Today we will look at some of the FAQ’s I get from clients everyday regarding booze.
Q – “Why do I put on weight when I drink?”
A – Your body uses carbs and then fat, in that order, as its energy source. When you drink alcohol, your body see’s it as a poison so it quickly moves to get rid of it out of your system, so alcohol jumps the que ahead of carbs and fat.
Its takes the body 11 hours to remove the equivalent of 3 pints of beer from your system, so for 11 hours your are not touching you carb or your fat stores in your energy system. Add on top of that the high carb/sugar counts in a lot of what we drink, plus meals you have while drinking(generally bad choices when intoxicated) and we are just adding more stored energy(body fat) to our system i.e. you put on weight.
Q – “How often should I drink if I want to lose weight?”
A – Simple answer, if you want great results faster, avoid drinking all together. For some people this is hard so I try and give people targets to aim for(e.g. no drinking for a month, nothing until your birthday in 6 weeks etc etc) and its important to keep these targets realistic.
Q – “How should I eat if I am going to be drinking?”
A – The day of and the day after drinking, try and aim at a lower carb diet. As mentioned before, alcohol jumps the que as an energy source, so limiting your carb intake can go a long way to helping you avoid gaining weight over a drinking session.
In particular stay on top of carb intake the following day. We all know the feeling of waking up a bit dusty and wanting the biggest carbiest greasiest thing we can find to make ourselves feel better. This is your body setting you up to fail. An easy way to avoid this trap is to have food ready to go the next day so you are not tempted to go on a Macca’s run. Again keep it low carb especially if you are planning(like most of us) to not move much the next day.
Again, this advice is more about limiting any weight gain over a drinking session, as opposed to losing weight while drinking, which is very unhealthy for your body.
Q – “What Is the best thing to drink to avoid weight gain?”
A – My top 5 options are –
- Vodka and diet tonic – 70 calories
- Rum and diet cola – 70 calories
- Gin and diet tonic – 65 calories
- 1 oz spirit on the rocks – 60-80 calories
- Sparkling sangria – 100 calories
In a nutshell – for some, drinking is part of their daily/weekly routine, be it social occasions, work related occasion etc. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be. The benefits of reduced drinking are huge, from reduced risk of alcohol related disease, to general energy levels on a day to day basis. Having said that, I believe life is about enjoying it, and if that means a drink with friends from time to time I say go for it, health is as much about mental well being as well as physical. But there are ways you can reduce the impact of drinking, I hope you got some good tips out of this article.
Have a good week team!!
just train nz 