The Skinny on Alcohol
Let’s begin with something funny!
Marriage counselor: What’s the problem?
Me: My wife needs help. Every night, she’s roaming from one bar to another. She has to stop it.
Marriage counselor: Is she an alcoholic?
Me: No, she’s looking for me.
Here’s a question I often hear:
‘Laurent, I don’t understand. I workout regularly, I eat healthy on most days but the pounds keep creeping up. What am I doing wrong?
Sound familiar?
I will usually follow up with this: How many alcoholic drinks do you have a week?
The Heavy on Alcohol
While alcohol doesn’t contain fat, it does contain 7 calories per gram. This closely mirrors 9 calories per gram of fat. In comparison, carbohydrates or proteins contain 4 calories per gram.
Besides directly increasing your caloric intake, drinking alcohol with a meal can cause you to consume more food.
In other words, it can actually stimulate your appetite especially in the short term.
Researchers think that alcohol may lower your inhibitions so you're less concerned about ordering a dessert or extra drink. It's also possible that alcohol can alter your brain chemistry so you receive increased rewards from the food you eat.
After a few drinks, that healthy diet you've been following so diligently suddenly doesn't seem all that important anymore.
Belly Fat
Ever wondered why you are accumulating more belly fat?
The Cleveland Clinic explains that belly fat results from consuming too many calories from any source (including alcoholic beverages).
So far, nothing new.
Because the body recognizes alcohol as a toxin, it pauses its metabolism of other foods and instead focuses on getting the alcohol out of our system.
You see, if your liver is tasked with burning alcohol and fat at the same time, it always chooses alcohol.
The result? The liver has to work extra hard, and calories from the nachos that you ate with your beer are more likely to get stored as fat instead of burned for fuel.
Generally speaking, men tend to stockpile more fat in their bellies. Although women store some fat in their abdomens, fat also piles up in the women's arms, buttocks and thighs. As part of the aging process, both men and women are more prone to belly fat accumulation.
In one study, daily drinkers who consumed less than one drink per day tended to have the least abdominal fat, while those who drank less often but consumed four or more drinks on “drinking days” were most likely to have excess belly fat.
My Take
Is it ok to have a few alcoholic drinks here and there? Look, there is nothing wrong with imbibing (with control). At the end, it all depends on your goals.
If your goal is to be healthy and if you’re not trying to lose weight, then go ahead and exercise, eat healthy and enjoy a few drinks during the week.
How many?
Men should not have more than 4 drinks and women should have no more than 3 drinks per week. (avoid having more than 1 per day.)
Now, if you want to be serious about weight loss, then alcohol should be drastically reduced or removed entirely from your diet.
For a better visual, please check out the Alcohol Chart. It will give you an idea of the calories for each of your favorite drinks.
Also, take a look at the How Many Calories Am I Drinking Chart. That one is great. It compares drinks to foods.
