Monday, December 1, 2008

Weight Loss, How Alcohol Will Make You Fatter

By Ricardo d Argence

So much information on weight loss has been put out there over the years. New diets here and a new gadget over there. There has not been a lot of information give to us on the effects of alcohol when you're trying to lose weight. That is what we will look at here today.

Alcohol contains calories like everything else, but there are a few differences. Extra calories from alcohol might not seem like a bad thing, but these calories have no nutritional value to your body. These empty calories are worthless and you will still need to ingest quality calories in addition to these useless ones.

Like other calories, the ones you get from alcohol are processed in the liver. Alcohol calories are kind of like bullies, they must be burned first, this leaves all other calories patiently stored and we all know what stored calories are, they are fat.

Not only is alcohol a bad choice because it inhibits your judgement and harms your health, it is also bad for your diet. Alcohol contains twice as many calories as carbohydrates and proteins. What this means is alcohol provides seven calories per gram as opposed to carbohydrates, which contain four calories per gram. To summarize if you consume four 12-ounce beers you have ingested 600 calories! It is easy to see how prolonged use of alcohol could pack on the pounds.

One last note about the caloric effects of alcohol are the mixers. Many popular alcoholic drinks are actually a mix of different substances. These additives can add to the calorie count in a hurry. For example, one long island ice tea has an astounding 740 calories. In one drink, you could get half of the day's recommended daily allowance!

Metabolism is another key ingredient to weight loss. The sum of the physical and chemical reactions in your cells that produce energy is your metabolism. Or more simply put the rate at which your body processes calories into energy. A study published in New England journal of Medicine shows how alcohol slows this entire process. A person on a 1250 calorie diet where 250 of the calories were from alcohol could see as much as a 36% reduction in their metabolism. In reality what happens is that the calories that you taken in are not being processed as fast as the should be. So you need to be more active and if you are then the calories will be burnt off a lot faster.

Many people who consume alcohol regularly inform that at first they feel much better. On the other hand, you can suffer from depression if you drink to excess, since alcohol is actually a depressive substance. If you are feeling depressed it will feel a lot harder to diet, actually people are known to eat more as a way of comforting themselves. A vicious cycle if you stop and think about it. Depression can cause lack of motivation as well as making you less likely to want to continue any kind of exercise routine.

Water is an important factor in basic health but it is also important in muscle building. Muscles require a sufficient amount of hydration to function properly, without it, they can become weak and inefficient. Alcohol dehydrates the body because of the massive amounts of water the kidneys require to process the toxin from the body.

While a moderate amount of alcohol is good for the system regular drinking and drinking to excess is harmful. Along with all the problems it can cause with weight loss, you have the added medical issues to be concerned with. The bottom line is this if you are overweight and trying to lose it you may be better served by abstaining from the use of alcohol. At least until your weight is under control, if you must drink red wine is considered the safest alternative. - 15437

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