Four weeks ago I started in a new diet program at work.  Diet is emphasized here because it’s not really a diet program so much as it’s a new way of living life.  The program is called Nuvita and allows you to track your exercise and calories burned through a watch and band you wear while working out.  You also track your daily food intake and mobility (stretching).  The program seems to be successful and we have a coach that meets with us every Monday to review the program and go over lessons.

Last week, our coach reviewed alcohol and what the intake can do to your body and metabolism.  I, personally, know that alcohol is a huge factor in my weight gain.  I’m pretty sure that if I stop drinking and limit it to only special occasions I will probably see a good drop in my weight.

I wanted to share the document she sent to all of us that discusses alcohol and weight gain.  I’m not a doctor but, it makes sense.  And, it’s interesting to see how long your body haults your metabolism when drinking.

I have written about the effects of alcohol on fat metabolism before.  During my recent interaction with employees, I was asked about this subject.  I was presented with several statements similar to the following, “I eat really healthy, but…… I like to have a few beers. Is that why I can’t lose weight?”  The article below should answer that question.

The main problem with alcohol aside from the number of empty calories it contains is  the effect is has on fat metabolism. A recent study, for example, has shown that even small amounts of alcohol have a large impact on fat metabolism. In this study, eight men were given two drinks of vodka and lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just less than 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by 73%.

The reason why alcohol has this dramatic effect on fat metabolism has to do with the way alcohol is handled in the body. When alcohol is consumed, it readily passes from the stomach and intestines into the blood and goes to the liver. In the liver, an enzyme mediates the conversion of alcohol to acetaldehyde followed by a rapid conversion to acetate by other enzymes. So rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into acetate, the amount of acetate formed is dose dependent on the amount of alcohol consumed.  The more you drink the more acetate formed. For example, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.

Also alcohol, because it can be considered part way between carbs and fats, has more calories than carbs. That’s why even the low carb beers contain less than 100 calories even though they only have about 2.5 grams of carbs and .5 grams of protein. While the carbs and protein only make up 12 calories, the 12 grams of alcohol make up the remaining 80 or so calories.

• 9 calories per gram of FAT

• 4 calories per gram of PROTEIN

• 4 calories per gram of CARBOHYDRATE

• 7 calories per gram of ALCOHOL

Daily alcohol consumption will slow or stop your results. The drawbacks are probably going to far outweigh any health benefits. Your liver can’t metabolize alcohol and fat at the same time. It will always get rid of the acetate converted from the alcohol first. That means that as long as there’s alcohol in your system you won’t be burning any body fat. If you have one or two drinks, you might stall your fat loss for a few hours. If you have quite a few drinks, it might be as long as four days before you’re metabolizing fat again.

If wine with dinner is part of your lifestyle, and you’re not in any particular hurry to have abs like a cheese grater, you might experiment a little. See if you can have a glass of wine a few times a week and still be making progress. If it’s really slow going, keep cutting back the number of drinks until you’re satisfied with the level of your results.