Alcohol and Weight Loss

So you sit down one night and grab a low carb beer to drink, thinking “hey, it’s low carb and it’s just under 90 calories. This won’t have any effect on my fat loss progress.”

Well, think again.

First, your body is always burning fat for energy. Sometimes it’s burning a lot of it in order to recover from a workout, and other times it’s not burning much at all. At the same time, you may be storing some body fat because you are taking in excess calories. But, the cycle continues, your body at some level is always burning fat.

Alcohol though, throws a little curve ball into this.

When you drink alcohol, in the end it turns into a substance known as acetate. When this happens, your body uses the acetate for energy before using any body fat, carbohydrates, or protein. In other words, your natural fat burning metabolism has shut down and won’t start back up until all that acetate is moved out of the system.

Another problem with alcohol is that it tends to increase your appetite. Admit it, you start drinking and the next thing you know your ordering potato skins, cheese sticks, nachos and whatever else is on the appetizer menu. So now not only are you not burning fat because your body has to use the acetate as energy first, but, you’re now taking in a ton of inefficient calories that will end up as body fat.

Alcohol also has an effect on testosterone levels. When you drink alcohol, the body increases the release of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that breaks down muscle. So by increasing cortisol and also decreasing your testosterone levels by drinking alcohol, you end up with muscle being eaten away. This is the reason why you see a lot of heavy drinkers who have bigger waists and at the same time, smaller muscles.

Does this mean that you should avoid alcohol all together? No, not entirely. Having a few drinks on special occasions isn’t going to hurt, you just need to make sure you don’t go overboard.

www.leanbodyfitness.com
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