I’m trying to lose weight and occasionally have 1-3 glasses of wine (fitting into my caloric intake of course). Just wanted to know if this would impact my weight any differently than if I ate the same calories of sugar. Don’t worry, I’m getting enough nutrition from the loads of veggies and meats and grains I eat the rest of the time.
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You can easily have a ton of calories with booze and the acetaldehyde is not good for your gut.
Alcohol(Ethanol) is preprocessed into acetic acid, which then enters our normal metabolic pathway of sugar breakdown. So in essence yes, they will still provide calories.
I asked Bard 😜
Yes, calories from alcohol are processed differently than calories from carbs/sugar. Alcohol is a toxin, and your body prioritizes metabolizing it over other nutrients. This means that when you drink alcohol, your body will use the alcohol for energy instead of the calories from food. This can lead to weight gain, even if you are eating a healthy diet.
So I guess what it’s saying is that the other calories you consume will go straight on as fat?
There are several bad effects from alcohol which make it bad for weight loss. One of the ones I think is worst is that it “basically shuts down your metabolism” to quote the link below. You’re burning much less fat, which is quite bad. It also messes with you hormonally which also leads to more fat gain.
Alcohol also leads to less sleep quality (bad for many things, but also promotes weight gain) and also causes people to feel more hungry.
Alcohol is a very bad thing to fit into a diet for these reasons.
Source: https://www.health.com/weight-loss/does-alcohol-make-you-gain-weight
Fat interferes with a cell’s fat oxidation process. How long it does this varies based on the amount of alcohol consumed and the person’s individual body. It has been a while since I learned that I would research alcohol and fat oxidation for more detailed and actionable information.
One significant issue with alcohol is it impairs your judgment and impulse control. I find I am a lot more likely to eat more if I am drinking, and to misjudge how much more I eat.
Like, when my brain processes alcohol I end up eating more chips. Knowing this intellectually does not change the outcome much.
Your body will process and metabolize the alcohol, before it metabolizes your food, so every time you drink wine, you gain weight..
Dont believe me? Weigh yourself every morning. When you drink, you gain FAST. It has nothing to do with calories and everything to do with your body prioritizing what it metabolizes first.
I took a weight management course, and ONE night I went out and had ONE glass of wine and a little lunchbag sized bag of cheetos for my night time dinner, lol, and gained a pound overnight. A pound!!! I was flabberghasted about it, so I called my nutritionist, and he said it was because of the wine and how your body processes alcohol first.
Get a nutritionist and start a weight management course, and walk daily for 30 mins, and you will have far more lasting results.
Your liver can process alcohol or fat. For self preservation, it will ALWAYS choose to process alcohol and you’ll retain more of your dietary fat.
Alchohol and fructose will make your liver produce a hormone that tells your body to store fat. Glucose does not make your liver produce this hormone.
I highly recommend the talk “[Sugar the Bitter Truth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOCPyheVesM)” or one of the [condensed versions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8G8tLsl_A4) available on YouTube. Dr. Robert Lustig goes into the new research showing how different sugars are actually processed differently (ie a carb is not a just carb). Alcohol is part of the discussion.
Yes and no. The metabolic processes are different. The amount of calories shown on package labels do account for differences, at least on average, they are not raw measurements.
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