Wine and your waist
Still not losing them last few pounds, and having no success whittling your waist down them last few inches?
That bottle in the fridge or alcohol cupboard may be the problem….
What is it?
Before we plough into the main facts that may seem to affect your weekend, let’s get back to basics and rewind back to them science lessons we all had to endure and now regret not listening to!
Alcohol often referred to in its pure form as ethanol, is made from the fermentation of grains (hence why vodka can be made from potatoes). Fermentation is the process where sugars (carbohydrates) get turned into that great accompany to your choice of soft drink…. Alcohol..
It has an energy content of 7kcal/g, which if you compare to carbohydrate and protein is a fair bit more as they both have 4kcal/g. It is absorbed by your stomach but mostly by your small intestine. As you might have guessed it goes straight into your bloodstream and affects all of your body systems. For example you might be wondering why you struggle to remember your name on a night out, this is because your favourite tipple depresses a system in your brain, slowing it alllllll thee wayyyy downnnnn.
Women are from Venus, men are from Mars….
We all know we are from different planets but why is it men seem to have a greater ability to consume ridiculous amounts of alcohol with all their pride in tack, whereas women just seem to end up clinging to their best friend moaning about their lost handbag contents? It really isn’t because women are useless drinkers; it is purely down to the different physiology of the women’s body compared to the men’s body, that’s right they’re completely different. Firstly men have larger amounts of the alcohol enzyme in their bodies compared to women which handily for men breaks down the alcohol. Secondly men have a sneaky first metabolism point for the alcohol that women don’t have at all, meaning men can break down the alcohol earlier. Additionally women have higher amounts of water in their bodies, meaning that even if two people of different sex where drinking the same amount, the female would always have a higher alcohol level in their blood. See there are many reasons to blame your midnight feast to the nearest takeaway joint!
Calorie caution
As mentioned, alcohol yes does have calories (7kcal/g), which means that alcohol, yes contributes to your daily intake of calories which may be hugely affecting your weight and even more importantly your health.
Although alcohol has calories like fat, cabs and protein it sadly does not offer any other nutrients to our body, nope that’s right not a single one. This is where the term “empty calories” comes from, meaning your calories from drinking don’t offer your body with any additional nourishment or elements that may help your body to carry out its normal functions. Also alcohol is a bit of strange one, as it does not go through the same processing as other food groups do, it just simply doesn’t take part in the normal mechanisms the body goes about, so may be given the term “unregulated energy”.
Every glass of wine or bottle of beer is adding to your total daily intake, meaning your total energy intake will only go up, as your simply adding calories to your body. This in the long-term could add to a positive energy intake meaning that you’re only going to gain weight. Any alcohol also stops fat being oxidised which basically means that the fat doesn’t get broken down and used as energy, pretty much a disaster if you ask me.
Notice that after a few nights out on the town, or a stressful week with copious amounts of wine your stomach may feel slightly bloated or even significantly bigger after that week away downing sangria like there’s no tomorrow? The calories from alcohol that your bodies don’t use up, end up all around that lovely area of the stomach, making them skinny jeans near impossible to get into. To add even more to your problems, alcohol deviously acts on hormones making more fat deposit around the waist, and also causes salt to be retained in the body. Not only will your jeans not fit, but all of this will contribute to an increase in blood pressure in the long run, and then a variety of health problems.
Obviously I’m not trying to be a complete Debbie downer on alcohol, but it is important to realise the effects of over-doing it and how this may impact your health long term. If your current goal is weight loss in any form or even gaining lean muscle, alcohol intake is something you should really look at and maybe discuss with a nutritionist to really benefit from any programme you may be on. Although it may sound crazy thinking about the impact alcohol has on weight gain but even two glasses of wine is around 360 kcal equal to 3 maple glazed krispy Kreme doughnuts, now who’s the crazy lady?
