Personal Training

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

How alcohol makes you fat


Before you pass on judgment, cringe and say ‘woa’ Ed what are you talking about…? Understand that if your goal is to lose weight and drop body fat then alcohol is your enemy. Consider cutting it down or eliminating it entirely.

Most of us already have it tough trying to lose weight, drop body fat, exercise properly, and eat better and our increase performance, so this takes it over the top.

Some people jokingly say that alcohol belongs in the fruit section or that alcohol doesn't make you FAT, rather it makes you LEAN against walls, doors, cars and people… LOL

How Alcohol Makes You Fat

-Alcohol first passes through the esophagus as it travels to your stomach.

-From there, 20% of the alcohol is absorbed immediately by your bloodstream.

-The remaining alcohol travels to your intestines and is absorbed from there.

-The alcohol in your bloodstream then travels directly to your liver. It is here that the body breaks the alcohol down, something that is absolutely essential since alcohol is toxic to the body.

-Alcohol brakes down into acetate and acetaldehyde which IMMEDIATELY signals to your body to stop burning fat (note: once the acetate is taken into the bloodstream it is used as your primary source of energy, thus shutting down all process in your body to burn fat). Even worse, another waste product of alcohol, acetyl CoA, actually starts to make more body fat.

What Does this Mean?  

-Your body can only effectively process 0.5 to 1 ounce of alcohol per hour

-How much damage? A 12-ounce beer contains about 0.6 ounces of alcohol. If you consumed 5 of these, your body would be inhibited from fat burning for up to 6 hours. This is aside from the fact that your body will actually be storing fat during these 6 hours! The more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from burning fat in addition to a greater fat build up from excess acetyl CoA. As you can see, one day of binge drinking can set you back days if not a full week when it comes to fat loss!

-What’s the worst-case scenario? Mixing alcohol with sugary beverages promotes even further fat gain due to the resulting insulin surge that triggers fat storage (e.g. regular beer or cocktails mixed with regular soda and/or fruit juice)

-Also it gives you a sense of false hunger which usually leads to you eating more, and since you are not processing all that food it leads to more fat storage in your body.

-How do you feel next day after a night of drinking? Exactly, like shit. Alcohol leaves you feeling tired and destroys your metabolism. Which also leads to dehydration and muscle loss, so after you’ve put all effort at the gym, boot camp, eating well for most of the week you can destroy it all in just one night of excessive drinking.

- Keep in mind alcohol leads to gaining fat, slows down your metabolism, makes you dehydrated, lose muscle which in turn leads to a significant loss of testosterone and that leads to a drop in your sex drive and overall performance in bed.

Don’t be mistaken, it’s not wrong to a drink once in a while. However if your goal is to lose weight, drop body fat and be lean then you must minimize alcohol consumption, even better eliminated it completely while you’re in the zone in your goal to lose weight.

If you must drink:

a.) Choose wine or hard liquor and “light” beer
b.) Limit alcohol consumption to 1 day per week with a 1-2 drink per day max.


If your goal is to lose fat and get in the best shape possible I encourage you to contact me for a FREE consultation of proper fat lose, solid nutrition and exercise programming.

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