A lot of people have been asking me about alcohol and this, by the way is one of the number one questions I am asked! Well, my typical response is..."It depends, do you want to lose fat?......If you do, then alcohol has no place in a fat loss program." I am not going to sit here and say you can not drink again but when you are drinking, trying to lose weight, and that scale is just not moving I just want you to know why.
What I knew about alcohol, before writing this,was that it's not packed full of nutrition! It negatively affects estrogen and testosterone levels! It's loaded with empty calories! It stimulates hunger~ Poor food choices are made when drinking! With that said, I wanted a more "scientific" reason why alcohol is a poor choice. So on that note, here's the down and dirty on why alcohol makes you gain weight.
Alcohol first passes through your esophagus as it travels to your stomach, from there, 20% of the alcohol is absorbed immediately by your blood-stream. The remaining alcohol travels to your intestines and is absorbed from there.The alcohol in your blood stream then travels directly to your liver. It's here that the body breaks down the alcohol, something that is absolutely essential since alcohol is toxic to your body. Alcohol breaks down and IMMEDIATELY signals to your body to stop burning fat. Even worse, another waste product of alcohol, acetyl CoA, actually starts to make more fat.
What does that mean? It means your body can only effectively process 0.5 to 1 ounce of alcohol per hour. So, what's the damage? A 12 ounce beer contains about 0.6 ounces of alcohol. If you consumed 5 of these, your body would be inhibited from fat burning for up to six (6) hours.This is aside from the fact that your body will actually be storing fat during these 6 hours! The more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from burning fat. That's in addition to a greater fat build up from all the excess acetyl CoA being produced.
As you can see, one day of binge drinking can set you back days if not a full week when it comes to fat loss! What's the worst case scenario? Mixing alcohol with sugary beverages promotes even further fat gain due to the resulting insulin surge that triggers fat storage. (i.e. regular beer or cocktails mixed with regular soda and/or fruit juice equals BAD NEWS!)
The Bottom Line.....If you want the most rapid and lasting fat loss around:DON'T DRINK ALCOHOL!!! Plain and simple. If you "want" to drink, because it's a want, not a must....
A - Choose wine or hard liquor (doesn't contain as many carbs) and "light" beer.
B - Limit alcohol consumption to 1 day per week and1-2 drinks max on that day.
So here it is --the bad news about drinking! I know Labor day is coming up and a lot of people are going our of town so I just wanted to give you something to think about.
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