Alcohol and Weight Gain...

Atrer_Stellae

Atrer_Stellae

New member
I've accumulated excessive pounds over the past couple of years. I've had a couple people tell me that it should'nt matter but I feel that I know otherwise...

I'm sure cutting all the extra beer out of my daily diet would help me to lost the extra weight that I've accumulated.

What are your thoughts on this?

The hardest part is completely cutting it out of my life-style... I can't just have one... One leads to another and then a wake up the next morning regretting the weight that I've managed to put on......

I'm sure that If I stick to the forums I should find all the inspiration I need to get to where I most want to be with myself.

All advice would muchly be appreciated!

XoxoX,
Kenneth
 
I understand how you feel but you need to just say no. You said it yourself .... "I can't just have one... One leads to another and ... ".

You need to cut it out of your lifestyle. If you have one drink or two once or twice a week that will not hurt you, but if your binge drinking than that can lead to weight gain. I am a college student and on game days I don't drink. If I go to the bar I have maybe one beer, (try MGD 64, 64 calories) and then just drink water.

If your buddies are hastling you about not drinking then if you need to have a drink in your hand just tell the bartender to put water in a cocktail glass with a lime or some nonsense like that.

Also, another alternative to going to the bar (just throwing a number out so don't be offended) 3-4 times a week, replace that by going to the gym. That kills two birds with one stone, 1. you won't be tempted to drink and 2. you burn extra calories. (That is what I do to remove myself from people who drink to excess)

Just find some motivation to stop drinking heavily and stick to it. Whether it is to physical look better, or just to feel better when you wake up in the morning. Either way I think you can achieve it.
 
I agree with Buckey04. Alcohol has many calories. A regular12 oz. beer has 140-200 calories. Light beer isn’t much better – around 100 calories. A shot of liquor has 115-200 calories. Mixed drinks are the worst b/c they combine two or more drinks. (Like a gin and tonic has 280 calories.) The point is, alcohol can put on the pounds. Having a drink one or twice a week is fine. Buckey04’s suggestion of getting water with lime if you’re being hassled by friends is a good one.

Also, research shows that alcohol reduces the amount of fat the body burns for energy. You want to burn fat. When you drink alcohol the body is forced to store an excessive amount of unburned fat calories. This can form the “beer belly”.

Hope this info helps. The next time you reach for that beer, please think about how good your body can be without it.

Best wishes in cutting back on beer.
 
I had similiar issues, I am 22 and I love a beer. While losing weight (or maintaining for that matter) think of beer as a "treat", much the same as a take away meal or block of chocolate. If you drink half a dozen beers you are probably looking at 1000 cal. If you have a big night on the grog maybe even 2-3000 calories ( roughly half a lb of fat). Do that once a week for 6 months and there is 25lb.

Make a day once a week or once a fortnite that you allow yourself to have a few beers. I allowance myself 6 beers once a fortnite (I know this is still an unhealthy amount of alcohol but thats another issue :p). If I go over my limit I then add one hour of low intensity cardio (such as brisk walking) the following day to my exercise schedule. It doesn't completly remove the excess calories but it helps.

Try and make a decision you can live with as well. There is no point saying "I'm never going to drink again" if that is unrealistic. If you set an unrealistic goal then you will not stick to your plan and in no time at all you will be back to square 1.
 
Mitch1234 said:
I had similiar issues, I am 22 and I love a beer. While losing weight (or maintaining for that matter) think of beer as a "treat", much the same as a take away meal or block of chocolate. If you drink half a dozen beers you are probably looking at 1000 cal. If you have a big night on the grog maybe even 2-3000 calories ( roughly half a lb of fat). Do that once a week for 6 months and there is 25lb.
Click to expand...

You really shouldn't look at alcohol that way. Alcohol can not be stored as fat, but what it does it when you consume it your body ceases to burn anything off until the alcohol has metabolised.

So it is what you EAT with alcohol is what causes you to put on the weight.

Nothing is wrong with a few drinks here and there, just make sure you don't eat a LOT with it. And maybe stick to alcohol that has been proven to have health benefits like Red Wine.
 
austin_88 said:
You really shouldn't look at alcohol that way. Alcohol can not be stored as fat, but what it does it when you consume it your body ceases to burn anything off until the alcohol has metabolised.
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The basic concept of weight loss is burn more calories then you put in. If you do that then you lose weight. Off the top of my head alcohol has 7 calories per gram. It doesn't matter if it can or cannot be stored as fat (I am not familiar with the metabolic path of alcohol) but what does matter is calorie intake.

So it is what you EAT with alcohol is what causes you to put on the weight.
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I could eat perfectly on my calorie restriction, eating no more then 2000 calories a day but if I am drinking 8-9 beers a night then suddenly I would find myself on 3500 calories a day and not be losing anything. In fact I would probably be gaining. It would NOT be the foods fault either.

Nothing is wrong with a few drinks here and there
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I didn't say anything was wrong with a few drinks here and there. In fact my whole post was about limiting yourself to a few drinks here and there instead of doing it often.
 
So Alcohol can't be assimilated into fat....

austin_88 said:
You really shouldn't look at alcohol that way. Alcohol can not be stored as fat, but what it does it when you consume it your body ceases to burn anything off until the alcohol has metabolised.

So it is what you EAT with alcohol is what causes you to put on the weight.

Nothing is wrong with a few drinks here and there, just make sure you don't eat a LOT with it. And maybe stick to alcohol that has been proven to have health benefits like Red Wine.
Click to expand...

Wow.... I didn't realize all this.... that puts a different perspective on it.... thanks.
 
actually what has been said is incorrect.

I have taken many biology/organic chemistry courses in college and alcohol is directly stored within fatty cells. This is the same as marijuana or any fat soluble drug. That is why individuals who have more fat than lean body mass have to drink more to experience the effects.

Alcohol has calories, plain and simple. An average beer has about 160 calories, a light beer 99-120, mixed drinks 200+. Eating poorly while drinking is also a cause, but a calorie is a calorie no matter how you look at it. If it comes from fruit juice or beer, its still a calorie. The only true calorie free beverage is water and coffee w/no milk.

It also has been implicated, however I have not seen research myself, on slowing the metabolism making it harder to lose fat.


Here are some articles on alcohol and weight loss/gain
Alcohol and problems losing weight slowly
Bodybuilding.com - Nick Nilsson - Nine Sure-Fire Ways To Gain Fat.
Why alcohol calories are more important than you think...
AskMen.com - Alcohol

If you need an actual research article to believe me, I'll try to send a link to the OSU medcenter research page if it will let you log onto it without a username and password.
 
buckeye04 said:
actually what has been said is incorrect.

I have taken many biology/organic chemistry courses in college and alcohol is directly stored within fatty cells. This is the same as marijuana or any fat soluble drug. That is why individuals who have more fat than lean body mass have to drink more to experience the effects.

Alcohol has calories, plain and simple. An average beer has about 160 calories, a light beer 99-120, mixed drinks 200+. Eating poorly while drinking is also a cause, but a calorie is a calorie no matter how you look at it. If it comes from fruit juice or beer, its still a calorie. The only true calorie free beverage is water and coffee w/no milk.

It also has been implicated, however I have not seen research myself, on slowing the metabolism making it harder to lose fat.


Here are some articles on alcohol and weight loss/gain
Alcohol and problems losing weight slowly
Bodybuilding.com - Nick Nilsson - Nine Sure-Fire Ways To Gain Fat.
Why alcohol calories are more important than you think...
AskMen.com - Alcohol

If you need an actual research article to believe me, I'll try to send a link to the OSU medcenter research page if it will let you log onto it without a username and password.
Click to expand...

Actually... no you are not really quite correct. Just cause your taking biology doesn't mean you know everything...

Effects of Alcohol Metabolism

Body Weight.
Although alcohol has a relatively high caloric value, 7.1 Calories per gram (as a point of reference, 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4.5 Calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 Calories), alcohol consumption does not necessarily result in increased body weight. An analysis of data collected from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) found that although drinkers had significantly higher intakes of total calories than nondrinkers, drinkers were not more obese than nondrinkers. In fact, women drinkers had significantly lower body weight than nondrinkers. As alcohol intake among men increased, their body weight decreased (17). An analysis of data from the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) and other large national studies found similar results for women (18), although the relationship between drinking and body weight for men is inconsistent. Although moderate doses of alcohol added to the diets of lean men and women do not seem to lead to weight gain, some studies have reported weight gain when alcohol is added to the diets of overweight persons (19,20).
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Also one of the links you quoted actually goes against everything you said. It says in this article

According to conventional wisdom, the infamous "beer belly" is caused by excess alcohol calories being stored as fat. Yet, less than five percent of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat. Rather, the main effect of alcohol is to reduce the amount of fat your body burns for energy.
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Source: Why alcohol calories are more important than you think...

That website explains that it is not the ALCOHOL that is making people overweight, it's the fattening foods that you usually eat when you are drinking alcohol..

You might want to READ the links that you post before making assumptions about them.
 
Actually, your out of line and I didn't say I knew everything. And I did read the articles, try not posting everything that favors your arguement.

Alcohol in itself has calories. I don't care what your eating with it it still has calories. A Calorie is a calorie, no matter how you look at it. The body still processes/breaks down and stores carbohydrates (which alcohol has tons of) as glucose and unused glucose is converted to storage a.k.a fat. That is why people who follow a low carb diet lose weight (initally) very quickly because there body is not having to store extra glucose, instead it is breaking down fat to be used as energy.

I don't care how you look at it, you still have to take into account how much alcohol your consuming because if you drink 12 beers and each beer has 200 calories and 30g of carbohydrates thats still 2400 calories and 360g of carbohydrates, your body has to do something with them. If it can't burn off that amount of calories it stores them.

Instead of being a jerk about it, you could have just given your opinion. I'm only trying to help the guy.
 
You misread this quote:
According to conventional wisdom, the infamous "beer belly" is caused by excess alcohol calories being stored as fat. Yet, less than five percent of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat. Rather, the main effect of alcohol is to reduce the amount of fat your body burns for energy.
Click to expand...

It doesn't mention the fatty foods that are eaten with alcohol. What it means is the main effect of alcohol is that your body uses it for energy instead of using the fat that would have been used if no alcohol consumption had taken place.

As for the studies (NHANES I + II) they show that people who lead lifestlyes with alcohol are leaner then non-drinkers. This does not mean that alcohol is the cause of the lower weight, what it means is the lifestlye associated with drinkers. For example a lot of college/high school students drink a lot. They also tend to be a leaner age bracket.

If you want to use scientific studies to discuss the effects of alcohol on weight gain use double blind placebo studies, not surveys.
 
Thank you for proving my point. I can't get the studies to cop and paste from my universities website, which I mentioned in my first post. It is highly illegal because they are from academic journal sources. Like I said I'm not an expert but I appreciated the positive reinforcement instead of the negative comments.
 
Wow...

Coming to the weight-loss forum has been wonderful.... all the great advice and information is really preparing me for the journey to better health...
 
buckeye04 said:
Actually, your out of line and I didn't say I knew everything. And I did read the articles, try not posting everything that favors your arguement.

Alcohol in itself has calories. I don't care what your eating with it it still has calories. A Calorie is a calorie, no matter how you look at it. The body still processes/breaks down and stores carbohydrates (which alcohol has tons of) as glucose and unused glucose is converted to storage a.k.a fat. That is why people who follow a low carb diet lose weight (initally) very quickly because there body is not having to store extra glucose, instead it is breaking down fat to be used as energy.

I don't care how you look at it, you still have to take into account how much alcohol your consuming because if you drink 12 beers and each beer has 200 calories and 30g of carbohydrates thats still 2400 calories and 360g of carbohydrates, your body has to do something with them. If it can't burn off that amount of calories it stores them.

Instead of being a jerk about it, you could have just given your opinion. I'm only trying to help the guy.
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I think you misunderstand me.

I am talking about alcohol.
Not carbs.

OF COURSE carbs are processed differently than fat.

I am talking about alcohol calories, not carb calories.

If you were serious about losing weight you would not be drinking 12 beers, in fact 12 beers would probably kill me.
But red wine and spirits are lower in carbs, so they are better choices when it comes to alcohol.

Alcohol does not make you fat.
The foods you eat WITH alcohol and the drinks with a high carb content make you fat.
 
Mitch1234 said:
You misread this quote:


It doesn't mention the fatty foods that are eaten with alcohol. What it means is the main effect of alcohol is that your body uses it for energy instead of using the fat that would have been used if no alcohol consumption had taken place.

As for the studies (NHANES I + II) they show that people who lead lifestlyes with alcohol are leaner then non-drinkers. This does not mean that alcohol is the cause of the lower weight, what it means is the lifestlye associated with drinkers. For example a lot of college/high school students drink a lot. They also tend to be a leaner age bracket.

If you want to use scientific studies to discuss the effects of alcohol on weight gain use double blind placebo studies, not surveys.
Click to expand...

This was my point...
 
Tell you what works for me, holding a cup of coke or similar. People automaticlly assume it has rum or some mixer in it.
Maybe the first one did, the rest were just diet cola! it stops then nagging at me though, and it makes me feel like i fit in also :)
 
wishes said:
Tell you what works for me, holding a cup of coke or similar. People automaticlly assume it has rum or some mixer in it.
Maybe the first one did, the rest were just diet cola! it stops then nagging at me though, and it makes me feel like i fit in also :)
Click to expand...

That's what I do!

Or I hang onto the one drink all night. Its funny how friends can make you feel guilty for not drinking :S
 
I'm with you. I need to have some beers now and again. Instead I gave up pop and most junk foods and fast food. On the bright side I had read that the hops in beer have cancer fighting agents. Now that doesn't mean to drink a case a day but I feel anything in moderation is ok. I also lead a pretty active lifestyle so I tend to burn the calories rather quickly.
 
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