Alchohol and weight

slay0r

Hey guys,

Bit of a random one but has anyone found since they lost weight they can drink more?

Say I had 4/5 pints of beer here in the uk and got 4/5 hours sleep I'd feel like absolute death in the morning when I was fat.

Then I lost 9 stone + (130+lb) stopped drinking for over a year and now I can handle any amount?

THE QUESTION: Do you burn it out of your body faster or something the fitter you are?

PercivalHackworth

Bump, I'll answer later, if the folks haven't meanwhile I'm just late :laugh:

slay0r

Haha fair enough!

kasebrad

I've definitely found the opposite to be true. When I was heavier, I could go out drinking all night with my friends and be fine in the morning. Now just one or two drinks will disrupt my sleep and give me a migraine the next day. To be fair though, I hardly ever drink now (cutting back really helped with weight loss), so maybe my tolerance is way low.

tigersword

Hangovers from drinking come from dehydration. The more body fat you have, the less water your body stores (relative to overall size.) Yes, losing weight helps the body maintain hydration levels better, which leads to less hangovers.

slay0r

That actually makes sense. I'm much more clued up on my hydration these days as well while I wasn't previously. Could be why Not complaining much although it makes it more expensive!

ChristinaOlliver

That makes a lot of sense! I've found that now I can't drink as much as I could when I was slimmer but I never thought that weight was something to do with it. You'd think it would be the other way round lol

Colofit

The opposite for me... I have always been able to handle my drink (it's a family trait...sadly) but now I have lost my weight I have to be careful cuz I get buzzed pretty quick! Fun! Haha

temp666777

The problem is CARBOHYDRATES.

In a word, alcohol + carbohydrates == massive increase in body fat.

However if YOU ARE IN FACT someone who has a very moderate carb intake, I can personally attest that prue alcohol intake, as such, does not - necessarily - lead to body fat.

(I drank a massive, indeed ridiculous, amount of wine while losing 30-40 kg. (70, 80 pounds.) HOWEVER it is essential to realise I have a really precise controlled intake of 72 grams carbs per day, only, unvarying, all year, the magic number.)

in a word - forget beer. you can never drink it. it is the "perfect" potion of alcohol plus carbohydrates. Just forget it. You can never drink beer - it's out.

**IF** you are a Dr Lutz devotee, and you are eating 72 grams CHO per day, exactly, month in and month out, and your pancreas is already healed ... in my opinion, the opinion of many, and my overwhelming experiecne, wine (alcohol, but no carbs) has no effect on FAT loss. But that's JUST ME and it ONLY applies to Dr Lutz devotees ... 72 grams carbs per day strictly forever.

Again, regarding beer. It's out. Just forget about it, like it doesn't exist in the universe. No person interested in body fat issues, can drink beer at all.

Beer == simply the ultimate body fat builder.

You can never, ever drink beer - it's gone.

mmapags

The problem is CARBOHYDRATES.

In a word, alcohol + carbohydrates == massive increase in body fat.

However if YOU ARE IN FACT someone who has a very moderate carb intake, I can personally attest that prue alcohol intake, as such, does not - necessarily - lead to body fat.

(I drank a massive, indeed ridiculous, amount of wine while losing 30-40 kg. (70, 80 pounds.) HOWEVER it is essential to realise I have a really precise controlled intake of 72 grams carbs per day, only, unvarying, all year, the magic number.)

in a word - forget beer. you can never drink it. it is the "perfect" potion of alcohol plus carbohydrates. Just forget it. You can never drink beer - it's out.

**IF** you are a Dr Lutz devotee, and you are eating 72 grams CHO per day, exactly, month in and month out, and your pancreas is already healed ... in my opinion, the opinion of many, and my overwhelming experiecne, wine (alcohol, but no carbs) has no effect on FAT loss. But that's JUST ME and it ONLY applies to Dr Lutz devotees ... 72 grams carbs per day strictly forever.

Again, regarding beer. It's out. Just forget about it, like it doesn't exist in the universe. No person interested in body fat issues, can drink beer at all.

Beer == simply the ultimate body fat builder.

You can never, ever drink beer - it's gone.

Gee, I drink beer, and mix lifting heavy with some cardio and I'm dropping body fat at the rate of 1 to 1.5 % per month. How would you explain that?

kasebrad

Hangovers from drinking come from dehydration. The more body fat you have, the less water your body stores (relative to overall size.) Yes, losing weight helps the body maintain hydration levels better, which leads to less hangovers.

Very true, though unfortunately it doesn't help me much! I drink A TON of water before and after drinking alcohol, but I still usually manage to get a hangover (or at the very least, a headache). I'm sure it would be way worse if I didn't hydrate though.

tigersword

The problem is CARBOHYDRATES.

In a word, alcohol + carbohydrates == massive increase in body fat.

However if YOU ARE IN FACT someone who has a very moderate carb intake, I can personally attest that prue alcohol intake, as such, does not - necessarily - lead to body fat.

(I drank a massive, indeed ridiculous, amount of wine while losing 30-40 kg. (70, 80 pounds.) HOWEVER it is essential to realise I have a really precise controlled intake of 72 grams carbs per day, only, unvarying, all year, the magic number.)

in a word - forget beer. you can never drink it. it is the "perfect" potion of alcohol plus carbohydrates. Just forget it. You can never drink beer - it's out.

**IF** you are a Dr Lutz devotee, and you are eating 72 grams CHO per day, exactly, month in and month out, and your pancreas is already healed ... in my opinion, the opinion of many, and my overwhelming experiecne, wine (alcohol, but no carbs) has no effect on FAT loss. But that's JUST ME and it ONLY applies to Dr Lutz devotees ... 72 grams carbs per day strictly forever.

Again, regarding beer. It's out. Just forget about it, like it doesn't exist in the universe. No person interested in body fat issues, can drink beer at all.

Beer == simply the ultimate body fat builder.

You can never, ever drink beer - it's gone.

Considering wine has far more sugar and carbs than beer, ounce for ounce, this is by far the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.

wackyfunster

The problem is CARBOHYDRATES.

In a word, alcohol + carbohydrates == massive increase in body fat.

However if YOU ARE IN FACT someone who has a very moderate carb intake, I can personally attest that prue alcohol intake, as such, does not - necessarily - lead to body fat.

(I drank a massive, indeed ridiculous, amount of wine while losing 30-40 kg. (70, 80 pounds.) HOWEVER it is essential to realise I have a really precise controlled intake of 72 grams carbs per day, only, unvarying, all year, the magic number.)

in a word - forget beer. you can never drink it. it is the "perfect" potion of alcohol plus carbohydrates. Just forget it. You can never drink beer - it's out.

**IF** you are a Dr Lutz devotee, and you are eating 72 grams CHO per day, exactly, month in and month out, and your pancreas is already healed ... in my opinion, the opinion of many, and my overwhelming experiecne, wine (alcohol, but no carbs) has no effect on FAT loss. But that's JUST ME and it ONLY applies to Dr Lutz devotees ... 72 grams carbs per day strictly forever.

Again, regarding beer. It's out. Just forget about it, like it doesn't exist in the universe. No person interested in body fat issues, can drink beer at all.

Beer == simply the ultimate body fat builder.

You can never, ever drink beer - it's gone.

If there was an award for being wrong, you would have just won. Congrats.

Real answer:
Caloric surplus = fat gain
Alcohol + caloric surplus = even more fat gain

If you want to experiment, eat 6000 calories of fatty meat (delicious prime ribeye perhaps?), no carbs (or "72 grams"), and drink a ton of vodka (no carbs), and see what happens.

bazfitness

I've the opposite reaction also - the fitter I am the less I'm able to drink. Of course the times I'm fitter also correspond to the times I'm drinking less, so when I'm fitter I'm less used to alcohol and it hits me harder and quicker. So in short any degree of heavy drinking is just not conducive to a healthy lifestyle - speaking from experience unfortunately

Regarding temp666777 post - personally I think I bloat up more after beer. Can't say for sure if it's REALLY worse than wine for gaining fat. I am however always weary of any statement that tries to claim exclusivity over an element of fitness or indeed anything in life. As in you can only achieve such and such by doing it this way... hence alarm bells at this... "But that's JUST ME and it ONLY applies to Dr Lutz devotees"

temp666777

"Considering wine has far more sugar and carbs than beer, ounce for ounce, this is by far the most ridiculous thing I've ever read."

Hmm, you can very simply look up the carbohydrate and calorie amounts for beer and for wine.

It is extremely simple to do this - in fact , you could use my fitness pal!

militarydreams

Oh dear... the OP was asking why they can drink more now that they've lost weight.

This thread has turned into a carb discussion. Lets face it, we all know that you're not magically going to gain weight if you eat carbs, it's still a case of calories in and out.

4rgl

Actually it makes sense that you can drink more as you have gotten fitter especially if you have put on some muscle.

To explain, first some science.
Alcohol is highly soluble in water.
Muscle tissue contains way more water than fat tissue.
Therefore Alcohol tends to get distributed mostly in tissues rich in water or in other words muscle.

Now imagine 2 people who weigh the same, say 165 lbs. One of these guys has a significantly lower fat percentage and has a lot of muscle. The other guy is quite a but shorter and has more fat.
Both guys have 5 of the same drinks in 2 hours.
The fatter guy will have a higher blood alcohol level.

This is because:
Fit guy has more muscle, meaning more water for the alcohol to dilute itself in. Less concentrated, therefore less drunk.
Fat guy has less muscle, meaning less water for the alcohol to dilute itself in. More concentrated, therefore more drunk.

I hope that made sense

temp666777

"If there was an award for being wrong, you would have just won. Congrats.

Real answer:
Caloric surplus = fat gain
Alcohol + caloric surplus = even more fat gain

If you want to experiment, eat 6000 calories of fatty meat (delicious prime ribeye perhaps?), no carbs (or "72 grams"), and drink a ton of vodka (no carbs), and see what happens."

Hmm, I've got a feeling you have very little or perhaps no knowledge in this field, Wacky.

You realise that the ketone chain is totally not-yet-understood by science?

Right?

Since you are implying you have vastly more scientific knowledge than the current state of the art, can you explain exactly your opinion (presumably, again, far in advance of current scientific knowledge) of specifically how "alcohol" will lead to "triglycerides in your fat cells"?

When you say "6000 calories of meat" (what's that, like 7 kg of lean meat, say chicken breast) - what do you mean?

Doing that ONCE, or EVERY DAY, or PER WEEK, or what?

How much vodka is a "ton"? Do you mean something specific, or ...?

One example does not equal proof, but I personally very easily lost 30kg+, by eating more or less exactly what you say in parody - plenty of protein, 72 grams of CHO molecules each day, and I did drink a ridiculous amount of wine (say, 3 to 8 bottles a week).

I'm pretty familiar with (what little is currently known about) fat biochemistry, I'd absolutely love to hear any new ideas you have on the ketone chain.

OK. So, let's hear your science:

So "alcohol" hits, what, your liver ?-- and what happens? You tell me.

By the way for non-technical readers there's a fascinating, slightly bizarre, book on this topic, it's called "The drinking man's diet"...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Drinking-Mans-Diet-Willpower/dp/091868465X

published way back in 1964 !!!

BTW nobody reading this should suddenly start drinking lots of vodka, unless you have MASSIVELY investigated the science involved, read everything on the topic, and run careful tests on yourself week over week!

Do not take anything here as a license to drink while expecting to lose weight

AliceKlaar

Funny you should say that OP - I've drastically cut down on my drinking since I've been on here but I went out on the lash the other night and had 6 pints of guinness without too many ill effects - 4 would normally have been my limit back in the day and I'd have been nursing a two day hangover! I don't intend to make a habit of it but I was quite (pleasantly) surprised that my tolerance seems to have increased - cheers! :drinker:

Angelabec

Personally, I've found I get drunker quicker now that I am smaller, but I am still a lot overweight, and haven't built up any muscle, so maybe when I get to goal and am fitter I'll regain my drinking prowess

I can't even be bothered to comment on the other stuff! :noway:

temp666777

"Gee, I drink beer, and mix lifting heavy with some cardio and I'm dropping body fat at the rate of 1 to 1.5 % per month. How would you explain that?"

MMA, there is no mystery. It's fantastic that you are losing weight and fantastic you have lost 11 pounds.

There are all sorts of ways to lose weight -- A person can lose weight by eating a massive amount of food and exercising an incredible amount; or, you can lose weight by the yucky "original atkins" method of protein only and nothing else. Or, You can lose weight eating a huge amounts of carbs, and almost nothing else and a spectacular amount of exercise. (You'll be incredibly unhealthy, but you'll lose fat.) Or, you can lose weight by plain starving yourself. There are many different ways.

The question at hand in this thread here is simply "alcohol".

All the science suggests that the problem with alcohol is:

WHEN IT IS INGESTED WITH CARBS.

(This is simple and obvious and passes the common sense test if you think of the insulin chain.)

OK?

Beer has much more carbs than wine, so, wine's "better" than beer in the "taken with carbs" sense -- indeed, pure alcohols (vodka) are even "better" again.

Regarding your own very specific case. Look at it this way. You're currently losing weight - fantastic.

I suggest that if you replace beer with vodka (and DO NOT eat any carbs near the time you ingest vodka), quite simply, you'll lose more weight and (most importantly) more easily.

I think the point to emphasise is that all current science suggests ( -- although this is a fresh new topic in body science -- ) that the problem with alcohol is when it is present WITH carbohydrates (i.e. when your pancreas has been activated).

Again, if you're saying you know of one person (you) who has "lost weight with beer" that's great, but try swapping out beer for vodka+no carbs at the time of drinking, and you might get a pleasant surprise, ie, even more dramatic results.