Doctor say's I no more beer. Drink vodka instead.

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noblebrew

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I went to the Dr. yesterday, and low and behold I have hypertension. I am also overweight. 242 lbs at 5ft 9in. So I need to lose weight I get it. So now I'm supposed to count calories. I can do that she put me at 1500 calories a day. I can do that as well. Then the conversation turned to drinking and she asked me "how much do you drink?" She inquires.
"A pint and a half a day" says I.
She has this confused look. "How much is a pint? Is that a lot?"
I convert it to oz. "About 24 oz so two beers I guess"
"Ok well you have to stop drinking beer."
"I brew my own beer I have a kegerator and two taps. I just started 5 gallons of cider before I came over, and 12 gallons in my pipeline. Brewing is my passion. It helps keep me sane." I tell her.
"Well if you need to take the edge off just take a shot of vodka." She tells me.
At this point I realize she doesn't understand.
So my plan is stick to the 1500 calories per day and just count the beer in there as well. Man, am I glad that beersmith calculates calories.
 
It will be harder to stick to that tight of a calorie count and keep drinking beer. 1500/day is pretty aggressive. ANY type of exercise you can work in will help. If you think of your 1500 calories as a net count with exercise built in it becomes much more achievable. For instance if you consume 2000 cal/day and then add in 45 mins on a elliptical trainer you will probably burn about 500 calories you would not previously accounted for. That will give you a net intake of 1500/day. Another thing you can do is to look at it as 10500 cal/week. This will allow you to have a few extra calories one day as long as you are committed to making up the overage by the end of the week. Check out myfitnesspal.com if your looking for an online training aid. Good luck!

I had a very similar discussion with my doctor regarding a different health issue. His advice also was to greatly reduce/eliminate my alcohol intake. I pretty much told him the same thing you did. Beer/brewing is my passion and adds to my quality of life in ways that cant be easily measured. Luckily for me he understood and we discussed other things we could do to improve my condition. I think this is the mindset you should take.
 
I'd just ignore her, if they ran blood tests and your liver is ok, then drink what you want. 242 lbs is not that heavy IMO.
 
Take my advice. I went from 235 pounds to 173 pounds and I am 5'9. Eat almost what you want and work out 4 days a week. DO cut your calories and workout a bit. I drank about 18 beers a week and still weighed 180 pounds. The workout doesn't have to be extensive. Do 20 minutes of cardio and another 20 minutes of push-ups and sit-ups.

You don't even have to spend a lot of money to accomplish this. My friend just lost 70 pounds counting calories and doing just push-ups, pull-ups and light cadio.
 
Exercise is your friend. I have lost 40+ pounds and have been doing 1700ish cals net. When I want to drink a beer or two, I ride 15 miles on my bike and I'm good to go. I use loseit.com and their app... Makes it easy to figure out. If I really want to have a fun Saturday I ride 25-30 miles. Works great and I feel better now than i have felt over the last 5-10 years. You can do it! Don't stop drinking beer. When I work out I listen to basicbrewing podcasts, that keeps me going and makes the time pass quickly.
 
If your doctor says you need to quit drinking because the alcohol is likely contributing to your hypertension, do what your doctor says. If it's just a calorie thing, I'd continue to drink in moderation and count the calories and I whole-heartedly echo the advice of others to start adding exercise. Offsetting calories so you can eat a diet that feels reasonably normal is just one of the many benefits.

I went through something like this a few years back, simply because I didn't like the direction that my weight was going. I used software religiously to count calories and exercise, and I targeted a diet that was a couple hundred calories less per day than I needed to maintain weight. I started to notice results immediately. It also taught me to better gauge how much food I really need. Now I can eyeball it pretty well and maintain a healthy weight. And I have confidence that I can fix it if things ever start to go south again.
 
Id follow doctors orders, the 1500 calorie diet is a very aggressive diet. Most folks that are looking to lose weight drop to about 2000 calories a day and start to walk/jog/workout at a very moderate pace.

Simple Calculations... the scientists figure 3500 calories is = to a lb. Say you normally take in 2500 calories a day, going to the 1500 calorie diet.. will drop 1000 per day, 7000 over the course of the week and that is roughly 2 lbs just in diet alone. Start walking a mile or two a day, and you've now burned an extra 300 calories. All adds up pretty quick.
 
In my opinion, unless there are other health issues, putting a 242 pound guy on a 1500 calorie diet is a recipe for failure in most cases.
 
Alcohol is empty caloric intake, no matter what the form. Unfortunately, it's very tough to drink ample booze and lose weight. I was able to find a happy medium, though. Pick a day or 2 a week you'd like to have a couple beers. Lower your calories in your other meals that day (especially from carbs and fats, you want to keep the protein up in order to maintain) muscle. It's not a tough formula, but it is tough to not drink beer when you truly love it.

Good luck!
 
In my opinion, unless there are other health issues, putting a 242 pound guy on a 1500 calorie diet is a recipe for failure in most cases.

Yes. 1500 cals is the approximate amount needed for a young girl. Serious.
 
Thank you all. I'm going to do this. If I can beat a 2 year old in a battle of wills I have the will power to stick to diet.
 
Don't mean to pile on here, but listen to the doctor.
If you're drinking 2 beers (12-oz equivalents) a day, cut it down to 12 oz a day or less - skip drinking occaisionally. Believe me I understand wanting and enjoying beer and so forth.
Also the others are right about exercise. At that weight, you need to start slow. Walk on a treadmill, elliptical machines are low impact, and bikes are good also. Anything to burn calories. Start slow, and ramp up when you can.
I bet that once you lose a bunch of the weight, the hypertension will go away, and you will be able to resume your previous drinking. However, you will then need to be able to maintain that weight. (you may well get hooked on exercise - I know one guy who went from over 300lbs and completely sedentary to getting hooked on bicycling. He now does several centuries (100 miles at one time) a year, and is planning on riding an ultra - Boston to Montreal and back to Boston, 600+ miles nonstop in another couple years.
 
In my opinion, unless there are other health issues, putting a 242 pound guy on a 1500 calorie diet is a recipe for failure in most cases.

This.

1500 cal/day, with some of that coming in the form of alcohol is simply unsustainable. It won't work.

Your doctor is an idiot.

I'm an MD, so I can say what with some degree of certainty - I freakin' HATE docs who give the kind of advice you got. HATE HATE HATE.

Moderation is your answer. Exercise, control your input, drink in moderation. Slow, steady improvements in your lifestyle are the only way to change in a lasting way. Dieting hardly ever works, especially extreme diets like what she's proposing. You'll try it for a while, loose a little weight, and spend the entire time completely miserable, until you decide that it just isn't worth it. Any changes you make MUST be sustainable over time.
 
The issues you are looking at down the road could be significant, depending on your family medical history. Diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are not something you want to wait until your in your 50's to start thinking about. Given that.... most doctors are horrible nutritionists. The Gov approved food pyramid is trash. For some folks it works but for carb sensitive or pre diabetic folks it is horrible. Your BMR is roughly 2100 calories a day to maintain your current weight. You don't want to lose more than 2 lbs a week. I highly recommend you cut your calories by 300 a day, down to 1800, and burn the remainder through some form of activity that you like. Bike's, walking, jogging, treadmills, racquetball, basketball.... something active that you enjoy.

If you cut out beer and jump on a 1500 calorie a day diet you are setting yourself up for failure. You want to make lifestyle changes not rash and crazy fad diet choices. Go to 1800 calories a day, get all of your calories from good complex carbs (Veggies), plenty of good lean proteins and your pints of beer, in moderation. The problem most folks have is all the junk food they cram in their mouths while their drinking those beers.

I highly recommend you get on the web and research nutrition. If you put out the effort to educate yourself you will find you can get back into shape, lose the weight, and still enjoy your two pints a day!
 
I had hypertension too. I listened to my doctor and after about a year I was in shape and the hypertension was gone. That was 10 years ago and I have been enjoying beer since then....in moderation. Are you a smoker? If so that would likely be a big contributing factor with hypertension
 
I'd be very concerned about going to a doctor who doesn't know how many ounces are in a pint... Just sayin.

I was just going to say that but thought it would come off smart ass. I am not joking at all when I say I would NEVER...NEVER...return to a doctor who supposedly has been through chemistry and biology courses on the grandest scale and does not know how many ounces are in a pint.
 
I used to be a personal trainer. Get a nutrition app like "lose it" to keep track of calories and exercise. Shooting for a net calorie intake of ~1800 drinking 7 12 oz beers or less per week is doable.

Ease into an exercise program. Something moderate 3 days per week is better than something intense 4 days plus that you can't sustain. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a workout, life happens. I only worked out once this week, but once is way better than none. Next week I'll get 2-3 in.

Over the last 4 months I slowly went down from 196-180 (5'10) with a net intake of 1800-2000/day with some periods of being way over for a day or two while traveling.

I do have a shot of whiskey or a rum and coke zero on occasion when trying to lose weight instead of beer. It is 90 cal vs 200 for my typical home brew, so it does add up.
 
I was just going to say that but thought it would come off smart ass. I am not joking at all when I say I would NEVER...NEVER...return to a doctor who supposedly has been through chemistry and biology courses on the grandest scale and does not know how many ounces are in a pint.

Maybe she is smart enough to use the metric system....just sayin
 
If you live near a mountain get a mountain bike. Ride it. You will love it. And you will lose weight.
 
I'm 5'11 and went from 259 to 209 in about 4 months just by eating right - dumping junk food and eating lean proteins like chicken/flank steak with broccoli - and walking on treadmill 25 min 3x a week to start and doing a few weight machines. After about a month I found I loved the gym and ramped to 4x - 5x a week still eating right. The weight just flew off me. I didn't count calories or anything. Everyone kept asking what "diet" I was doing and didn't believe me when I told them I wasn't on a diet and was simply eating sensibly and going to the gym. I listened to my favorite music while working out and the hour at the gym went fast.

Go slow, eat "right", do an hour of exercise 3x a week where your heart rate is in your target zone while doing maybe 25 minutes of cardio mixed with something else. Adjust as necessary for your personal situation.
 
Its about either burning more, or consuming less calories than you are now. 1500 calories is tough, but doable. I dropped 30 lbs in about 3 months and kept drinking beer on the weekends. I basically cut all carbs, except for high fiber cereal in the morning. grilled chicken/fish with veggies for lunch and dinner. It sounds like you'd get tired of it, but you will find ways to be creative with lean meat and veggies.

Adding exercise was the main thing that helped.. If you have been at a consistent weight for a long time, by just adding exercise, but eating the same foods and drinking the same amount you will lose weight. Again, consuming less, or burning more calories than you are now. You may be surprised to find that after a week or 2 of consistent exercise, you'll feel better, sleep better, poop more regularly, feel those palpitations less, and have more energy. You'll even be motivated to work out more regularly, eat better because you may feel guilty for missing a day, or having that extra slice of pizza.

Also, one tip for beer. Maybe try short pours. If you keg your beer, have a smaller glass size. If you bottle, just have one. IPA's & DIPA's have an incredible amount of sugar and calories. Go for something lighter, maybe a porter or a stout. Alcohol is very caloric. Small increments over time really add up.

Small steps. Just give it a try! But yeah vodka is for pansies.
 
Another option you might look into is the medi fast plan. It works! You eat the medifast meals during the day and healthy regular meal for dinner, about 1000 to 1100 calories a day with Doctor approval. It gets the weight off pretty quickly, then you start incorporating exercise. But it won't work if you drink any alcohol. Just a thought!! Good luck on whatever you do.
 
You might consider a low carb diet--I know it worked wonders for me. I lost 25 lbs two and a half years ago, from 6' ~200 lbs down to 175, and have kept it off while still drinking beer. I don't follow any particular plan, I just cut out most starches and sweets and keep my fat intake high in comparison to protein. I didn't have health issues when I started the diet but my latest blood work done earlier this year showed excellent levels for HDLs, LDLs, triglycerides, etc.

Doing regular light cardio (I walk my dogs just about every night between 36 and 48 minutes as well as play tennis a couple of times a week) and doing some strength and conditioning work such as an ab workout, push ups, and pull ups will also help you use your own metabolism to lose the body fat imo. My personal opinion is that losing weight is 70% about diet and 30% about exercise.

My dad RIP was almost exactly your same height and weight and also suffered from hypertension. His diet was terrible so that even though he was a regular walker he could never lose the weight or cure the hypertension and it ultimately contributed to his passing at the relatively young age of 64.
 
I drink about 3 beers a day and dropped 30 pounds in 3 months. Be smart about food, healthy and portion controlled. Workout and incrementally build off it. I started with 40 pushups, 60 situps, and 15 minutes of cardio...literally a 25 minute workout. Mentally having the strength to stick with your health changes is harder than any workout.
 
I think there are other flaws than just limiting your calories as well. Counting calories is a royal pain in the ass. There are other options. I know, I've done them. I used to weigh 320 lbs and today I am 175 lbs. Size 44 waist pants to 32 with a belt. PM if you want to chat.

Look into the mediterranean diet, and also the paleo diet as alternative options. I've lost a ton of weight eating in a mediterranean way. Whole grains, healthy oils, lean meats etc. You can too. Don't drink anything other than water, unsweetened iced tea or black coffee (both in moderation). Spoil yourself once in a while by having a beer or two weekly. Start walking - a mile a day if you can. Eat breakfast - protein and fruit.

Drink a LOT of water. 80-100 oz/day. You shouldn't be able to sit for longer than an hour without having to pee. Here to help if you need it...
 
You should go see a dietician before starting an extreme diet. I'm sure the Dr is well intentioned, but major calorie restrictions are actually counterproductive when trying to lose substantial amounts of weight. It's not just about willpower. Your body just can't burn fat that fast and will end up burning muscle as well. You might drop pounds that way, but lean muscle is what burns calories for the rest of your life. That means the second you go off the restrictive diet, you won't be burning as many calories as you used to, and you'll be more likely to just start gaining the weight right back.

If you won't go see a "pro", just cut 500 calories a day out of what you are currently eating. (1 beer would get you half way there - so would getting a small fry vs a large fry eg pretty small changes). That equals 1lb per week of fat. Try to add in a little exercise to burn a little more and you'll be right in the healthy 1-2 lb per week.
 
I completely agree with beernutz, watch your carbs, but first a little simple math; a 12 oz soda is 150 calories, 150 (X) 365 days a year = 54,750 calories /3500 ( calories in one pound) = 15.7 pounds lost by one very small change. I realize this isn't the answer to your weight problem, just an idea. Along with exercise, the Metabolic Diet is amazing! I am in the medical field, I am not a Doctor, and I have to be very careful how I word things as not to jeopardize my license, so forgive my vagueness. The Metabolic Diet is a functional version of the low carb lifestyle. Everyone I have suggested this diet to has had amazing results.How it works is you are on very low carbs for for the first 12 days, and then you get to have pizza or beer or chocolate cake, etc. within reason on days 13 and 14. And from then on 5 days of moderation, followed by real food for 2 days.. When I first heard about it, I was skeptical at first. I bought the book, and having a medical background the "math should work". I worked out three days a week, and always weighed 185 or so. I ate 2500 calories a day to see if I would gain weight, divided into 6 meals, and I did not gain any weight, but I did lose three inches around my waist. A guy my size should never eat that much unless they wanted to gain weight. Sorry for the long post, but six meals a day, and having (within reason) what I want to eat every weekend and started to really lose my belly fat, I was sold.
 
I got up to 254, I'm 5'10". My doctor told me to cut down to 1200 calories a day to drop the weight. I got a second opinion from an actual dietitian who put me on an 1800 calorie a day diet with 5 days a week of working out. I got to keep my beer but had to factor that into my calories, so I ended up drinking 1 beer a day and drinking hard liquor after that if I wanted more alcohol. Weight fell off like crazy. I've been holding at 175 for the last 2 years by eating well and exercising. I have 1-3 beers a day and brew almost exclusively session beers. Exercise, portion control, and above all, the quality of the food are the most important things BY FAR. If you have an Iphone download MyFitnessPal and use it. You will be amazed how many calories are in certain foods. After you use it for a month you will learn what you can eat a lot of and what you can't. You can have a crapload of baked chicken for 500 calories, and I don't think it's humanly possible to eat enough green vegetables in one sitting to equal 500. By comparison you only get half a Chillis hamburger for the same amount. At Taco Bueno you can have 4 chicken soft tacos for 560, while a chicken Mucho Nachos is 1200 calories. Also, eating small meals every 3 hours helps a ton. You will naturally get hungry about ever 3 hours anyway, so if you satisfy that craving with a small meal in between (some apple sauce, cottage cheese, an apple, a banana, etc) you will find it easier to eat less since you never let yourself starve. When you are starving it is sooooo easy to binge, especially after you just drank vodka! For an excellent book either in print or audio check out The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto. It's written for the common man and is extremely helpful. Best of luck to you!
 
Given that.... most doctors are horrible nutritionists. The Gov approved food pyramid is trash.

As an MD, I can mostly agree with that. Nutrition training in medical school and residency is not great in most specialties. Some docs are better than others, with endocrinologists leading the pack in terms of general nutrition knowledge. And yes, the food pyramid is junk.

I highly recommend you get on the web and research nutrition.

So if there's one thing that's guaranteed to be a worse idea than listening to your doctor, it's using the Internet as a knowledge base. The signal to noise ratio is just WAY too low on the Interwebs. His best bet is to get hooked up with a nutritionist.

If you put out the effort to educate yourself you will find you can get back into shape, lose the weight, and still enjoy your two pints a day!

Yup, totally agree... It can be done!
 
We're really not the place to get diet and nutrition advise- so definitely find a good source and follow up. The thing that concerns me is that a doctor who tells you to go on a 1500 calorie diet but didn't know if "a pint" is a little or not is probably a very poor source.

I personally do a primal/paleo type of diet, but still drink beer. I won't push that, except to tell you that both my husband and I are lean and very fit with low body fat and low blood sugar, as well as low cholesterol. There is more to being fit that how much you weigh- but being a lot overweight increases some health issues like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The one helpful thing I can tell you is hard, but would work for everybody! Don't eat anything that comes out of a package for 30 days. That means regular food, like meat and veggies and some fruit. Yes, I know meat technically comes in a "package", but that's not what I mean. I mean processed food particularly, but "fake foods" as well that Michael Pollan called "food like substances"!

Cut way way down on sugared things like packaged food, ketchup, etc. If you stay away from sugar and wheat and corn products (corn syrup is in just about every packaged item) it's a hard thing to do- but very worthwhile.

I would say just to try that- no packages for 30 days. That's it. Chicken, fish, meat, veggies for 30 days. If you try that, you may find that your hypertension disappears (especially if you're sodium sensitive). For beverages, coffee, tea, water (and a little beer). No soda, diet or otherwise.

I would be willing to bet that anybody who did that for 30 days would feel so much better that they'd stick with it. I did, and it's been years. I have more energy than most 30 year olds, and "athlete" levels of body fat (even though I'm terrible at formal excerise). I will be 50 in a few months. I weigh 135 pounds and am a size 4.
 
I love that Americans find 242lbs's is a fine weight, not on the heavy side at all.

Seriously...that's overweight unless you're a body builder or are over 7 feet tall. If you have hypertension, listen to your doctor and lower your booze intake, don't ask a bunch of fellow beer drinkers to justify you not taking your doctor's advise.

And 1500 cal's a day is NOT 'simply unsustainable' good lord...it's called a vegetable, you can eat them, and they don't need to be fried in butter - even if they taste better like that.
 
Along with exercise and the lose it app; try switching up the times you eat certain foods. Try to eat majority of carbs earlier in the day. And eat a high protein snack 30 minutes before bed. I had my wife do that and she is down 20+ pounds in 2.5 months. She takes in around 1800 calories.

Before she started her diet and exercise program; I had her keep a journal of everything she ate or drank for a month. She was amazed at how much she was snacking.

Bill
 
I love that Americans find 242lbs's is a fine weight, not on the heavy side at all.

Seriously...that's overweight unless you're a body builder or are over 7 feet tall. If you have hypertension, listen to your doctor and lower your booze intake, don't ask a bunch of fellow beer drinkers to justify you not taking your doctor's advise.

And 1500 cal's a day is NOT 'simply unsustainable' good lord...it's called a vegetable, you can eat them, and they don't need to be fried in butter - even if they taste better like that.

I love that Canadians are over-generalizing and judgmental. Oh wait, that's just you.
 
I would say just to try that- no packages for 30 days. That's it. Chicken, fish, meat, veggies for 30 days.

+1 to this. The book I mentioned "The Body Fat Solution" makes this priority #1, and so did my dietitian. I cooked all my own meals and nothing came from a box or can. You will be amazed how much food you get when it's healthy food. You won't be wanting for portion sizes that's for sure! Yooper is correct that you feel wonderful too. You are what you eat sounds so trite, but it really is true.

The downside to this is the convenience. You will have to prepare your own meals and it will take time. If you are crafty though you can make meals for the week and even freeze meals for later in the month. I would make a lot of soups and stews and then put them in quart ziplock bags in the freezer. I would thaw one out in the fridge overnight when I wanted it for lunch/dinner the next day. Very easy and you can make a crapload of soup or stew with little effort. Pot roasts, turkey or chicken chilli, hamburger soup (actually a weight watchers recipe that is really good). One of my favorite dinners is grilled chicken breast topped with a slice of cheese, homemade pico de gallo and a slice of avacodo. Server it with whatever veggies are the freshest at the farmers market that week. Farmers markets are great for fresh produce. Take any white fish, lay it on a piece of aluminum foil. Slice a lemon into slices and put it on top of the fillets. Grind fresh pepper over them and make a packet out of the foil. Cook them up and they are really good. You can steam some veggies at the same time with the packet technique. Put the veggies in the packet with 2Tbsp of water and some garlic, salt, and pepper (or whatever seasonings you like). I found that growing my own fresh herbs helped a lot as well. We did this in a small planters in the flower bed in front of the house. They actually fit right in with the rest of the flower bed plants. Garlic and rosemary chicken with potatoes is super simple and amazingly good and you can use your fresh herbs for it. All you need is a few potatoes, some chicken breast, olive oil and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary.
Basically it comes down to the fact that you can eat better tasting food that is much better for you but you have to do the work to cook it. I started off as a 254lb fat guy and now I'm dangerously close to being a 175lb 'foodie'. A few years ago if given the choice between food out of a box and making something from scratch I would have gone the box route every time. Now I am the opposite. If you aren't careful you may just find another hobby in all of this....
 
Thank you all. I'm going to do this. If I can beat a 2 year old in a battle of wills I have the will power to stick to diet.

Can I chime in as a homebrewer AND someone who knows a bit about losing weight?

I tipped the scales at 281.8 pounds in 2004, I'm 5'10". I had been higher, but wasn't willing to get on the scale. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sciatica and lower back problems. But when I hit the same pants size my dad was when he DIED at 60, I said "f*** this" and I joined Weight Watchers. In a year, I got rid of 108 pounds, and in that year I never gave up beer, or chocolate, or bratwurst. I learned how to LIVE a healthier life and stopped the bullsh*t excuses that most guys use then they finally admit that they are FAT. Most asshat guys never will pony up to the fact that they just eat too f*c*ing much. But I did admit it, learned how to eat (and drink) the right amounts of what I love. Got rid of it, have kept it off for almost nine years, and have NEVER dieted. Just learned how to eat.

Consider giving Weight Watchers a chance.

David Before and After.jpg
 

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