So, I go out with my husband last night (something we almost never do), and we decide to stop for a drink. Now, I know there are a lot of hard liquers that have close to zero carbs, so I decide to go with my old standby, Ameretto, and DIET coke. I was really enjoying my drink, especially beacause while on Atkins I eat a lot less, so I was feeling my "one" drink very quickly. I was just marveling at how good it tasted . As I finished, my husband said, "How's your drink?". I told him how good it was....It was perfect, mixed just right, smooth, nutty and.....SWEET!?!?!?!? AAAAAAAHHHHHH.....What did I do???? I decided not to worry about it...I definitely didn't have another one. When I got home, I looked it up. Sure, enough Ameretto has 17g of carbs per ounce (and if you asked me, I think there was more than an ounce in my drink). Oh well, the irony, I'm down a pound this morning. We will have to wait and see what happens the next couple of days. Live and learn!!!

that pound is water weight (lost from the alcohol most likely). For spirits that don't have carbs try white label rum or seagrams 7.

Mel - you live, you learn.

Way to not let this bring you down!

Vodka is good too

Vodka is ALWAYS good!

I know Dr. Atkins says to avoid alcohol during induction, but it IS hard when you go out socially for some reason. I think it's bc. being slighty tipsy (or more!) can make you crave things you're not supposed to eat.

As well as the effect alcohol can have on your food choices your body will use the alcohol as a preferred fuel over the fat/protein/carbs you eat, so you will stop burning fat for a while till it uses the booze up!!

BTW if you use ketostix to check on whether you are in ketosis dont bother after drinking alcohol because they will register the acetone (I think) given off by breaking down the alcohol and give you a false reading!

yeah, alcohol won't effect ketosis, but it is caloric just like food so it will slow down or reverse progress like anything with calories in it. It also does a lot of things that are counterproductive to leaning out ones body. Really crappy stuff if you want to look your best, too bad its so fun.

i think the rule of thumb is to go with the clear liquors rather than anything that's darker... and yeah, i think your amaretto must go the way of my midori and probably never cross my lips again. the other night my fiance and i were out at chili's, and i ordered a coke zero and malibu rum... it wasn't bad, it was alcohol, i liked it (even if it wasn't anything even close to the mango margaritas i love so much), and i dont' think it threw me off at all... at least the stix didn't all of a sudden go negative on me.

but boy do i miss my guinness... *sigh*

For the hard stuff I like rum and diet Coke. I always have rum on hand because I use it on weekends to make low-sugar pina coladas with Baja Bob's mix. I don't make these during the week because I get home from work about a quarter to midnight and I don't think the neighbors would appreciate me running the blender at that time of night...

During the week I drink wine. Much quieter...