I wanted to touch on Alcohol and Fat Burning.

Today we are examining the effects of alcohol on the body and how you can still enjoy your favourite tipple from time to time without it taking permanent residence on your hard earned abs and 6 pack. Let’s quickly review how nutrients are stored and burned after food.

  1. Carbs and protein suppress fat oxidation via an elevation in insulin. However, these macronutrients do not contribute to fat synthesis in any meaningful way by themselves. 2. Since fat oxidation is suppressed, dietary fat is stored in fat cells. 3. As the hours go by and insulin drops, fat is released from fat cells. Fat storage is an ongoing process and fatty acids are constantly entering and exiting fat cells throughout the day. Net gain or loss is more or less dictated by calorie input and output. If we throw alcohol into the mix, it gets immediate priority in the substrata hierarchy: Alcohol puts the brakes on fat oxidation, but also suppresses carb and protein synthesis

This makes sense, considering that the metabolic by-product of alcohol, acetate, is toxic. Metabolising it takes precedence over everything else.

In a nutshell, if you want to maintain a lean body, avoiding alcohol is a good choice. It’s not just the added calories (alcohol offers seven calories per gram compared to carbs and protein, which contain four each) but the effect alcohol has on fat burning and storage.

Alcohol affects metabolism because when you drink it your body puts all other metabolic processes on hold until it has processed the alcohol. Your body can’t convert the calories from the alcohol to fat, meaning it needs to use them up, and will delay all other fat burning and energy use until the alcohol has been processed.

 

Drinking alcohol affects your hormones as well, increasing cortisol and modifying steroid metabolism in the liver. This results in lower androgens for both sexes. Women with higher levels of androgens and men with lower levels are equally at risk for belly fat gain, and for men, lower androgens mean less testosterone. Not Good!

Drinking Alcohol – In a nutshell ( or a bombshell)

  1. Greatly increases your daily calorie intake. 2. Massively spikes cortisol. 3. Greatly increases sugar consumption so you will crave carbs and sugar the following day. But Rachel I’m going to a party on Saturday Night and I want to enjoy a drink? Of course you do and why not. Here are some strategies to help you. 1. Make the night of the party your cheat meal – and drink whatever you want! Choose Dry White Wines – Dry being defined as less than 1.4 % residual sugar. 3. If you can choose between White and Red go for Red and the best Reds are Spanish Reds due to resveratol. 4. Triple distilled VODKA such as Grey Goose and slimline tonic is a great choice as is Gin (Bombay Saffehire) 5. Drink spritzers or follow every glass of red with a glass of water. 6. On the day of your party eat a protein rich breakfast, lunch and dinner. 7. Take your usual supplements – Greens Drinks / High Quality Fish Oils. 8. Eat a protein rich breakfast the following day to minimise carb and sugar cravings.

 

Wine Varieties

Red Wines include: Pinot Noir. Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot, Marlbec ( Argentina), Merlot, Red Zinfandel. White Sauvignon Blanc, Albarino

 

Avoid BEER & CIDER

The body can’t store alcohol, so it has to use it up first. All the other metabolic processes- i.e. the metabolizing of fat and glucose- have to be put on hold while the body gets rid of the alcohol.

 

Alcohol turns off fat burning at the cellular level.

 

So all in all a little depressing, but if you stick to Dry White, Red Wines, Vodka and Gin the occasional drink won’t sabotage your fat loss. Just ensure you eat your protein rich meals before and after. Go easy and tread carefully. Remember, alcohol makes you lose your inhibitions and you might not need much encouraging to hit the chip shop, kebab shop or 24 hour Asda for god knows what else!