Do alcohol calories work differently?

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ChickenKillerPuppy
ChickenKillerPuppy Posts: 297 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Before everyone jumps in, I know that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, and when logging, I treat alcohol calories like any other calories. My maintenance calories are around 2100 calories a day (I'm a 49 year old woman and I weigh 120 pounds, am very active, and have been in maintenance for a few years). But I do find that when I average 2100 calories a day over a week, and for example on 3 of those days 300 of those are alcohol calories, I will actual lose weight (and if I do it for several weeks I'll be on a downward trajectory). However, if I average 2100 calories a day and it's all from food, I'll maintain. Similarly if I eat, say 2400 calories on a couple of days but 500 of them are alcohol calories, I won't gain even though I'm eating above maintenance, but if I log 2400 of just food I would gain.

I have done some reading on this and it appears your body does burn alcohol calories differently, but I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this or has any insight. I don't think it makes a difference but I tend to drink either bourbon or red wine (not beer).

Replies

  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    edited February 2022
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    I'll hazard a guess. It's a diuretic so it promotes water loss when you drink alcohol. Plus that's 900kcal worth of food (and associated salt which would influence water retention) not in your system. Have you tried eating your 2100 calories a day without drinking alcohol for 6 weeks? As presumably you would still lose as expected over a protracted period.

    Another factor could be that is it's easier to measure drinks and perhaps your food logging isn't as accurate as it could be.
  • suzduz
    suzduz Posts: 5 Member
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    I have seen exactly the same thing with my dieting. I only have a 5 oz glass of wine/day. I find that if I go over on calories, it doesn't matter if it's the wine calories.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,643 Member
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    Water weight artifact is my vote!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Yes the calories from alcohol do work differently - the body has no storage mechanism for alcohol (unlike fat, carbs and protein) so it must be metabolised immediately.

    But for the purposes of calorie counting for long term weight loss/gain/maintenance I don't think it really matters.

    Personally short term it can affect my weight up or down which may be down to what accompanies the booze rather than the booze itself.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,170 Member
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    I basically agree with those above, with maybe a footnote.

    As you say, alcohol is metabolized differently, and first, as a priority fuel.

    I do drink alcohol sometimes. I don't notice any effect on my bodyweight different from any other calories, but I'm very oriented to thinking about the trend, not the day or few results, so I don't know whether that creates a bias that makes me miss subtleties. I do try to suss out what causes random fluctuations, and do sometimes see a dehydration effect after alcohol, but it requires a few drinks to see that. It's usually short, one weigh-in thing. (I suspect different people's bodies will respond differently in similar scenarios, when it comes to alcohol and water weight.)

    That's just background, though. My main point is this: I'm also a data geek. I keep an eye on things like my resting heart rate and my subjectively perceived energy level.

    For me, one glass of wine (5 oz/about 30 ml) with a meal has no observable effect. A couple of glasses, even spread out over an evening, and I perceive that my resting heart rate or baseline heart rate goes up a few beats for a period of time. I've also noticed that if I have a pint of sturdy-ABV beer in the middle of my 5-mile walk, as I've done a couple of times in summer, I seem to get a little pep in my step, so a slight pace increase on the final 2.5 miles.

    I have zero science, but it seems plausible that if my body wants to burn off that poisonous alcohol first, it may also have some strategies for burning it a tiny bit more quickly. IF that's true, and the rest of the day is normal, that would be a tiny net bump in CO, it seems like, unless there's compensatory fatigue later (which also seems like could be situational/individual).

    So, I guess my question is: Do you notice anything different, in your times of consuming alcohol, that would suggest there could be some effect of that nature? (I'm not asking if you're an extreme drinker, I'm asking whether you perceive some individual behavioral or physiological effect of whatever amount you do drink.)

    Observing my friends, it seems like some people get vivacious (which is not code for "obnoxious") after a drink or two, like being more talkative, more likely to dance, etc.; while others may get kind of sleepy or quiet. I don't have any science-based idea whether that affects net calorie burn, though, or if it does, to what degree.
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,388 Member
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    I'm just going to go with "diets are easier if you have a drink now and then". :smile:

    I rarely drink at all any more, but did find that when I drank more, watching my weight usually didn't seem to creep in as much. Why I don't know, but I was fine with it.

    As for the dehydration thing, I wouldn't think someone having a few drinks a week would be dehydrated from it. And I know in my military days as much as we drank and trained, lots of people would have ended up needing medical intervention if the impact was longer term.


    I just hope the people struggling don't look at this and think "I'm not drinking enough!".
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,613 Member
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    scarlett_k wrote: »
    I'll hazard a guess. It's a diuretic so it promotes water loss when you drink alcohol. Plus that's 900kcal worth of food (and associated salt which would influence water retention) not in your system. Have you tried eating your 2100 calories a day without drinking alcohol for 6 weeks? As presumably you would still lose as expected over a protracted period.

    Another factor could be that is it's easier to measure drinks and perhaps your food logging isn't as accurate as it could be.

    I would agree with this. Alcohol is one of the few things we consume that has an actual significant diuretic effect. Drain out the water, you weigh less.

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