Hello, I'm new to this way of eating and I have a problem. I am a college student and i love to go out and drink, I figure I graduate in May so why stop drinking now? I usually drink 2-3 nights per week. Even before i started Atkins i drank either Bacardi and Diet or Captain Morgan and Diet. In a given night, i will have between 6-10 drinks over 4-6 hours. Should i stop this, or am i alright? Thanks

You should stop drinking while you are on induction. Drinking while in heavy ketosis can be dangerous. See this thread.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=166081

I dont see how you could lose weight having 6-10 drinks 2-3 nights/week. You have to choose between drinking A LOT, or losing weight. Im sure alcohol in moderation a few nights per week would be ok, but not excessive drinking.

As well as the known dangers of drinking alcohol while in ketosis (Robert's article above) the other problem is, the body has 3 fuels it uses. Carbs (in the form of glycogen), alcohol and fat.

When the carbs are no longer coming in the body switches to lypolysis or fat burning. However, when alcohol is present, the body always uses that as it's fuel before anything else. It will burn the alcohol forst then resume fat or gylogen burning as before.

So drinking a lot like you have described will stop fat burning for a significant part of each day. You will return to ketosis once burned but it seems like a waste of wonderful fat burning hours.

Finally, Atkins says quit alcohol for induction. That's entirely up to the individual of course but it's said I'm sure with much wisdom behind it.

During induction, I would have to agree that you need to curtail all of your drinking. As far as "in a given night, i will have 6-10 drinks...", I hope you know that this is in excess of what an average person would have. Just for basic living purposes, you are putting yourself at risk drinking this much alcohol period. But, I will try to refrain from lecturing here.

I say drink on. I did and have lost a significant amount of weight. My system however reacts to the diet drinks. I use water.

Mike

Hi there,
Yeah yeah, second what others says but,
I am a college student too, and In terms of cutting back drinking while remaining social I reccomend the following:

1. Treat drinking as a treat. Don't drink until the 'night'/occassion starts - in the old days I could easily rack up a couple of drinks before my whole crowd even arrived. Now I wait until a level of organisation of night time festivities exists, and sometimes even have my first drink when everybdoy else is on their secound.

2. Don't drink not to get drunk.. umm, sounds kind of alcoholic, but what I mean is that those times you just have a couple of pints with mates are wasteless expenditure of carbs/alcohol on a not very meomorable evening. Choose your drinking times - a quiet Wednesday at the uni bar with beers can be just as pleasant sans alcohol, and save your drinking for a Saturday night occasion - an occasion where you honestly believe intoxication/alchol added to the event!

3. Progress through OWL. As well as the whole keotosis and alcohol danger thingimee, a burning alchol vacation is less of a shock if your body is used to burning a few carbos as well as fat.

4. I don't understand drink sizings in the US but I ask for my shot in a midi glass (like, larger) with extra diet, this way my drinks last longer but are less alcoholic.

mb99...I'm thinking you're an Aussie (hense the "midi"). I think here in the US one would specify a "tall" mixed drink to come in a highball glass. I'm not a spirits drinker (just occasional wine) but I think that would be it.

It's been 20 years since I was at Uni and yep I do recall thinking drinking was very much a part of college life. It wasn't until later I realised there were tons of kids who were not drinking or drinking very little. I was just drinking too much to notice at the time.

The thing is, it wasn't as necessary part of college life as I first imagined. No one would have even noticed if I spent all night sitting on soda. Really, they wouldn't. Not for a 2 week induction period anyways...

Slimryan...

Watch out for rums. You really might want to try opting for Diet Coke and flavored vodka... (no carbs)... personally, I'm all about my Diet Coke and Vanilla Stoli. Mmm...

Anyway, 6-10 is waaaay too much. I don't know your threashold,but I did about 6-8 the other night and was frighteningly ill. Your body just cannot handle as much when you're truly low-carbing it.

If people are getting together for 6 hrs of drinking, put 1/2 shot in every glass of diet coke (assuming you're pouring your own...?). Sure, it won't taste as strong... but at least you'll always have a drink in hand.

I agree with the stopping during induction becasue otherwise really your not doing induction. But if your going to do it anyways, Bacardi/diet is the way to go.
Think about a few things tho.....
If drinking is that important, like so important that you have to try to figure out if you can work it into a particular diet, maybe it's too important to you.
Nobody has to know that your not drinking, just get a Diet coke with a lime in a tall glass--at least for 2 weeks, it's the least you can do for yourself to get the body you desire. it's worth it in the long run, and remember--it's ONLY 2 weeks, and you'll be off induction in time for St. Patricks Day!
Do it right and then you'll only have to do it ONCE.....Otherwise, we'll welcome you to the world of reinduction...do you really want that?

Here's my two cents...

I also think you should cut your drinking to one night a week for two weeks. I drank waaaaaaaay more than you in University (six nights?... I worked at a bar part time) and sometimes you just have to give it up for a bit.

That Vanilla and diet sounds pretty darn good...

I used to drink... um, labatt 0.5% when I wanted a drink but didn't think I should drink. DIet with a lime or what ever sounds good, too.

Good luck. Don't let two weeks of less drinking get in the way of your health.

M

dont expect to loose weight if u are drinking alcohol, it will knock you out of ketosis in a heart beat

I completely understand the drinking because i am a college student too, however i was a beer girl, my incidences with liquor involve belligerence so i usually stay away.
I used to think what made a person was how many beers they could funnel and i was very proud of my 30 second keg stand abilities. However, i stopped drinking those delicious, cold refreshing carbs because i am taking medication that i cant drink with- i noticed my weight loss accelerated and i dropped weight much faster.
I guess it depends on what you want. If you want to loose weight at a faster rate then stop drinking because its slowing u down, but if u would rather have fun ( you are only young once) and loose weight more slowly then so be it. One last bit of advise- Tolerance levels are a pain in the ~$$ and they only go up, maybe stop drinking for several days and they will decrease and voila- you'll get drunk on less liquor, or you could go empty stomached for a quicker ( though sometimes sicker) buzz

Thanks for all the help, I forgot to say that I did stop drinking for 3 weeks while I started Atkins, and I realized I havent drank as much as I used to. I am happy to find out flavored vodka has no carbs, I wondered about Captain Morgan though. I have noticed significant weight loss since I started, though.