Alcohol and weight loss?

Naff8000

Naff8000

Naff8000

Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2009
Posts
2,633
I've read on numerous sites that the body treats alcohol as a toxin and deals with it before carbs and proteins which then just get turned to fat and stored instead. From my experience I've found alcohol packs on more pounds than it's calorie content would suggest.
It sounds from this that having 1 beer with dinner would be disasterous but that isn't the case? I've searched around but can't find much conclusive on the subject, does anyone much about this?
 
Alcohol has calories. As a rule of thumb, to lose weight calories in must be less than calories out. With this in mind, drinking so as to exceed your calorific requirements will cause you to gain weight. In particular without exercise (lean muscle growth) with an excess of carbs, this will lead to fat gain.
 
Alcohol does not get turned into fat, unless I'm missunderstanding the op. It gets turned into acetate.

The main underlying problem that you are getting at is alcohol increases insulin, which in turn predisposes carbs ingested with alcohol to be converted to fat.

However, a small ammount of alcohol, like your beer with a meal, is small enough for the status quo to not really suffer.


Edit: Fwiw, it's also possible to lose weight by substituting alcohol for carbs. Take a look at some of the skinny jakies out there.
 
Last edited:
Alcohol can only really be metabolized by your liver/kidney and brain I suppose (which is why you get drunk). Mostly the liver. So when your liver is already "full up" it get's converted straight to fatty acids. Couple that with the insulin rise which shunts fat in to your cells, you get fat. That's why alcoholics get fatty liver disease. The fat can go all over your body though, but especially on and IN your gut (beer belly + viscerol fat around your organs).

When you eat a plate of pasta though for comparison it breaks down to glucose which can be metabolized by every cell in your body as far as I know. So your muscles can burn it up as well, so less get's turned to fat.

I should add that most people's livers are "full up" most of the time. It can only hold about 100g of glycogen.
 
Last edited:
The brain metabolises alcohol?

No, that makes no sense.

Alcohol has calories, even pure ethanol, it gets converted into acytal or something which the body will burn in preference to sugars/fats.

In fact while your liver is busy processing alcohol you can't burn fats at all, your liver helps out in that and it's too busy dealing with the alcohol and it's by-products.

There are other effects to suppress testosterone which also has a negative effect on weight loss as your mbr will be lower.

basically, if you want to lose weight fast, give up the drink, but one day a week won't make it impossible to lose weight at a reasonable pace if the other 6 days are calorie controlled.
 
if u wanna lose weight dont drink simples.....

cut alcohol and bread and all the normal **** ofc for a month and see...
 
Telescopi said:
The brain metabolises alcohol?

No, that makes no sense.
Click to expand...

Although acetaldehyde is short lived, usually existing in the body only for a brief time before it is further broken down into acetate, it has the potential to cause significant damage. This is particularly evident in the liver, where the bulk of alcohol metabolism takes place (4). Some alcohol metabolism also occurs in other tissues, including the pancreas (3) and the brain, causing damage to cells and tissues (1). Additionally, small amounts of alcohol are metabolized to acetaldehyde in the gastrointestinal tract, exposing these tissues to acetaldehyde’s damaging effects (5).

In addition to its toxic effects, some researchers believe that acetaldehyde may be responsible for some of the behavioral and physiological effects previously attributed to alcohol (6). For example, when acetaldehyde is administered to lab animals, it leads to incoordination, memory impairment, and sleepiness, effects often associated with alcohol (7).

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/AA72/AA72.htm
 
A couple of points worth noting, provided I've remembered them right! 1. A gram of alcohol contains the same amount of calories as a gram of fat; something to remember when putting a lot away. 2. The body will burn off alcohol calories before anything else, so not only is it empty calories but it inhibits fat loss during that period.

A beer with a meal won't kill you but remember that it will add maybe 150kcal to your intake (entirely dependent on type and amount of course) and will delay fat loss.
 
I think excessive alcohol use causes bloating as well as increases fat. People that drink a lot if they stop drinking for a few months they reduce their waist size and lose weight. But i think that saying alcohol affects the metabolism and that increases fat, indirectly, makes sense. I have always had a fast metabolism growing up and could never get any fat no matter how much I ate. But after drinking too much over the last few years i have put on a massive bloated stomach.
 
Basically drinking shorts and not eating will provide your body with ongoing energy for the period of consumption, but there will be no storage. This will lead to drunkness and weight loss.
If you wolf down the pints, and throw in pasties at the same time, the pasties can't be burned, the sugars in the beer can't be burned, and are both stored, while the alcohol is burnt off. This leads to drunkness and weight gain.

Alcohol enegry is processed and burned, but not usually stored. Beer contains sugars too, which will be stored, shorts don't contain much excess, but if you eat at the time of imbibing, then that stuff will be stored.
 
I drink alcohol once a month. Used to be weekly. Never daily.

I'm in the best condition of my life, and I'm pushing as hard as possible to get better. I spend £25 a week on meat, for one person(plus I have my sunday roast elsewhere). I used to spend double that on alcohol on a weekend.

So it's a good trade
 
craarc said:
if u wanna lose weight dont drink simples.....

cut alcohol and bread and all the normal **** ofc for a month and see...
Click to expand...

Bull ****. I normally don't write the starred part, but in this case I give you the honour. Exclusion diets are FADS written and perpetuated by morons, and less effective than moderation because they are psycholigically exhaustive. You are more likely to succeed in something you enjoy, and cutting the finer things in life just makes you more of a douche. Eat chocolate, drink bear and anything else you enjoy, but in moderation and along side a healthy, active lifestyle.

Right now I am having a glass of wine before my Sunday roast dinner, I go to the gym every other day, and in the past 12 days I have lost 3% bodyfat. What have you done recently?
 
Last edited:
I lost a lot of weight (10 stone +) only drinking, no food, just booze. It certainly wasn't healthy.

On a side note I no longer drink alcohol at all.
 
BunnyKillBot said:
Right now I am having a glass of wine before my Sunday roast dinner, I go to the gym every other day, and in the past 12 days I have lost 3% body. What have you done recently?
Click to expand...

You've lost 3% bodyfat in 12 days? Thats pretty good going, I've lost a full stone in about 6 weeks. Thing is, I dont want to. I'm aiming to gain, not lose. My job makes it bloody hard though, I burn 1500+ per night just working, then I hit the gym 3 times a week for weight training, which also burns calories.

I'm going to have to eat meat like a dinosaur it would seem inorder to get my gains
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom