Does alcohol really count the same as other calories?

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  • JenAndSome
    JenAndSome Posts: 1,893 Member
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    I drink pretty regularly, too, and have often wondered this. There were times when I was actively trying to lose that I would dread weighing in because I was sure I had gone way over, but I was still losing. Now I'm maintaining and still drinking regularly with no problem.
  • glevinso
    glevinso Posts: 1,895 Member
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    GuitarJerry wrote: »
    There is a lot of good info here. My understanding in reading the research is that 1) your athletic performance decreases. When you workout, you create tears in the tissues. Alcohol slows the process of rebuilding. Research suggests that althetes that drink alcohol tend to experience more injuries. 2) fat is metabolized after the alcohol. So, yeah. That sucks. So, it does slow the process of fat loss. 3) alcohol increase a chemical, maybe leptin, or something else, I can't remember the name, but it increases the appetite for carbs. It's a physical thing that is very difficult, if not impossible, to control. So, that's very bad.

    But, alcohol is fun, and it does have other benefits such as relaxation and life enjoyment.

    Everything in balance, I say.

    My N=1 experience... However I drink EVERY day. Usually only a beer or two. Sometimes a little glass of whiskey. On weekends it is definitely more.

    I am also in the best shape of my life right now, at my lowest adult weight of 145lbs at 5'7", with a body fat percentage around 10-11%. I am just finishing an injury-free endurance sports season that consisted of a full Ironman, two half Ironman races, a smattering of olympic triathlons (taking age-group first place in one), and capping it off with a full marathon this Sunday at which I am going to attempt a Boston-qualifying pace.

    This was my 5th year of doing endurance sports, and last year's race calendar looked much the same as this years.

    I cut back on my beer consumption in an attempt to get down to a better weight for racing, however I have never eliminated it entirely and don't intend to.

    You would be hard pressed to show me any evidence that says my consumption of alcohol in any way impeded my athletic endeavors. Mind you, I can count the number of times in the past two years that I drank "too much" on one hand.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    edited November 2014
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    Sevendust912 wrote: »
    Hornsby wrote: »
    Sevendust912 wrote: »
    If you are drinking 10-12 beers every day you're an alcoholic. I was there a year or two ago, and i am 10 years younger than you.

    I'd suggest AA

    People really are great at reading on this forum.

    You said
    "It's not all that odd for me to drink 10-12 beers each day"

    Not sure how you expect people to interpret that.

    Because if you made it about 10 posts into the thread, you would see that it was clarified, and then clarified again 2 posts before your first post....I didn't ask anyone to interpret anything. I asked them to read, which is apparently hard for some.

  • jenifer7teen
    jenifer7teen Posts: 205 Member
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    What about drinking until you throw up? Will that help you lose weight?
  • glevinso
    glevinso Posts: 1,895 Member
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    jenifer7teen wrote: »
    What about drinking until you throw up? Will that help you lose weight?

    Uhh... no...

    (I hope you just missed a sarcasm emoticon or something)
  • jenifer7teen
    jenifer7teen Posts: 205 Member
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    I think you missed MY sarcasm
  • jenifer7teen
    jenifer7teen Posts: 205 Member
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    or do people seriously say that?
  • glevinso
    glevinso Posts: 1,895 Member
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    Just checking. And yes, people with eating disorders actually think that way and sometimes post about it.
  • baconslave
    baconslave Posts: 6,966 Member
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    glevinso wrote: »
    jenifer7teen wrote: »
    What about drinking until you throw up? Will that help you lose weight?

    Uhh... no...

    (I hope you just missed a sarcasm emoticon or something)

    The interwebz desperately needs one of those.
  • jenifer7teen
    jenifer7teen Posts: 205 Member
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    I will make sure to improve my emoticon use in the future! I just remember a time when words could convey emotion all on their own.... ;)
  • richardheath
    richardheath Posts: 1,276 Member
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    glevinso wrote: »
    Hornsby wrote: »

    Thanks for the breakdown. I guess I am curious because from what I have read, if you drink alcohol, that will be the first thing your body burns as it is the preferred source (Is that correct)? So if you have a high TDEE can you and burn say 150 calories per hour doing nothing, can you "beat the system" so to speak?

    Pretty much no. Your body doesn't prioritize anything at all, there is really no "using up" of one thing before another. Alcohol gets converted into sugar, same as carbs/sugar and fat. It uses a different enzymatic pathway to get there than carbs or fat do, but in the end it is simply turned to glucose for fuel.

    I agree.

    In fact, I hate the "alcohol is used first and shuts down everything else" meme. That simply isn't the way bodies work: we are actually very good at doing more than one thing at a time! Induction of alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver doesn't mean that the gut stops producing lipases and proteinases and amylases or that you stop absorbing sugars from the gut into the bloodstream or whatever.

    In fact, do y'all know that most of us have small amounts of alcohol in our bloodstream most of the time? Even those of you who have never touched a drop. Our gut microbes produce ethanol, which we absorb. Granted, it's not very much, but if alcohol shut everything else down completely, we'd never get any calories from food (at least not until it had been fermented)!
  • baconslave
    baconslave Posts: 6,966 Member
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    jenifer7teen wrote: »
    I will make sure to improve my emoticon use in the future! I just remember a time when words could convey emotion all on their own.... ;)

    Sigh...the times, they are a changin'...
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    This is interesting.
    http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa35.htm

    "Effects of Alcohol Metabolism

    Body Weight
    Although alcohol has a relatively high caloric value, 7.1 Calories per gram (as a point of reference, 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4.5 Calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 Calories), alcohol consumption does not necessarily result in increased body weight. An analysis of data collected from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) found that although drinkers had significantly higher intakes of total calories than nondrinkers, drinkers were not more obese than nondrinkers. In fact, women drinkers had significantly lower body weight than nondrinkers. As alcohol intake among men increased, their body weight decreased (17). An analysis of data from the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) and other large national studies found similar results for women (18), although the relationship between drinking and body weight for men is inconsistent. Although moderate doses of alcohol added to the diets of lean men and women do not seem to lead to weight gain, some studies have reported weight gain when alcohol is added to the diets of overweight persons (19,20).

    When chronic heavy drinkers substitute alcohol for carbohydrates in their diets, they lose weight and weigh less than their nondrinking counterparts (21,22). Furthermore, when chronic heavy drinkers add alcohol to an otherwise normal diet, they do not gain weight (21)."
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    That is interesting, and consistent with my experience.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,718 Member
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    I would think the only cases when alcohol wouldn't have the full calorie count is when it is burnt off during the cooking process. For example when you flambee. Also calories would be reduced if you boil off the alcohol, such as when braising a boeuf bourguignon or coq au vin.
  • amielp
    amielp Posts: 2 Member
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    lol what a great thread. I can tell the ages by the answers. I laughed at lout at rbfdac's comment. Anyone who thinks beers are free calories is probably under 30 :) A good size beer belly is normally achieved in your thirty's ,
  • CupcakeCrusoe
    CupcakeCrusoe Posts: 1,382 Member
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    If he's an alcoholic, I'm in trouble. I drink 10+ drinks on special occasions, too.
    giphy.gif

    But normally one every couple days or so.

    And I'm losing weight. I blame it on the ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-alcohol, baby.

  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    GuitarJerry- I've read it, too. I bartended before and through college and took many 'alcohol education' courses put on by employers' insurers and I think they mentioned it in those, too.

    Though they also said to help sober up a drunk don't give them coffee, give them something fatty like nachos. I'm not sure what the mechanism there was. But I know most alcoholics will avoid food when trying to get their drunk on, so I'm sure it can slow down a buzz. So I'm guessing the body's metabolizing many things at once, but also has some priorities.

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