Here’s the truth: Yes, alcohol does make you fat.
A couple of drinks on the weekend can actually ruin your entire week’s diet.
In short, if you want to succeed in your diet you are going to have to cut out almost all alcoholic drinks form your diet.
There are a number of reasons that alcohol is terrible for your diet and I’ll go over them in detail below.
Alcohol has one of the highest calories per gram.
Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, which is much higher than the 4 found in protein and carbohydrates, but a little less than the 9 found in fat.
Now, think of how many grams of alcohol are in just one beer or shot of vodka. A standard drink is equal to about 14 grams of alcohol. That means that one standard drink contains 98 calories.
That’s a crazy amount considering no one stops at just one drink. You could easily be drinking 500+ calories in one night.
Most people drink while munching on something.
Alcohol causes a craving for food and of course, it doesn’t cause you to crave healthy foods.
Alcohol doesn’t provide your body with many nutrients to function, which is why your body craves food when you drink.
Now, on top of the calories provided by the alcohol, you are also consuming a surplus of calories from food that you wouldn’t normally be eating. Can you say weight gain?
Alcohol gets burned by your body before anything else.
Usually, while on a diet, fat is first in line to be burned because of the exercising you have been doing.
When consuming alcohol, it immediately jumps to being the first thing burned by your body.
Alcohol is broken up into acetate and fat when it enters your body. The fat gets stored away and the acetate is what your body uses as energy.
Your body burns the calories provided by alcohol first and delays the burning of any fat, carbs, and protein you have previously consumed. So, not only are you added a surplus of calories, you are actually delaying the burning of fat.
Alcohol causes laziness.
After a while, alcohol causes you to become drowsy and lethargic.
It doesn’t care that you are supposed to have an active lifestyle while on a diet.
And think about the day after. You don’t really want to do anything but sit on the couch and watch TV with a hangover, right?
What would you recommend?
While you don’t have to completely give up alcohol all together, you should cut most of it out of your diet.
Instead of going out and getting smashed, I’d recommend one glass of red wine. Red wine provides your body with benefits because it’s rich in antioxidants.
Just remember to limit alcohol from your diet and you shouldn’t have to worry about gaining excess weight.
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