Alcohol is it’s own macro. How do you enter the calories?
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Crafty_camper123 wrote: »Alcohol is converted by the body to sugar, and is used as a simple carbohydrate. So it's going to track as sugar and carbs. So it's really not it's own macro. You could make a note in your food diary to track ounces of alcohol consumed if you want to track the alcohol itself... That's about all you could really do with it though.
Alcohol is indeed a macro and it is not metabolized as a sugar or a carbohydrate. It is catabolized. For each gram of alcohol there are 7 cal that are primarily metabolized by the liver but are also released into the bloodstream and result in blood alcohol content. Those calories can be stored as fat, particularly because the body sees it as a toxin.
Actually, the problem is not that the alcohol gets stored as fat (very little ethanol actually gets converted to fat), the problem is that alcohol consumption puts the breaks on using all other energy substrates (fats, carbs and protein) so that the other substrates get stored as fat until the alcohol has been completely processed:
https://leangains.com/the-truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle-growth/
I've read that before, from a few different sources. What I don't understand is if/why/to what extent that matters. If the overall energy balance is what it is over a period of time, does it matter if some of that energy is "prioritized" by alcohol?
I hope that's worded clearly enough...
I was actually putting that out there in reference to the 'alcohol stored as fat' comment that I quoted... but to answer your question - yes, energy balance still counts and if you are drinking alcohol it does affect the daily calorie totals so you need to log it and account for it.
So over the course of the week... a deficit is a deficit is a deficit, regardless of whether or not alcohol is part of that deficit?
Yes
Thank you. That was always my working assumption, but good to get confirmation.
Sorry for the tangent... back to your regularly scheduled program.1 -
Crafty_camper123 wrote: »Alcohol is converted by the body to sugar, and is used as a simple carbohydrate. So it's going to track as sugar and carbs. So it's really not it's own macro. You could make a note in your food diary to track ounces of alcohol consumed if you want to track the alcohol itself... That's about all you could really do with it though.
Alcohol is indeed a macro and it is not metabolized as a sugar or a carbohydrate. It is catabolized. For each gram of alcohol there are 7 cal that are primarily metabolized by the liver but are also released into the bloodstream and result in blood alcohol content. Those calories can be stored as fat, particularly because the body sees it as a toxin.
Actually, the problem is not that the alcohol gets stored as fat (very little ethanol actually gets converted to fat), the problem is that alcohol consumption puts the breaks on using all other energy substrates (fats, carbs and protein) so that the other substrates get stored as fat until the alcohol has been completely processed:
https://leangains.com/the-truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle-growth/
True also and thanks!0 -
Crafty_camper123 wrote: »Alcohol is converted by the body to sugar, and is used as a simple carbohydrate. So it's going to track as sugar and carbs. So it's really not it's own macro. You could make a note in your food diary to track ounces of alcohol consumed if you want to track the alcohol itself... That's about all you could really do with it though.
Alcohol is indeed a macro and it is not metabolized as a sugar or a carbohydrate. It is catabolized. For each gram of alcohol there are 7 cal that are primarily metabolized by the liver but are also released into the bloodstream and result in blood alcohol content. Those calories can be stored as fat, particularly because the body sees it as a toxin.
Actually, the problem is not that the alcohol gets stored as fat (very little ethanol actually gets converted to fat), the problem is that alcohol consumption puts the breaks on using all other energy substrates (fats, carbs and protein) so that the other substrates get stored as fat until the alcohol has been completely processed:
https://leangains.com/the-truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle-growth/
I've read that before, from a few different sources. What I don't understand is if/why/to what extent that matters. If the overall energy balance is what it is over a period of time, does it matter if some of that energy is "prioritized" by alcohol?
I hope that's worded clearly enough...
I was actually putting that out there in reference to the 'alcohol stored as fat' comment that I quoted... but to answer your question - yes, energy balance still counts and if you are drinking alcohol it does affect the daily calorie totals so you need to log it and account for it.
So over the course of the week... a deficit is a deficit is a deficit, regardless of whether or not alcohol is part of that deficit?
Yes
True, but if you are concerned about muscle mass AND like to imbibe (me 🙂), then macros matter. Those darn alcohol cals really eat into your budget and the fact that the body metabolizes them before anything else takes away from the metabolic muscle building process. I can manage the calorie and macro accounting piece, but the OCD in me wants everything in the proper bucket 😁.0 -
Crafty_camper123 wrote: »Alcohol is converted by the body to sugar, and is used as a simple carbohydrate. So it's going to track as sugar and carbs. So it's really not it's own macro. You could make a note in your food diary to track ounces of alcohol consumed if you want to track the alcohol itself... That's about all you could really do with it though.
Alcohol is indeed a macro and it is not metabolized as a sugar or a carbohydrate. It is catabolized. For each gram of alcohol there are 7 cal that are primarily metabolized by the liver but are also released into the bloodstream and result in blood alcohol content. Those calories can be stored as fat, particularly because the body sees it as a toxin.
Actually, the problem is not that the alcohol gets stored as fat (very little ethanol actually gets converted to fat), the problem is that alcohol consumption puts the breaks on using all other energy substrates (fats, carbs and protein) so that the other substrates get stored as fat until the alcohol has been completely processed:
https://leangains.com/the-truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle-growth/
I've read that before, from a few different sources. What I don't understand is if/why/to what extent that matters. If the overall energy balance is what it is over a period of time, does it matter if some of that energy is "prioritized" by alcohol?
I hope that's worded clearly enough...
I was actually putting that out there in reference to the 'alcohol stored as fat' comment that I quoted... but to answer your question - yes, energy balance still counts and if you are drinking alcohol it does affect the daily calorie totals so you need to log it and account for it.
So over the course of the week... a deficit is a deficit is a deficit, regardless of whether or not alcohol is part of that deficit?
Yes
True, but if you are concerned about muscle mass AND like to imbibe (me 🙂), then macros matter. Those darn alcohol cals really eat into your budget and the fact that the body metabolizes them before anything else takes away from the metabolic muscle building process. I can manage the calorie and macro accounting piece, but the OCD in me wants everything in the proper bucket 😁.
Interestingly I never found that alcohol interferes for me (muscle building or retention when cutting). I do indulge quite a bit but it's mostly wine (not usually hard liquor), my budget is high and it's not enough to affect my workouts, at least not that I noticed. But then again maybe if I didn't drink I'd be absolutely jacked/huge right now! I'm definitely not. Haha.1 -
cmriverside wrote: »I would think that the recommended alcohol intake would have to be zero or close to it...so...it's not really a nutritious substance.
The number of calories in a gram of alcohol has nothing to do with recommended intake. If you are trying to account for alcohol calories you cannot do that in MFP.
You can account for the calories from alcohol on MFP. You just cannot account for the grams of alcohol.
Use the entries derived from USDA nutrient database entries.1 -
Crafty_camper123 wrote: »Alcohol is converted by the body to sugar, and is used as a simple carbohydrate. So it's going to track as sugar and carbs. So it's really not it's own macro. You could make a note in your food diary to track ounces of alcohol consumed if you want to track the alcohol itself... That's about all you could really do with it though.
Alcohol is indeed a macro and it is not metabolized as a sugar or a carbohydrate. It is catabolized. For each gram of alcohol there are 7 cal that are primarily metabolized by the liver but are also released into the bloodstream and result in blood alcohol content. Those calories can be stored as fat, particularly because the body sees it as a toxin.
Actually, the problem is not that the alcohol gets stored as fat (very little ethanol actually gets converted to fat), the problem is that alcohol consumption puts the breaks on using all other energy substrates (fats, carbs and protein) so that the other substrates get stored as fat until the alcohol has been completely processed:
https://leangains.com/the-truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle-growth/
I've read that before, from a few different sources. What I don't understand is if/why/to what extent that matters. If the overall energy balance is what it is over a period of time, does it matter if some of that energy is "prioritized" by alcohol?
I hope that's worded clearly enough...
I was actually putting that out there in reference to the 'alcohol stored as fat' comment that I quoted... but to answer your question - yes, energy balance still counts and if you are drinking alcohol it does affect the daily calorie totals so you need to log it and account for it.
So over the course of the week... a deficit is a deficit is a deficit, regardless of whether or not alcohol is part of that deficit?
Yes
True, but if you are concerned about muscle mass AND like to imbibe (me 🙂), then macros matter. Those darn alcohol cals really eat into your budget and the fact that the body metabolizes them before anything else takes away from the metabolic muscle building process. I can manage the calorie and macro accounting piece, but the OCD in me wants everything in the proper bucket 😁.
I can't help but wonder if the OCD in you is a bigger "problem" than is missing the metabolic building window or whatever else you think might an issue.1 -
When I set up my meals, I have Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert, Snack, Alcohol so when I look at calories from each meal, I can see how many calories come from alcohol. I also add mixers to this as well.0
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