Effects of alcohol on weight loss

Alcohol and weight loss are enemies, but an occasional drink can have a place in a healthy lifestyle. In fact, many experts note the health benefits of consuming a single drink per day, including a reduced risk for high blood pressure. If, however, you are exceeding one drink daily, you might be sabotaging your weight loss plans. Alcohol has been implicated as a factor that may hurt your efforts to lose body fat. Whether alcohol is "fattening" has been a very controversial subject because technically speaking, alcohol is NOT stored as fat; it is oxidized ahead of other fuels.

Whether moderate drinking is healthy has also been a subject of controversy. Many studies show that cardiovascular health benefits are associated with moderate beer or wine drinking (which has been of particular interest lately with reservatrol in the news so much), while other studies show improved insulin sensitivity. Some experts however, say that alcohol has no place in a fitness lifestyle.

Dry drinks like vodka and dry wines contain no carbohydrates, but they do contain alcohol. This provides energy at 7 calories per gram and, as alcohol is absorbed rapidly by the body, this source of energy can be used as a source of fuel by the body in place of carbs. The late Dr Albert Pennington, who had considerable experience of high-fat, low-carbs diets in the treatment of obesity in the middle third of the 20th Century, says that alcohol checks the combustion of fat in the body. This is probably true. We know that alcohol does not raise insulin levels, it is not stored as fat and, thus, will not itself make us fat. However, it can stop weight loss. If the calories provided by alcohol are used preferentially, that will mean calories from both glucose and body fat will not be used until the energy supplied by the alcohol is used up. This must have an effect on weight loss.

On the other hand, there is Banting's evidence. He took six glasses of claret a day and a glass of rum or something like that most nights when he went to bed, and still he lost weight. The effects of alcohol on your body when it comes to building muscle and burning fat are quite clear. It is a lot more than just some extra calories stored as fat. If you consume too much, it can derail your goals a lot longer after your head has hit the pillow and you've gone to sleep.