won’t still get me, though.
As for the dietary calories, well, you can hack that one. I don't recommend it for obvious reasons, but a diet of nothing but extremely lean protein, fiber (not strictly necessary, but it's nice to have some flavors other than meat, fish, or egg white), and ethanol (with virtually no dietary fat or carbohydrates) cannot, and I mean it is a proven metabolic impossibility, cause the gain of bodyfat. There is no storage form of ethanol, and the storage form of protein is various lean tissues.
Now you might ask, but what about glycogenesis? Won't the body metabolize that protein into glucose and then store that glucose as body fat? That's a perfectly reasonable thing to suppose, but it's proven, in strictly controlled metabolic ward studies, that it does not happen. Instead the kidneys just eliminate the excess protein. Glycogenesis is only used for immediate energy needs, and of course the body will preferentially use ethanol for immediate energy before protein.