Alcohol Calories don't count?

CoderGal

As I sit here in all my ignorance, I can't help but make sense of this...but I may be drunk lol. What category does a pure alcohol calorie go into anyhow in terms of food stuffs (fat/protein/carbs/other things that are not counted)? I honestly don't know and I'm not sure how else to ask that. Is it one the human body can absorb? I suppose so?

A calorie is a calorie...yep...don't throw that one at me, I deal with units of measurement constantly. Even though the food world likes to mess with the word calorie allot.

Surely alcohol contains energy (calories). For proof, I've lit some on fire over some delicious strawberries, ice cream, and cracked pepper.

But sometimes I wonder what calories get left out and if it's an accurate assumption not to count them. Maybe alcohol is one of those cases? No idea. I'm sure once you add a bunch of sugary flavors in there people start absorbing the energy. Because we only count 3 types, and not others. That seems funny to me, but I haven't looked into it. And some of the ones we do count we seem to count funny.

Take insoluble fiber for example. Most don't count those calories, since according to some nerds it doesn't change inside the body? However, apparently we partially absorb soluble fiber to varying degrees? There seems to be some argument over to what degree? " In some countries, fiber is not listed on nutrition labels, and is considered 0 Calories/gram when the food's total Calories are computed. In other countries all fiber must be listed, and is considered 4 Calories per gram when the food's total Calories are computed (because chemically fiber is a type of carbohydrate and other carbohydrates contribute 4 Calories per gram). In the US, soluble fiber must be counted as 4 Calories per gram, but insoluble fiber may be (and usually is) treated as 0 Calories per gram and not mentioned on the label.". - wikipedia

martintanz

Interesting theory, but I don't buy it. If anything, straight alchohol gets absorbed more readily than does wine or beer. Just less volume, and if consumed without high calorie mixers, I suppose one could keep from gaining too much weight that way, as long as one avoids late night runs for sliders, chicken, or pancakes.

My guess is, your friend is compulsive generally, and substituted compulsive drinking for his former habit, compulsive eating. So, he figured out that if he just drinks shots of gin, vodka, or whiskey without eating copious amounts of nachos and wings, he can stay thin. So your friend is a thin alcoholic, rather than a fat alcoholic. His mother must be so proud. (I know, snarky, but the snark isn't directed at you, but rather at your friend.)

c2111

thanks for sharing the link, its interesting. Im not a big drinker and when I do its wine. Maybe I'll go down the G&t and vodka route next time Im socialising. My brother was an alcoholic, died at 40 last year it was very sad, he was skinny but thats because he didnt eat anything, everything in moderation is the key.

Lady_Bane

Part of the reason why Im here losing weight is because of calories in the amount of alcohol I drink.

LOL WHAT?

lol Im here trying to drop weight no thanks to my partying lifestyle.

OOOOOO. I thought you meant that you are losing weight because of the alcohol. hehe. My bad :P

Pelly57

You see my friend (despite being 30) parties on the weekend like a 20 year old frat boy. :drinker: He is the guy that drinks and the next day doesnt remember what happened.

One of the great things about alcoholism is how you start replacing food calories with alcohol calories, which still ARE calories, they just don't have any nutrition to them. Oh, wait, no, that's one of the bad things. Drink enough and you stop absorbing nutrients even when you do eat food. Your friend needs help.

This.

Enough alcohol and you don't eat much, if you are drinking straight spirits, you are not consuming that many calories in the grand scheme of things. Then, the next day you don't eat much because you are hung over. He may indeed have a problem.

darrcn5

I am guessing he is throwing them back up. They certainly count.

CoderGal

As I sit here in all my ignorance, I can't help but make sense of this...but I may be drunk lol. What category does a pure alcohol calorie go into anyhow in terms of food stuffs (fat/protein/carbs/other things that are not counted)? I honestly don't know and I'm not sure how else to ask that. Is it one the human body can absorb? I suppose so?

A calorie is a calorie...yep...don't throw that one at me, I deal with units of measurement constantly. Even though the food world likes to mess with the word calorie allot.

Surely alcohol contains energy (calories). For proof, I've lit some on fire over some delicious strawberries, ice cream, and cracked pepper.

But sometimes I wonder what calories get left out and if it's an accurate assumption not to count them. Maybe alcohol is one of those cases? No idea. I'm sure once you add a bunch of sugary flavors in there people start absorbing the energy. Because we only count 3 types, and not others. That seems funny to me, but I haven't looked into it. And some of the ones we do count we seem to count funny.

Take insoluble fiber for example. Most don't count those calories, since according to some nerds it doesn't change inside the body? However, apparently we partially absorb soluble fiber to varying degrees? There seems to be some argument over to what degree? " In some countries, fiber is not listed on nutrition labels, and is considered 0 Calories/gram when the food's total Calories are computed. In other countries all fiber must be listed, and is considered 4 Calories per gram when the food's total Calories are computed (because chemically fiber is a type of carbohydrate and other carbohydrates contribute 4 Calories per gram). In the US, soluble fiber must be counted as 4 Calories per gram, but insoluble fiber may be (and usually is) treated as 0 Calories per gram and not mentioned on the label.". - wikipedia

Additionally, I found the following quotes interesting:
Chronic consumption of substantial amounts of alcohol is not associated with the expected effect on body weight
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1957830
These data do not appear to support the proposition that regular alcohol consumption raises blood pressure by producing a generalised increase in sympathetic activity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3790399
Long-term alcohol intake can decrease the total amount of food consumed when food is freely available...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18471931
The age- and sex-adjusted insulin levels and insulin resistance index decreased with elevating alcohol intake, while fasting glucose levels remained unchanged, suggesting that alcohol improves insulin sensitivity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12393073
Consumption of 30 g/d of alcohol (2 drinks per day) has beneficial effects on insulin and triglyceride concentrations and insulin sensitivity in nondiabetic postmenopausal women.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12020337
Alcohol consumption reduces the incidence of T2D, however, binge drinking seems to increase the incidence.
Long-term alcohol use seems to be associated with improved glycemic control in T2D probably due to improved insulin sensitivity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20556883
There is good reason to believe that regular moderate alcohol consumption promotes insulin sensitivity of skeletal muscle; conceivably, this benefits the protective effects of moderate drinking on vascular health and risk for obesity and diabetes
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11516237

:drinker:

Lift_hard_eat_big

If he's getting hammered off of hard liquor, he's probably not drinking that many calories to make a difference. I drink 2 liters of soda often and it doesn't cause me to gain much weight.

amydee714

A couple of things-
1: I work directly with him all day long (we are supervisors together) and does not drink throughout the day at all except for a gallon of Diet Mountain Dew
2: I have never in all my life seen anybody who can eat as much food as he does. He was recently training for an eating contest and he put down in one sitting a large fully loaded pizza, an order of garlic knots, a calzone, and an order of cheesy breadsticks. Normally for lunch he will eat a footlong sub and a large bag of chips or his leftovers from the day before (which looks like a trough to me! - lol)

I know that he works out like mad at the gym daily and doesn't drink during the week. And while he CLEARLY drinks far too much far too often, he doesn't get blackout drunk every weekend. We have worked together (as in desks apart) for the last 5 years and he is one of the smartest people that I know. But even smart people make poor life choices.

Like I said earlier, I am not certain that I believe this is true or not, I just thought it was an interesting theory. One of my MFP friends also brought up the example of Sugar Alcohols. Those are not counted as carbs because the body doesn't process them. Is it possible this is the same type of thing?

Pandy1962

That's like saying there's no calories in broken biscuits - hogwash.

Half the biscuit = half the calories. You can have twice as many :-)

So are you telling me that the calories don't fall out of a broken biscuit, I have been lied to. :grumble: :sad:

mulderpf

I know that he works out like mad at the gym daily and doesn't drink during the week.

Well that solves that one then.

If alcohol didn't have calories in, I wouldn't be here right now.

ElleBee66

A male friend of mine at work lost about 140 pounds 2 years ago and has successfully kept it off. He does not count calories and has a very specific way of eating (which I'm not going to go into here) but I asked him this the other day:

"How have you managed to not gain back any weight with as much as you drink?" :laugh:

You see my friend (despite being 30) parties on the weekend like a 20 year old frat boy. :drinker: He is the guy that drinks and the next day doesnt remember what happened.

His response what not what I expected. He said that calories from alcohol don't count. He went on to explain that he had researched it (he really is quite smart) and found that it takes our bodies more calories to burn the alcohol that the amount of calories that are in the alcohol. He clarified that this is in just alcohol, not beer or wine which contain sugars/carbs.

I was looking around today and found this: http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html

Has anyone else ever heard of this?

Cheers! :drinker:

I think the line "has a very specific way of eating" might have some bearing on it.

chooriyah

Haha, I wish this was true. I would be at my goal weight already.

tuppence1984

where did you get 200 cals from for a GnT?? I was excited the other day to total up 25ml bombay saphire and diet tonic water was 57cals. Have I gone badly wrong??

martintanz

A couple of things-
1: I work directly with him all day long (we are supervisors together) and does not drink throughout the day at all except for a gallon of Diet Mountain Dew
2: I have never in all my life seen anybody who can eat as much food as he does. He was recently training for an eating contest and he put down in one sitting a large fully loaded pizza, an order of garlic knots, a calzone, and an order of cheesy breadsticks. Normally for lunch he will eat a footlong sub and a large bag of chips or his leftovers from the day before (which looks like a trough to me! - lol)

I know that he works out like mad at the gym daily and doesn't drink during the week. And while he CLEARLY drinks far too much far too often, he doesn't get blackout drunk every weekend. We have worked together (as in desks apart) for the last 5 years and he is one of the smartest people that I know. But even smart people make poor life choices.

Like I said earlier, I am not certain that I believe this is true or not, I just thought it was an interesting theory. One of my MFP friends also brought up the example of Sugar Alcohols. Those are not counted as carbs because the body doesn't process them. Is it possible this is the same type of thing?

I think you have your answer. It isn't some magic alchemy where the alcohol calories disappear into the ether, but rather, your friend works a lot of it off at the gym.

alerica1

You said: "You see my friend (despite being 30) parties on the weekend like a 20 year old frat boy. He is the guy that drinks and the next day doesnt remember what happened."

Then you said: "And while he CLEARLY drinks far too much far too often, he doesn't get blackout drunk every weekend."

Then I say: "Your friend has a problem"....and its much more serious than the calories he's consuming.

Treuthiness

Hard liquor has 65-100 calories per ounce.

But you don't care after 400 calories.

THE most amazing comment. I LITERALLY laughed out loud.

xxcooneyxx

You said: "You see my friend (despite being 30) parties on the weekend like a 20 year old frat boy. He is the guy that drinks and the next day doesnt remember what happened."

Then you said: "And while he CLEARLY drinks far too much far too often, he doesn't get blackout drunk every weekend."

Then I say: "Your friend has a problem"....and its much more serious than the calories he's consuming.

It's not up to you to pass judgement on someone you have never met before. Especially someone who you know all of one paragraph about. Seriously, people on here are judgmental sometimes.

CoderGal

You said: "You see my friend (despite being 30) parties on the weekend like a 20 year old frat boy. He is the guy that drinks and the next day doesnt remember what happened."

Then you said: "And while he CLEARLY drinks far too much far too often, he doesn't get blackout drunk every weekend."

Then I say: "Your friend has a problem"....and its much more serious than the calories he's consuming.

It's not up to you to pass judgement on someone you have never met before. Especially someone who you know all of one paragraph about. Seriously, people on here are judgmental sometimes.

Sometimes? :P

amydee714

This is not about how HE doesnt gain weight from drinking alcohol, it is just what brought up the topic of alcohol calories not being processed the same as food calories.

That is what I found intersting and what led me to the article I originally posted and led me to ask the original question of "has anyone else heard of this?". Notice I didn't ask "do you think thats really how he stays at his goal weight?"