It’s the Holiday season! For some of us, alcohol is part of the Holiday celebration. Neutralizing weight gain is a tough one if you add alcohol into your daily consumption. Here’s why:
- Alcohol is the most second potent source of calories. It’s fun partying with alcohol but intoxication comes with a caloric price tag. One gram of alcohol is 7 calories. More than 1 gram of carbs or 1 gram of protein. Each 1 gram of carbs or protein equals 4 calories.
- We don’t burn extra calories to metabolize alcohol. Not like we do from digesting carbs, fat and protein. This phenomenon, called the “thermic effect of food”, refers to the energy we use to digest food into small, absorbable components. Because alcohol is so easy to absorb, it enters our bloodstream without burning any extra calories.
- Your liver does the dirty. Alcohol is a toxin. Your liver has to prioritize in metabolizing alcohol and the rest of the calories you consume have to wait.
- Alcohol makes your blood sugar drop. The drop in blood sugar makes you want to eat more carbs.
- Alcohol that isn’t burned is stored as fat. It’s easy to over consume alcohol and put you in a caloric surplus. Those extra calories will in turn contribute to more fat in your body.
Here are some tips to help prevent you from gaining too much of your holiday cheer:
- Drink water between a sip of your alcoholic beverage.
- Pour only ½ a drink
- Avoid high calorie drinks that has plenty of sugar
- Sip slowly
- Drink lower calorie alcohol
The bottom line: drink in moderation!
Cheers 🥂
Reference:
Train with John 