[fredthecat]

just replying cause it's bumped but im always trying to well.. maintain my weight/fitness level if not develop it.

ive been keeping my beers down to an equivalent of probably 7x500ml at 5% ABV beers per week for a bit now, usually with zero beer days and then 2 or 3 on a weekend or random night.

i say equivalent because based on what i think i've found - i prefer stronger beers in smaller volume
-i enjoy the taste a lot more in a bigger beer. this is also how i do coffee and tea, smaller and stronger. i just enjoy it more and it doesnt leave me desiring "more" since admittedly i do like to "feel the hit" of caffeine or alcohol
-not scientific, but its simply less liquid in my stomach taking up space, less bloated feeling. and i am keeping the FG of my big beers as low as possible using some simple sugars, so per alcohol unit/volume there is less unfermented sugars (slightly)
-unrelated to weight im also getting increasingly sick with the feeling and perception of higher carbonation. the lower the better, to weird low levels (1.0-1.5)

i think im in pretty okay shape and work out 3 to 4 times a week. work in progress, its additionally tiring working fulltime and also being a single parent, so i give myself that that im not in ideal shape.

[BrewBama]

I count calories not carbs. I think counting either is helpful to show you what your actually eating.

I’ve been thinking about caloric count vs restricting carbs. I think you’re right that any one macro (carb, fat, protein) doesn’t need to be eliminated but rather simply count all input vs output.

So… I’ve recalculated my goal (again). I landed at ~205 lbs and stayed there for quite a while. However, I’ve now decided that I want to recompose my body fat to lean mass ratio. I calculated my BMR and TDEE subtracting the 250-500 calories for additional wt loss while focusing on protein intake so I won’t loose muscle. Basically, I want to loose the ‘love handles’ and improve my appearance.

To help focus on muscle, I’m not going to lift weights or anything because I am not interested in spending hours in a gym.  Instead I’ll use my body weight to perform resistance exercises (calisthenics). I had a hernia repaired a while back so I had to lay off my pushups. Now, I’ve begun pushups every other day again along with various other exercises. In the Army we called it “the daily dozen“.

This leads me to calorie count of beer. I’ve decided to cut back from 1-2 daily low- carb (calorie) beers (14 beers per week) to 2-3 session-ish beers weekends only (up to 6 beers per week). This means I wouldn’t brew as much using 4-4.5 gal batches. I don’t want to limit my brewing hobby so I’ve decided to cut to 3 gal batches in order to keep the brewdays up while consuming less. The club brews these ‘challenge beers’ a few times a year that I really don’t want a large volume of, so I am going to brew those at 1 gal batches.

I am on the "don't be such a pig" diet

This^^ is basically what I’ve settled on. Being intentional by keeping track of intake and monitoring results.

I’ve been doing this new approach a bit over 30 days now and I’ve seen positive results on the scale and in the mirror.  I look forward to those weekend beers and I’ve found they taste even better now.

[erockrph]

I count calories not carbs. I think counting either is helpful to show you what your actually eating.

I’ve been thinking about caloric count vs restricting carbs. I think you’re right that any one macro (carb, fat, protein) doesn’t need to be eliminated but rather simply count all input vs output.

So… I’ve recalculated my goal (again). I landed at ~205 lbs and stayed there for quite a while. However, I’ve now decided that I want to recompose my body fat to lean mass ratio. I calculated my BMR and TDEE subtracting the 250-500 calories for additional wt loss while focusing on protein intake so I won’t loose muscle. Basically, I want to loose the ‘love handles’ and improve my appearance.

To help focus on muscle, I’m not going to lift weights or anything because I am not interested in spending hours in a gym.  Instead I’ll use my body weight to perform resistance exercises (calisthenics). I had a hernia repaired a while back so I had to lay off my pushups. Now, I’ve begun pushups every other day again along with various other exercises. In the Army we called it “the daily dozen“.

This leads me to calorie count of beer. I’ve decided to cut back from 1-2 daily low- carb (calorie) beers (14 beers per week) to 2-3 session-ish beers weekends only (up to 6 beers per week). This means I wouldn’t brew as much using 4-4.5 gal batches. I don’t want to limit my brewing hobby so I’ve decided to cut to 3 gal batches. The club brews these ‘challenge beers’ a few times a year that I really don’t want a large volume of, so I am going to brew those at 1 gal batches.

The times I've calorie counted, I also set a minimum protein level in the tracker I used. By targeting a minimum of 80-100 grams of protein, it automatically forced me to focus on lean protein and vegetables as my primary calorie source, otherwise I couldn't hit both my protein goal and my calorie goal. It worked for me, but I'm an analytical type so YMMV.

As far as beer consumption goes, do you keg, bottle, or both? I'll generally pour one half-pint with dinner on the days I have beer. This way I can enjoy a beer and still be functional around the house. It also keeps me from having to worry about excessive calories from beer. It's another option aside from restricting beer to the weekends.

[BrewBama]

I keg and bottle off the keg when needed via a TapCooler.

When I estimated my lean body vs fat mass, I calculated .7-1 gram of protein per lean pound. It’s rough guesstimate but seems to be working.

[denny]

After scary visits to both my cardiologist and GP a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to make some changes. I do 3 miles on my treadmill every day.  I still drink beer daily, but I've cut the amount in half and intend to cut it more. I haven't eliminated carbs and sodium, but I'm conscious of how much I consume. I'm down 15 lb so far.

[neuse]

From what I've read, the medical guidelines have changed. I remember not long ago that two beers per day for men and one for women was fine. Now I'm reading that any amount is not good for your health. Here is an article: https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health
Since medical guidelines change routinely, I'm not panicking, but I'm dropping from two per day to one per day.

[Skeeter686]

I'm getting back to thinking "I'm gonna die of something." 

I've made some lifestyle changes, mostly because I don't want to be debilitated as I continue to age, but not because I'm trying to live forever.  No more smoking, eating what I feel is a generally healthy diet, exercising (which is something I never really did when I was younger).  I guess I'd like to drop maybe ten pounds or so, but my weight isn't going up, either.

Also, I think back to the medical opinions on coffee.  If I'm remembering this correctly, coffee: caused cancer; then it didn't cause cancer; then it caused cancer again; then it didn't cause cancer again; and I believe the latest I've heard is that it reduces your risk for Parkinson's. 

I like beer and would be disappointed if I had to severely restrict my intake.  I'm going to wait for the next change in opinion. 😄

[BrewBama]

After scary visits to both my cardiologist and GP a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to make some changes. I do 3 miles on my treadmill every day.  I still drink beer daily, but I've cut the amount in half and intend to cut it more. I haven't eliminated carbs and sodium, but I'm conscious of how much I consume. I'm down 15 lb so far.

That’s excellent. Walking 3 miles means taking around 6-7 thousand steps.  The fitness gurus cite 10k steps as the magic number. Good on you!

[denny]

After scary visits to both my cardiologist and GP a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to make some changes. I do 3 miles on my treadmill every day.  I still drink beer daily, but I've cut the amount in half and intend to cut it more. I haven't eliminated carbs and sodium, but I'm conscious of how much I consume. I'm down 15 lb so far.

That’s excellent. Walking 3 miles means taking around 6-7 thousand steps.  The fitness gurus cite 10k steps as the magic number. Good on you!

Thanks, man. With my normal activities,  I'm over 10k pretty much every day. Turns out the 10k number is kinda meaningless. When Fitbit was being developed they arbitrarily picked 10k as a goal. Everybody jumped on the bandwagon and there ya go. It's handy that it works out to about 5 miles.

[jeffy]

I lost about 5 pounds last week due to colonoscopy prep. I'm going to try to keep it off and subtract a few more, but not through reducing alcohol intake. I'm trying to eat less and exercise more. Recently I've taken up disc golf, which gets a lot of steps in outside, but to me doesn't seem like real work. I still walk about a mile with my wife most days and do push-ups and sit-ups on alternating days, but not as many as I used to do.

[fredthecat]

From what I've read, the medical guidelines have changed. I remember not long ago that two beers per day for men and one for women was fine. Now I'm reading that any amount is not good for your health. Here is an article: https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health
Since medical guidelines change routinely, I'm not panicking, but I'm dropping from two per day to one per day.

i have lived in a few countries and i absolutely know i would live longer in a country where caffeine dosages are "high" and you have actual neighbourhood places to go and see people, to have impromptu meetups, cook togethers and hangouts that definitely involve alcohol on a regular basis rather than living in a isolation in an unwalkable suburb/exurb where you drive to buy processed foods filled with seed oils. the same govt that is increasingly zero-alcohol only (for reasons i absolutely cant get into here ) has no problem with these industrial seed oils as they are "plant based", and does have a problem with animal fats. the experts say they are very unhealthy.

all that aside, i feel like i have a beer culture of my own, for my people, which is something homebrewers don't discuss so much and again i can only imagine living with my culture than living a totally barren and safe life.

re: my beer consumption i basically just try to leave it for fri and saturday nights with any night between there ranging from 0 to 1 to 2 beers. im trying harder to just have 0 from sun to thursday to go along with my exercise goals. if anything my decreased amount of sleep (averaging probably 6hr 45 mins daily - by choice for work and family - i'm not an insomniac) is absolutely my worst health issue.