Thanks all. I do know the health concerns of drinking...been dealing with it all my life. I am one of those luckier ones who has dodged the tragedy bullet with heavy drinking.

My liver numbers have been high since I was a teen. I had a fatty liver before adulthood. After 35 years of heavy drinking my liver numbers remain elevated but only recently spiked to a level that the doctor even mentioned it as a potential issue. I quit for three months and the numbers dropped back to relatively normal for me, meaning no measurable actual liver damage.

Triglycerides are reasonable and sugar is only slightly elevated even while completely saturated with an alcohol lifestyle, the tests taken just in December before I stopped drinking this recent time. I am one of those that has gotten away with heavy alcohol while others dont even drink and are diabetic, kidney and liver problems.

My health is fairly good in my 50's, albeit not enough exorcise and I gained a lot of wight in the last 5 years because of probably hormones changing at my age plus I took a job working from home in front of a computer after a fairly physically active working career...and I hate exorcise for the sake of exorcise. I'll throw a football or a Frisbee with you in the park or back yard any day, but exorcise for the sake of it, it's not my thing.

I'm here because I need to make the change to reduce my BMI and make me lighter on my feet like I have been all my life, while drinking anything I want, and how much I want (in the past)...but that's changing in my older years. Our diets (wife with me) have always been pretty good and varied, we take a lot of good supplements and dont live on processed or junk food, but had been eating a little worse in the last 6 months just out of gluttony.

My goal is weight loss. My general nutrition has been pretty good and had already been making choices to reduce carbs, just "because" prior to dieting. But, our diet fit the food pyramid too much with the carbs regarding LC weight loss and lifestyles. There are many ways to lose weight, the reason I chose LC is because I dont have to be hungry. It seems to be working.

What LC may do for my drinking however is if the alcohol causes me to fail at keeping weight off and or losing those final pounds, it may encourage me to moderate better, which is a life long lifestyle problem for me, very little alcohol moderation. But, I've always been a high functioning alcoholic in pretty good health...its almost not fair that I get to ride my body like horse while others suffer so many health problems living a sober clean life.

At my age, the effect of the alcohol is becoming more evident though. I used to never have to detox and cleanse. I will never give up drinking permanently unless a catastrophic health issue forces me to. If I have to trade off calories for it, I will, I love the stuff as much as food. But I'm abstaining from foods I love and the alcohol I love for the sake of losing weight right now. hopefully moderating both will be a lifestyle I can achieve and live with in the future...and I'll likely be forced to the the thing I hate most..."exorcise for the sake of getting exorcise". At 50+ I'm seeing the writing on the wall that in order to continue to work my property, cut, split, and haul wood, repair my home and even play a game of volleyball at the family reunion without getting hurt, I'll have to work out to keep the muscle tone and flexibility I need in old age. I have aging parents I will need to help and my wife is 10 years ahead of me...I need to be there for them. That and being disgusted and embarrassed about my weight is what drives me to be here.

So, outside of the normal health warnings, it appears the biggest issue with liquor I'm finding so far is those calories get used before burning fat. It makes sense, and with that knowledge I can make informed decisions.

My wife has the Zero Sugar Diet book she is following. I looked up alcohol in it. It basically says a drink a day is fine after losing the weight you want but no more. but he also says he would recommend that, even of it weren't in reference to dieting. Just like the standard boilerplate "1 drink for women 2 drinks for men rule". The AMA and the FDA, DHHS, USDA are doing what they can, but have also misled us. Remember when eggs were killing us? Now a super food? Avacados? Butter? Yep, all driven by the "associations and agencies"...the same ones that tell us poison Statins are what we should be taking for a debatable serum cholesterol level causing heart disease. Statins strip our bodies of naturally produced heart healthy CoQ10...and its the alcohol that's going to kill us? OK...

I believe you folks in here as much as I do any of them...probably more.

So thanks for the feedback, I welcome any other confirmations or perspectives still. My mind is always open to ideas, opinions and facts.

All the best to you all.