Can I get away with 1 alcoholic drink on a cut?

[northwestmuscle]

Hi guys,

How much alcohol is too much on a cut? If I have 1 ounce of rum with some diet coke, will that mess my weight loss up? I'm eating 20% less than my TDEE, which includes the alcohol.

How bad will a little alcohol mess up my diet?

Thanks

[SuffolkPunch]

Too much would be when you can no longer meet your essential nutrient needs without blowing your calorie budget

Or too much would be the amount that makes you fall off the wagon and lose willpower and overeat.

Alcohol is technically a poison, there is no minimum safe dose from a health POV. The effect just becomes unmeasurably small with modest amounts of drinking. (I drink BTW, no self righteousness here).

[spradish]

You just want to ensure that you're still hitting your nutrition goals--calories, protein, etc. If alcohol gets in the way of that, it's a problem.

[faithbrah]

personal experience: i was cutting on 1800-2000 calories in the summer (pretty standard to go out for drinks in the summer where i live), and honestly alcohol wasn't that hard to fit into my diet. i made sure to get at least 100g of protein in ~1200 calories, then saved the rest for alcohol. i might've had some extra drinks every now and then, but didn't fall off the wagon by smashing a pizza or anything

even on halloween i drank a six pack of coke zero with ~600 calories of vodka mixed in. hard to believe it affected my cutting progress at all, and even if it did, it was totally worth it and i still reached my goal

unless you drink multiple times a month, it's not really worth fretting over