New Year’s Resolutions and Beer
Weight loss is a popular resolution this time of year, and it’s a good one too. Being healthier in general is always a good goal, no matter what prompts the decision to lose some weight and eat healthier. This does not mean you have to give up beer.
Clearly having routine happy hours at the bar and drinking many beers in a day is not conducive to losing weight, but having a beer with dinner or on it’s own is not a deal-breaker. There are a variety of health benefits of drinking beer, but even just looking at it from a calorie standpoint, beer is not the enemy.
While the more alcohol in the beer the more calories it’s likely to have, the average craft beer probably has between 150 and 250 calories. In a diet where you’re eating healthier and working out to burn more calories, one beer a few times a week is not going to tip the scales against you. Being able to still enjoy a tasty beverage is a good way to keep yourself motivated to stick to your resolution. After all, how tough can it be if you can still enjoy a beer? As with most things, moderation is the key.
The trick is to make the beer the indulgence, and perhaps the sole indulgence. Some people might tell themselves they can have a sweet treat once in a while as a reward. Others don’t want to give up a Sunday morning donut ritual with friends. For some, beer can be that treat. I find I can pour myself a beer and it lasts. While i’m drinking it I do not feel the desire to snack or munch on other things, and I can certainly watch television or do other tasks around the house while I’m drinking it. It’s a relatively low calorie treat that I’m enjoying over a lengthy amount of time. To balance it out, I try to stick to a rule of only enjoying the beer on days I go to the gym. This links the treat to the exercise and gives me motivation to get my workout in.
Ultimately the only true way to lose weight is to consume less calories than you burn, and fitting a beer into the consumption list is not at all difficult.