Some people enjoy drinking alcohol as their favorite pastime in both social and cultural contexts, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
In fact, there are studies that state that alcohol may offer certain health benefits. For example, taking red wine may reduce the risk of developing heart disease. However, while there might be some benefits to having a drink here and there, there are a lot of downsides in other areas.
For instance, there are some connections between alcohol and weight loss that you may not know about . Studies have shown that excessive alcohol consumption can slow down your weight loss efforts.
This article focuses on the impact of excessive alcohol intake on body weight and how it slows weight loss efforts.
How Alcohol Slows Down Weight Loss Efforts
Some of the ways alcohol affects your weight gain are pretty obvious, such as its high amount of calories, but others you might have not considered.
Here’s a list of 6 ways in which alcohol affects your weight loss efforts:
1. Most Alcoholic Drinks Have High Calories
If used moderately, it might not significantly impact your body weight. However, a certain percentage of drinkers engage in binge or habitual drinking. Though it contains minimal nutrients, most alcohol is high in calories. Your daily calorie intake increases when you include alcohol in your diet in addition to your regular meals. This can result in consuming hundreds of calories and gaining more weight.
2. Alcohol Can Be a Primary Fuel Source
This is another key factor behind why it’s challenging to lose weight when you are a heavy or habitual drinker. Alcohol takes center stage and becomes your body’s primary priority once it enters your system. Everything else, including fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, is on hold while your body deals with the alcohol. The reason for this is that while your body needs fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, alcohol is not a substance your body needs. As a result, your body is preoccupied with trying to burn off the alcohol that you just consumed. And those extra calories ultimately wind up being turned into fat.
3. Excess Alcohol Consumption Can Affect Your Organs
The liver’s main function is to serve as the body’s “filter” for any external substances, including drugs and alcohol. Additionally, the liver is involved in the metabolism of proteins, carbs, and fats.
Alcoholic fatty liver is a condition that results from drinking too much alcohol. This condition may harm the liver, which could have an impact on how the body processes and stores fats and carbs. It may be exceedingly challenging to lose weight if your body’s mechanisms for storing energy from food change.
4. Alcohol Plays a Role in Excess Belly Fat
It’s not a myth that people get “beer guts.” Twelve-ounce cans of beer have about 155 calories in them, while five-ounce glasses of red wine have 125 calories.
Simple sugars, like those in candy, beer, and soda, are present in many foods and are also high in calories. And just as we stated earlier, the body stores fats when there are too many calories.
Consuming sugar-rich foods and drinks can cause weight gain quickly. But we have no control over where all that extra weight ends up. However, the abdominal area is where the body tends to store fat.
5. Alcohol Intake Can affect Your Hormones
Alcohol consumption has long been recognized to have an impact on hormone levels in the body, particularly testosterone. Your ability to burn fat may be affected by this. Hence, it is easier to lose weight when you stop drinking.
Testosterone is a sex hormone involved in a variety of metabolic functions, such as the development of muscle and the ability to burn fat. According to one study, men who have metabolic syndrome are more likely to have low testosterone levels.
Slower metabolisms are common in heavy and habitual drinkers. However, it is still possible to drink moderately, speed up your metabolism, and reduce your weight.
6. Alcohol Lowers Inhibitions
Another way that alcohol slows down weight loss is that it lowers inhibitions when drunk too much. For instance, if you have a few glasses of wine, your inhibitions will be lowered, and you won’t be paying much attention to what and how you’re eating. You might end up eating those extra pizza slices (which contain about 285 calories a slice) without considering the calories.
Tips
The following tips can assist people in reducing their alcohol consumption and achieving their weight loss objectives:
- Find new hobbies to replace drinking: An excellent alternative to chilling with a drink is to practice meditation, work out, or pick up a new hobby. There are apps like Sunnyside Mindful Drinking App that can help you meet other sober and sober-curious individuals so you can get together and support one another in kicking the habit of drinking too much.
- Set drinking limits: Federal guidelines classify moderate drinking as no more than one drink for women and two for males per day. Thus, you might want to adhere to these guidelines.
- Use smaller drinking glasses: It’s crucial to control your alcohol intake to achieve and keep a healthy weight.
- Have some alcohol-free days every week: It is advised to refrain from consuming alcoholic beverages on a daily basis because they are filled with empty calories.
How Drink Tracking Apps Can Help
Drink tracking apps, like Sunnyside, can provide you with the tools you need to make significant changes if you’re worried about alcohol and weight gain. We make use of tried-and-trusted behavioral psychology techniques to assist members in regulating their alcohol intake in order to experience significant health benefits, such as weight loss. We can assist you with regard to alcohol and weight by:
- Helping you drink less: Sunnyside focuses primarily on mindful drinking, encouraging you to drink less, which can be essential to losing weight.
- Creating a unique plan for you: They will help you create a customized plan that considers your drinking habits, unique demographics, and health objectives.
- Keeping you motivated: Sunnyside also contributes significantly by keeping members motivated. Members remain engaged and motivated with weekly planning, goal-setting, and daily drink tracking.
- Measuring your progress: If your objectives are primarily focused on alcohol and weight, Sunnyside will help you visualize your progress and track actual improvements on and off the scale.
Conclusion
Even if consuming less alcohol or abstaining from alcohol altogether won’t guarantee weight loss right away, it’s a good place to start. Alcohol affects our ability to lose weight in a myriad of ways, so while you might want to keep the fun going you’ll want to consider how it affects your weight loss goals.
However, that doesn’t mean you need to stop altogether. Wine, unmixed spirits, or low-alcohol beer in moderation are options for those who want to keep drinking.
