Why has Alcohol been identified as the fourth Macro Nutrient, when it has no nutritional value? Let me see if I can explain this to you.
When your body is working or at rest it is burning stores of fuel (carbs and fats) while our friend protein is working at building and repairing our tissues. Even at rest we are burning calories, and the more muscle you have the greater amount of calories you are burning.
Here’s the deal with alcohol, it does not store in your body like carbs and fats.
So why does it seemingly have an effect on the inability to lose weight, if it doesn’t stick around?
Because alcohol is an immediate energy source and the body doesn’t see it as friendly so it burns it as quickly as possible, shutting down other forms of energy utilization. Carbs and fat kick their feet up and go in for the Netflix binge, and won’t even think about getting up again until Alcohol has left the building.
Because it burns so quickly, research suggests that it may lead to something known as “fat sparing” where fatty oxidation is suppressed, meaning fat is being spared from being burned more often.
It can also cause us to eat more, remember those trips to Denny’s or the drive-thru after a night of drinks? When this happens we are just adding more members to the Netflix party and they brought snacks! In addition, when we combine alcohol with sugary mixers it is a double whammy, even if the names are super clever like “Kiss on the Lips”, not to mention they are usually much larger than any one serving.
Yes you can still drink, but by understanding what happens when we do, it can help us make better decisions, like keeping the sugary drinks to a minimum and choosing one or two drinks of things like red wine, or using low calorie mixers like club soda. Don’t forget to up your intake of water between drinks, alcohol is dehydrating and a hydrated body functions better at flushing out those toxins.
Cheers!