Alcoholic drinks have a shit ton of calories, but I personally know many skinny people who drink an insane amount of beer & liquor. Even if they didn’t eat anything, the calories from the drinking alone should be enough for them to put on weight. How come they don’t? Does the body lose it’s ability to take in the energy properly if it’s mostly coming from alcohol?
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Addiction doctor here: a lot of valid points have been raised such as poor overal nutrient intake in alcoholics, alcohol damaging cells in the body which need energy intensive repairs and decreased nutrient absorption. However, a very important point has been missed in previous comments. In a non- alcohol addicted human alcohol is mainly broken down by alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes in the liver. The resulting chemical, acetyl aldehyde is then broken down further, this process is net energy positive. However, in an alcohol addicted individual a collateral process is upregulated to ensure the high amount of alcohol in the body is broken down. This process uses the so called microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS) which when up regulated can become the main way of processing alcohol in the body. This process is a net negative in terms of energy meaning the ingestion of alcohol can become an outlet as opposed to source of energy for these individuals. This is supposedly a big reason end-stage alcoholics are so thin, especially those who drink alcohol types without high carbohydrate contents.
For more info see:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsomal_ethanol_oxidizing_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsomal_ethanol_oxidizing_system)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_dehydrogenase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_dehydrogenase)
Alcohol metabolism provides nutrition for healthy humans. But people who drink a lot stop being healthy very soon. The intermediate substance in alcohol metabolism, acetaldehyde, is toxic and does a lot of damage. It’s not a good or safe way of getting energy. Eventually you lose the ability to metabolize alcohol with a net energy profit.
This, and you will also forget to eat a lot.
Drinking becomes more important than eating. Drinking does horrible things that mess up your guts. Don’t drink to excess kids.
Unless you’re drinking mixed drinks or highly potent beer it’s really not that much compared to pretty much any other drink. Most alcoholics drink straight liquor/crappy beer which does at up but I’ve honestly seen way more fat people who don’t even realize that they’re getting fat from their coffee (especially Starbucks goers) or soda consumption.
But the term beer belly does come from something.
It’s possible to be an alcoholic and still functional and health-conscious. It was one of the ways I convinced myself I didn’t have a problem. I’d cook healthy food and go for daily 5 mile walks. I was just constantly buzzed from drinking wine all day every day, I’d even bring a flask of wine on my walks. Then my liver gave out one day and I ended up in hospital for nearly a month.
One of my friends had a brief stint in severe alcoholism.
After several years of binge drinking, he suddenly didn’t crave food anymore and had zero appetite. It worried him that he would skip several meals for days on end but just kept drinking more and more.
He was losing weight and some of his friends kept cheering him on saying, “Yeah! lose that gut!” But he went to go see a doctor who didn’t say anything other than that he just needed to quit drinking.
Doctor here. They tend not to eat that much at all. Which is why when we admit them we have to supplement all sorts of stuff, classically B12. They get their calories but no micronutrients.
I was a heavy alcoholic for like 15 years, (two years sober now) and Im skinny as hell. I just drank. Sleep, work, drink, and repeat. No eat. So I was heavily malnourished, getting all my calories from alcohol, depression, and anger lol.
I drink hard liquor most days of the week. It absolutely kills my appetite the next day. The more I drink, the less I eat. I’m not overweight
1. We choose drinks over food
2. We live on coffee during the day
3. Dancing, fucking and fighting burns calories
4. Our insides get destroyed
5. Grog bogs
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