Everyone knows that there are calories in alcohol, and if you like mixed drinks or heavy beers the number of calories you consume through drinking could be significant. When trying to lose weight, many people switch to low-calorie drinks like light beer and rum & diet coke, but it’s not the calories in alcohol that are the biggest hindrance to your weight-loss efforts.
When you drink, a small amount of the alcohol is turned into fat. Even this isn’t the biggest problem though – less than 5% of the alcohol is converted into fat. The real problem is that your liver converts most of the alcohol into acetate which is then released into the bloodstream and burned as fuel instead of fat.
So, you’re eating right and exercising and you “save” enough calories to have a drink or two at the end of the day. Even though the calories themselves may not throw off your weight loss, the alcohol you’re consuming very well may sabotage your efforts by pushing your excess fat stores later in the “to burn” queue. We’re not just talking a little bit, either – alcohol can halt fat burning by up to 73%. That’s huge!
Is that drink really worth it? If it is, savor it, and skip the second. If it isn’t, switch to water and let your body burn that fat!
For further reading, check out this article: Why Alcohol Calories are More Important Than You Think.
