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Goal Weight: Don’t Count on an Alcohol-Free Month for Drastic Changes on the Scale

Mary MacVean
4 min readFeb 1, 2022

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Photo by Mary MacVean

Dry January Has Its Ups but Find Reasons Other Than Your Diet to Join In

By Mary MacVean

Dry January is coming to a close. I took part, not so much sober-curious as calorie-curious, and I’m a few Negronis and pounds lighter than I was at the start of the year.

Is there a diet article that doesn’t suggest cutting down or eliminating alcohol consumption to lose weight? I doubt it. The “experts” always talk as much about wild drunken overeating as they do about the actual calories in alcohol. (I am ignoring here whatever calories might be included in a cocktail from juices or other mixers, but of course they count.)

There are a small number of calorie sources: fats at 9 calories a gram, carbohydrates and proteins at 4 calories a gram, and alcohol at 7 calories a gram.

Eliminating that last category seems logical for people trying to lose weight. For the calories in the gin or wine, sure. And for the way so many people eat when they drink. That is, with abandon. Determination? Out the window. Discernment? Out the window.

After a couple of glasses of wine, people who eat one square of dark chocolate after dinner find themselves wondering how the whole candy bar got finished. People…

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Mary MacVean
Mary MacVean

Written by Mary MacVean

Longtime food writer, now food grower. Journalist, reader, traveler

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