articles : Alcohol & Fat
To whom this may concern,
One thing I am not going to be is a hypocrite. Yes I do drink. Yes I do
dance (pretty good if I may say so myself). As a matter of fact, I went
out this weekend! I woke up the next morning and read a few fitness books
to see how alcohol was affecting my fat loss program. Here are a few excerpts
from the books that I read:
“Don’t drink alcohol. It causes an increase in blood sugar and fat storage,
and it will lead to a sugar crash as well as an increase in appetite for
carbohydrates. If you choose to have a drink, avoid sugary cocktails,
beer, and wine. Stick to clear alcohols like vodka or rum with calorie
free mixers like diet or club soda, and you can always do what I do and
drink it all straight.”
Jillian Michaels Fitness Trainer and Life Coach from NBC’s
The Biggest Loser
“When Swiss researchers gave eight healthy men enough alcohol to exceed 25% of their daily calorie requirement, they found that booze actually impaired men’s ability to burn fat by as much as 36%. Booze also makes you store fat. Your body sees alcohol as a poison and tries to get rid of it. So your liver stops processing all other calories until it has dealt with the alcohol. Anything else you eat while you drink will most likely get stored as fat. In some more indirect ways, alcohol can inhibit your body’s production of testosterone and human growth hormone-two hormones that help burn fat and build muscle.
If you’re serious about shedding belly flab I’d encourage you to stay off the booze for the 6 week plan. At the least, limit yourself to two or three alcoholic drinks per week” David Zinczenko, The Abs Diet
“We’re trying to build this program around your lifestyle. I’m not going to tell you to abstain from everything; if I do then you won’t comply to the program. Alcohol may be part of your lifestyle, but I ask you to minimize it, maybe to one or two drinks per week. If your going to have more than that then I encourage you to have drinks with some health benefit, such as red wines which have flavonoids that act as antioxidants. Always drink one glass of water for every alcoholic drink.” Mark Verstegen, Core Performance
“The more alcohol that is consumed, the more endorphin high will be experienced as a consequence of cellular dehydration. The addictive agent in alcohol is most probably the consequence of endorphin release from the process of establishing dehydration. Although the process is the same in men and women, in women it becomes more strongly and rapidly addictive than in men. The reason lies in the women’s ability to activate more quickly the endorphin–manufacturing system and its release in alcohol induced stress. This is probably why women become addicted to alcohol in about two or three years, whereas men become addicted in about seven years.” F. Batmanghelidj, M.D., Water and Salt: Your Healers Within
Now you have the power of knowledge and the power of choice. Do what you will with this information. Tell your friends or anyone that wants to buy you a drink. After writing this article, I feel a little more enlightened. I hope you do too.
Sincerely,
Jaiya Figueras
C.P.T. NASM., ISSA
