Alcohol & Weight Loss
- Kasey Parson CPT, B.S. Nutritional Science
The #1 question I get as a trainer: I can still drink and lose weight right? Well that depends, how much weight do you want to lose and how quickly do you want to lose it? Let's start with some facts about how alcohol affects the body .
As we all know alcohol is high in calories, especially if you add in mixers.
On top of these high calories , they are empty calories, AKA it does not supply any nutritional benefits.
As many of us have experienced, alcohol also reduces inhibitions, leading to eating trash food and also overeating the trash food, thus hindering your progress even more.
Alcohol makes you less likely to want to work out because you are fatigued and/or hungover.
Probably one of the most critical facts about alcohol consumption is it actually hinders the body's fat burning mechanisms .
Let’s touch on fact #5 a little more. When you consume alcohol, it becomes the first thing that your body will use as fuel during your next workout, instead of the glucose from Carbohydrates or the lipids from fat. Since the body isn’t using these two fat burning fuel sources, they both become stored as adipose tissue, known as fat. Therefore, you could have a killer workout and it wasn’t nearly as efficient as it would've been if you had refrained from drinking.
There are so many benefits, as well, from minimal or no alcohol consumption that many people either fail to see or simply forget :
Benefits of taking a break from booze:
Clear mind
Better sleep
More productive
Save money
More likely to achieve physical goals and weight loss!
Able to absorb vitamins and minerals better
Better hydrated = Healthier skin
Younger more radiant appearance of skin
Better sex! ( Alcohol dulls our nerve endings )
Boosted immune system
I’m not telling you to never drink again, but if you have some serious goals you are trying to achieve physically then I would take some time off to allow your body to reset and to see the change you truly desire!
Emily Stedman August 9, & Stedman, E. (2021, August 10). Benefits of not drinking alcohol: 16 health benefits of ditching the booze. GoodtoKnow. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.goodto.com/wellbeing/effects-of-alcohol-283521.
MediLexicon International. (n.d.). How does alcohol affect weight loss? what to know. Medical News Today. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/alcohol-and-weight-loss#effects-on-weight-loss.
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