Alcohol and Weight Loss

You have probably heard that alcohol and weight loss don’t mix. If you drink wine with dinner, or have a few beers after work with your colleagues, you may wonder what effect alcohol has on your weight. When you get right down to it, every bit of food or drink you consume will effect your weight. Alcohol is no exception.

There are many reasons that alcohol and weight gain go together including

1. Alcohol contains calories
2. Alcohol can lead to overeating
3. Alcohol can affect the body’s ability to burn fat

Let’s examine this more closely

Alcohol contains calories: Alcohol is calorie rich compared to most foods, just 20% less calories per gram than fat. Drinking alcohol periodically won’t destroy your diet, but frequent alcohol consumption may. Alcohol can be just as damaging to your weight loss efforts as a pizza or Macdonalds burger – perhaps even worse. You should also keep in mind that calories in liquid form are easier to consume, and can add up much faster than you think! People frequently don’t take calories consumed in liquid form into account in their calorie count. A 5 oz (150ml) glass of wine contains about 150 calories, a 1.5 oz (15ml) vodka shot or 12 oz (360ml) of light beer contains around 100 calories. Just think if you had two or three of those every day, that constitues anywhere from 200 – 450 extra calories on a daily basis. So be careful to account for drinks in your daily calorie count.

Alcohol can lead to overeating: Consuming alcohol helps you relax and loosens dieting resolve. Even small amounts of acohol can cause you to lose focus on weight loss goals so you may consume more calories than intended. Alcohol also stimulates appetite to some degree, so consuming alcohol makes you consume more food also. The more alcohol, the more food. This is another reason why alcohol and weight gain go together.

In most cases, alcohol is generally consumed in addition to food. This can result in consuming a large amount of calories in a short period of time if attention is not paid to your drinks. You can reduce the impact of this by drinking a glass of water after each alcoholic beverage. This will help satisfy your hunger making you eat and drink less. And of course, it will also help to stop you becoming dehydrated which is what causes a hangover.

Alcohol can affect the body’s ability to burn fat: When you consume alcohol, your body converts it into acetate (a form of vinegar), your body burns this before other calories you have consumed or stored, including fat or even sugar. So if you consume more calories than your body requires, then you are more likely to store the excess as fat because your body is receiving the bulk of its energy from the acetate in the alcohol you drank. Additionally, scientific research indicates that alcohol temporarily inhibits “lipid oxidation”. This refers to our body’s ability to burn fat. In other words, when you have alcohol in your system, it is more difficult for your body to burn existing fat stores.

As you can see, alcohol has several effects on weight loss efforts. Drinking alcohol adds calories rapidly which we often forget to take into account. Alcohol contains almost as many calories as fatty foods. Alcohol can also stimulate your appetite so you eat more food than required. And lastly, alcohol inhibits the ability of the body to burn existing fat stores. Perhaps now you understand why alcohol and weight loss do not mix well.

This article does not constitute medical advice nor should it be substituted for professional medical advice. This post titled “Alcohol And Weight Loss” is intended for informational purposes only.