Alcohol Affects Weight Loss
A lot of people try to lose weight while on a “Liquid Diet”! What I mean is that a lot of people try losing weight while simultaneously consuming considerable amounts of alcohol.
Well if you are serious about losing weight and you do consume alcohol regularly, here are the facts about alcohol and weight loss.
A research paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition can shed some light on what happens in the body when a person consumes alcohol.
Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade spaced 30 minutes apart. Each drink contained less than 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink.
Alcohol Halts Fat Metabolism
Researchers found that for several hours after drinking the vodka, the whole body lipid oxidation (this is a measure of how much fat your body is burning) decreased by a massive 73%.
The researchers also found that only 5% of the alcohol calories were converted to fat. The rest of the alcohol was converted into a substance called acetate. Acetate was measured at 2.5 times the normal value in the vodka drinking participants. This apparently brought fat burning (lipid oxidation as mentioned earlier) to an almost grinding halt!
It seems that alcohol acts like jet fuel in the body! It surpasses all other forms of fuel in the body to become the main fuel of choice to meet the body’s energy needs. The body stops burning fat or even carbohydrates. It resorts to burning only alcohol until alcohol is completely depleted.
Alcohol Increases Appetite
The consumption of alcohol becomes even more detrimental when consumed with a meal.
In a study in the International Journal of Obesity, the researchers wanted to find out the effect of consuming wine and beer on the amount of food consumed. 22 non-obese men were served a meal with beer, wine or a carbonated soft drink and the calories consumed measured.
The researchers concluded the study as follows;
“The data indicates that alcoholic beverages and wine in particular, may enhance total EI (Energy Intake or amount of calories consumed) at a meal relative to a soft drink, when served with no restriction.”
The study seems to indicate that consuming alcohol generally increases appetite. So if you take wine with a meal, the study suggests that you would eat more than you would if there was no wine.
Looking at the 2 studies together, the following could be happening to our avid weight loss aspirant;
- Someone consume alcohol with a meal
- One eats more than you would eat if there was no alcohol
- All the alcohol consumed would become the body’s main fuel of choice
- The body’s fat burning is reduced massively
- All the calories consumed at the meal are stored as fat. Mind you that one would have eaten more than one would if you had not consumed alcohol.
Losing Weight While Drinking Alcohol
Some may argue that they don’t eat when they drink. Well these people would obviously drink more. The alcohol would stay in the blood longer. Their body’s fat burning system would be shut down longer and they would not be much better off!
What is the take home message!
As long as you are consuming alcohol you can’t be serious about losing weight! Not when the research shows that it decreases fat burning by a massive 70% for a few hours!
You may not have known earlier but at least now you know. Does that mean that you can never drink alcohol! Well not really. I just said that you can’t have alcohol and expect to lose weight at the same time.
Why would you spend an hour on the treadmill to burn 200-300 calories and then bring fat burning to a grinding halt by drinking alcohol? To me, it’s synonymous to driving a car with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brakes. Remember that the participants of the study only consumed 24 grams of alcohol.
Get yourself down to the body shape that you want. Restrain from alcohol until you are satisfied with the body that you have. Once your body gets used to your new weight, you may indulge in some drinks now and then. But don’t expect any fantastic weight loss while continuing to consume alcohol. Remember this is not my personal opinion. (As some would go to the ends of the world to refute this claim). Scientific studies indicate so!
A lot of people would insist that they can get in shape while drinking alcohol. I am also sure there are those out there who can. I am sure thought that it can’t be a big number. Alcohol is not a part of Correct Weight Loss.
In Part 2, I shall enlighten you on what happens to men in particular, when they consume alcohol and how this affects their weight loss and their testosterone levels.
Further Reading;
- Alcohol’s Effects on Weight Loss – Part 2
- Alcohol and its Effect in Suppressing Testosterone and its Effect on Male Sexuality
- Alcohol’s Effect on testosterone and How it Affects Muscle Building and Fat Loss
- Drinking Alcohol and Exercise
{ 17 trackbacks }
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
This is an amazing article! thanks a lot for this information.
If the body prioritizes alcohol metabolism over lipid metabolism, there will be a *temporary* decrease in lipid metabolism. But the alcohol will soon be metabolised.
Great! Article! I learned a lot!
!!!
Also, what is a “handbrake” in a car? Do you drive upside down?
Thank you for the nice words. Glad that you found it useful.
A handbrake or a parking brake in a car.
Sure the alcohol will be metabolized but all the food that was consumed while there was alcohol in the body, will be stored as fat.
thanks for the good massages,healthy diet healthy life
hi Paramjit,
You are amazing as this is another great article. As an exercise physiologist I already know most of what you post but I love to read it when you post. Keep it coming,,,
debra
very importance massage thanks
Nicely dispels the the notion that to drink and not eat or minimal eat… loses weight too. Good stuff Paramjit.
Alcohol is like any other carbohydrate, and because it has a high GI and is liquid, it’s logical to ascertain that it would be metabolised very quickly. I don’t think its the glass of wine with dinner that is the problem, but the imbalance in people’s hormones resulting from their activities during the day.
Amazing information! I am sharing this article with others, then printing it out and keeping it posted to my refrigerator!
I quit drinking alchohol few years ago inspite of it’s health benefits since I really want to succed in my fatloss program.However,even though the article made a true statement according to human physiology,achohol still has health benefits.Red wine for example partcularly Pinot noir which has a very high levels of resveratrol that could benefit health through lowering cvd risk if consumed in moderation.There’s no bad food at all,the ultimate judge will be the degree of refinement/processing of foods or alterations & removal of micronutrients.There’s always room for everything as long as what makes up your overall diet is whole nutritious foods.More is better when it comes to wider variety of whole foods eaten.
I have never even had any alcohol in my life, and I never will. It seems there are far more problems with it, or associated with it than not.
I certainly will curtail the serving of wine I have a few times weekly! Thanks for the info.
Yes that will definitely help. Moderation is the key. Thanks for your feedback.
Great article. Guess we can’t have our cake and eat it too, ha! I signed-up for your feed by the way. Keep up the great content.
Hey Paramjit,
A really nice article.Love to follow your blog and hear more from your site