Alcohol and Weight Loss
Can alcohol interfere with your weight loss program? Absolutely! The how and why is not completely known but here are the facts and the assumptions about how alcohol affects our weight.
The biggest reason is the extra calories you put into your system. Beer has about 150 calories, light bear has 110, a glass of wine can have anywhere from 80-140 calories depending on the kind and hard liquor can have around 70 calories. Adding fruit juices or tonic water and the calories double. When most people are out they usually have more than one drink. Easily you can be consuming the same amount of calories as the dinner you just ate!
The other factor in contributing to weight gain is that alcohol interferes with fat oxidation. This means that when you drink, the alcohol is burned off very quickly before the body has a chance to burn the fat you are working so hard to burn through your regular routine.
Drinking alcohol is also directly related to over eating. When we drink we eat more. This could be because alcohol stimulates your appetite just as sugar does. It could also be that when you drink you loosen your inhibitions. You don’t watch what you eat as closely. Whatever the reason we know there is a link to drinking and over eating.
Now that I am older I definitely feel the affects of alcohol more than I did even a few years ago. I also notice that it is much easier to keep my weight down when I don’t drink. The choice is yours. Just know that drinking can equal extra weight.