What 3.5 ounces of wine can do

themethod

So what is it about alcohol that makes it harder to lose weight? The sugar content?
Does that mean that the same principal holds true if I were to eat a bag of Skittles? Would my body work to burn off the sugar in the Skittles first before attacking my existing fat?

It's the toxicity of the alcohol and your liver's desire to rid your body of the alcohol, before it process stored fat. The liver can only do so many things at once. If you feed it alcohol, it will burn that before it begins to metabolize fat.

From femalemuscle.com:

"The primary problem with all alcohol, regardless of what form it's in - wine, beer, or liquor - is that the calories add up so quickly. At seven calories per gram, alcohol is the second most calorically dense nutrient behind fat, which contains nine calories per gram. When you're trying to lose body fat, all those extra calories certainly don't help with your fitness endeavors. Alcohol suppresses the body's ability to burn fat. When your liver is metabolizing alcohol, fat burning in the body stops altogether!"

And from bodybuilding.com:

"In this study, eight men were given two drinks of vodka and lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 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 called alcohol dehydrogenase mediates the conversion of alcohol to acetaldehyde.

Acetaldehyde is rapidly converted 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 dependant on the amount of alcohol consumed. 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.

(I took out the paragraph promoting a particular author's viewpoint of a certain low-carb diet - continued below.)

In other words, your body tends to use whatever you feed it, and after a time becomes adapted to the macro nutrient intake. Unfortunately when acetate levels rise, your body burns the acetate preferentially, since acetate is basically the same product of beta oxidation of fatty acids and glycolysis (glucose to pyruvate to acetate), but it doesn't' require the metabolic work to produce."

weaklink109

Phooey!! I was looking forward to a glass of cabernet merlot tonight, but ya'll talked me out of it!! :grumble: Maybe I will just eat some grapes instead, :noway::laugh: but it just isn't the same.:sad:

clioandboy

I find that the biggest problem for me is the effect that glass of wine has on my willpower. A square of chocolate goes lovely with wine...... Ooh that was nice might as well finish it...bit hungry now and as I have blown it already.....

I love a glass of wine BUT I am just back to last Fridays weight after a weekend of excess, it is just not worth it