Alcohol and metabolism question

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RGJeff
RGJeff Posts: 32
in Food and Nutrition
Hi-

I have been reading up on alcohol's effect is on the metabolism. I know it depresses it, but haven't seen any info on how much. Does anyone have any solid numbers like- a 6 oz glass of wine depresses your BMR by 10% for one day, or something like that?

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  • drasr
    drasr Posts: 181
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    It depresses the CNS, the amount would vary depending upon how ones body metabolizes alcohol. Its can't be standardized.
  • david081
    david081 Posts: 489 Member
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    Alcohol and losing weight don't mix. I have promised myself a glass of something nice when I hit my target, not before...
  • aimee0515
    aimee0515 Posts: 67
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    If you have 2 alcoholic beverages in one hour (1 beverage = 1.25 oz. hard liquor, 12 oz. beer, 5 oz. glass of wine), your metabolism will slow down 74% until the alcohol is metabolized. If you continue to drink, the percentage it slows increase. The reason this is...is the body knows alcohol is a toxin (poison) and if you ingest too much, you will die. So your body is smart enough to know that it has to metabolize this alcohol to keep you alive and it stops metabolizing food. Once the alcohol is metabolized, your body begins metabolizing the food again. Hope this helps.
  • juliapurpletoes
    juliapurpletoes Posts: 951 Member
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    Ya know.......I do think it is really different for everybody. I've been able to enjoy cocktails in moderate amounts (and by that I mean daily) and still lose weight. Whether or not it has slowed me down is not really of importance?!

    When I began this adventure called "getting in shape" I knew I didn't want to sacrifice everything.......there were still gonna be cocktails, chocolate, etc.

    That said, I really stepped up my game with exercise and cleaner eating in all foods.

    Best of luck - I guess I can't answer your question directly, I just wanted to give input about the controversy of alcohol and weight loss :blushing:
  • RGJeff
    RGJeff Posts: 32
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    Fascinating... I wonder how many hours it takes to metabolize...

    So if my BMR is 2,000 calories per day, that's a little under 100 cals, per hour. a 6 oz glass of wine costs 120 calories plus 75 calories per hour for some unknown number of hours. Maybe 2 hours? Anybody know?
  • aimee0515
    aimee0515 Posts: 67
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    Just an FYI...I got my information out of a medical journal. I do enjoy drinking and was curious about this and did my research. Of course it is different for everyone because everyone's resting metabolism is different. But the studies have shown...that whatever the resting metabolism is...it slows it down by 74% if you ingest 2 drinks within an hour (it was something like 50% if you only have 1). The biggest problem with alcohol...is when you drink a lot, you are less inhibited and tend to make poor food choices. So it will affect someone who is only drinking and doesn't eat anything for the night differently than someone that decides to make a burrito run at 2 am. Not only is you metabolism slowed down...but now for the 2nd person, that food is just sitting in your body and being stored as fat.
  • aimee0515
    aimee0515 Posts: 67
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    Fascinating... I wonder how many hours it takes to metabolize...

    So if my BMR is 2,000 calories per day, that's a little under 100 cals, per hour. a 6 oz glass of wine costs 120 calories plus 75 calories per hour for some unknown number of hours. Maybe 2 hours? Anybody know?

    It takes your body 1 hour to metabolize 1 alcoholic drink.
  • RGJeff
    RGJeff Posts: 32
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    Wow Thanks!

    I made a little error (75% depression was for 2 drinks)

    So- One 120 cal drink of wine affects your deficit by about 170 calories, two glasses by about 315 calories...

    I guess that's not too bad really, but it is noteworthy. I think it might be worth adjusting the calories to reflect that...

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