Losing Weight And Social Drinking
What happens when we go out? How do we control our energy intake if we have a business
lunch in a restaurant or attend a friend's party at the local pub?
We've been told that it is okay to eat most foods as long as we eat them in moderation. When was the last time you ate in moderation when you were at a restaurant? Probably never? Why? Moderation does not come into our thoughts when we dine out or grab some takeaway, because what dominates our thoughts is 'value for money', a common theme in the etiology of energy density and weight gain.
There is also the social and even cultural aspect of dining out. When the party is in full swing, and after a glass or two of red, you say to yourself, the diet starts on Monday. You are out to have fun, and cutting back or cutting down on food is not fun!
Once again consider the last time you ate in moderation when you dined out at a restaurant. Did it mean that you ate so much that you could barely walk, or did it mean that you just did not go back for your third helping of food?
Did it mean that you ate less food but made up for it in the alcohol department, drinking four glasses of red wine instead of two? Did it mean that you ate less but instead drank three glasses of beer instead of two?
Although there are numerous reputable studies that suggest that having a drink is beneficial to our hearts, we need to watch we do not overdo it. Too much of a good thing can become harmful to our health and causes weight gain.
Every time a study about the health benefits of a glass of alcohol appears it tends to reinforce people's excuse to drink: if one glass is good, three must be even better.
Have you ever wondered how having just one drink, which we know is good for our health, impacts on fat metabolism? Have you ever stopped to consider that even two standard drinks of alcohol may impact in a negative way when it comes to weight loss?
Would it surprise you to know that we have had great weight-loss results, 40 kilograms or more, just from people cutting out their alcohol consumption? First, let's remember that 1 gram of alcohol has more energy than either 1 gram of carbohydrate or 1 gram of protein. For each gram of alcohol, there is 29.4 kj of energy.
Alcohol does not require any digestion, so it is quickly absorbed from our stomachs and small intestine. Most people will tell you that alcohol then gets converted to fat. This is incorrect, and as analysis techniques have become well advanced in only the last few years it has allowed us the luxury to 'see' what happens to alcohol.
Only 5 per cent gets converted to fat. Relief, you may say! If you consume only two drinks, which contain 24 grams of alcohol, then only 1.2 grams of this get converted into fat. What happens to the other 95 per cent of alcohol in our two drinks?
Alcohol is converted to a substance called acetate in the liver and then released into the bloodstream. In fact, 80 per cent of alcohol you drink is converted to acetate. From our two drinks, nearly 19 grams would be re-released into the blood stream as acetate, over a period of a few hours, as alcohol can only be broken down at about 10 grams per hour. This acetate then travels to the muscles where it is burned as fuel for moving muscles.
This all sounds quite simple, but the real problem is that acetate is a potent inhibitor of the release of fat from our fat cells. When acetate enters the blood stream, lipolysis (the release of fat from fat cells) is ceased. To make matters even more unfavorable, when acetate is released into the blood stream, any fat already in the blood (which is being used for muscles and tissues around the body for energy) is pushed back into fat cells.
We burn a lot less fat when we drink alcohol. Up to 60 per cent less fat enters the blood stream, and the body decreases using body fat by 80 per cent. Instead of burning body fat for energy, the body burns the alcohol byproduct acetate.
Some studies prove that the decrease in the use of fat for energy is almost balanced by the body's burning of acetate. In understanding this, we understand that the type of energy we want our body to burn for weight loss is important. We certainly do not want energy from alcohol being burnt at the expense of energy from fat, carbohydrate or protein!
Having the body burn acetate (energy from alcohol) instead of burning energy from fat from our body's fat stores means we are clearly consuming the wrong food, resulting in the body burning the wrong type of energy. Burning energy from alcohol instead of from fat will only lead to an enhanced weight gain.
This process continues until all the alcohol is used, and it can take over 10 hours for a big night, depending on how much you drink. Despite this new use of acetate for energy, the body still burns carbohydrate. In fact, the amount of carbohydrate found in the blood (as glucose) does not change while alcohol is being metabolised.
by: Bill Bicknell
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