I can't tell you how many times I have worked with clients who have eaten well or have been cutting back on the carbs for a few weeks trying to drop a few extra lbs and the scale still doesn’t budge. When asked what they are drinking they respond with " I have a couple of glasses of red wine a night, you know, for the health benefits" or " I drink heavily on the weekends but don’t touch the stuff during the week." The funny thing is that most people don’t think that drinking alcohol has that much to do with their diet or they CHOOSE not to include those few glasses of wine a day in their food journals because they have read that it is healthy for their heart and counts as a supplement.
Sadly, alcohol (sorry that includes red wine) has a lot of calories. Your heart healthy red wine has an average of 160 calories per glass (now, are you having just one glass??), an average pint of beer has around 200 and your summery mojito is costing you a whopping 350 calories!! So, if you are cutting back to 1400 calories to lose some weight and are still drinking 2 glasses of wine each evening you are only leaving yourself 1080 calories for nutritious food per day. Or, if you are choosing not to count the booze you are going OVER your target caloric intake by 320 calories. Even if you do count alcohol in your diet and stay within range you still may not be burning more calories than you are consuming. That’s right!.....You know that you need to eat less calories than your burn each day but did you know that alcohol can prohibit you from burning those calories??.......
Here is a clip of an article from www.thefactsaboutfitness.com that explains better than I can how alcohol can be the big factor in preventing weight loss:
Rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into a substance called acetate. In fact, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.
A car engine typically uses only one source of fuel. Your body, on the other hand, draws from a number of different energy sources, such as carbohydrate, fat, and protein. To a certain extent, the source of fuel your body uses is dictated by its availability.
In other words, your body tends to use whatever you feed it. Consequently, when acetate levels rise, your body simply burns more acetate, and less fat. In essence, acetate pushes fat to the back of the queue.
So, to summarize and review, here's what happens to fat metabolism after the odd drink or two.
- A small portion of the alcohol is converted into fat.
- Your liver then converts most of the alcohol into acetate.
- The acetate is then released into your bloodstream, and replaces fat as a source of fuel.
The way your body responds to alcohol is very similar to the way it deals with excess carbohydrate. Although carbohydrate can be converted directly into fat, one of the main effects of overfeeding with carbohydrate is that it simply replaces fat as a source of energy.
The moral of this story is, if you are a drinker in moderation or a weekend bender alcohol is probably inhibiting your fitness goals. So, lay off the sauce!
If you would like support in backing off alcohol to help with the success of your wellness goals, I would like to invite you to use this blog as a forum and positive support system along your way to success. Comments, questions and frustrations are all welcome!