If you have been trying to lose weight, you are probably familiar with calorie counting
and checking Carbohydrates ( 4 calories per gram), Protein (4 calories per gram), Fats ( 9 calories per gram) and alcohol (7 calories per gram).
So when is a calorie not a calorie ?
Well, it could be when you include the alcohol – so lets see why ?
I’m fortunate to have access to some lab equipment where I can accurately measure peoples metabolism and whether they are burning fats or sugars. If you are trying to lose weight – it helps massively to know how to shift body fat as fast as possible.
I knew, as most diet books will tell you, that alcohol is a preferred source of energy, and your body will prefer to use alcohol as ‘fuel’. So that nice meal you had with your drink will be stored away as body fat.
What I had not fully appreciated, until I had the opportunity to test someone, was just how much alcohol actually suppresses your fat burning for several hours afterwards.
The effect of having a few drinks the night before was to halve my test subjects use of body fat from 60% to 30%. This was at a modest effort level (like slow walking), and a whole 12 hours after drinking.
Now, I know this person burns about 1500 calories per day at rest – so the effect of those drinks overnight would have been to avoid burning the equivalent of 225-450 Calories of body fat. That’s an extra hour in the gym !
I’ve since found some studies in Sweden where they found that the amount of body fat burned dropped to a fifth, 2 hours after drinking. Effects continued for a further 5 hours.
So are you serious about your diet ?
Leave out the alcohol and choose something else.
