Alcohol and Fat Burning

alcohol

Regular alcohol consumption will limit or stop your weight loss results altogether. Drinking alcohol and going to the gym, is like cleaning your carpets and then running round your home with muddy hiking boots. When there is alcohol present in your system, the liver prioritizes getting rid of the toxins (alcohol) first, and therefore slows down the body’s ability to burn fat. When the body’s primary focus is on processing alcohol, it is not able to effectively break down foods containing carbohydrates and fat. These calories are then stored as body fat and hence herein starts the problem. If you have one or two drinks, you might stall your fat loss for a few hours. If you have quite a few drinks, it might be as long as four days before you’re metabolizing fat again. So you see why those ‘little’ drinks at social occasions can be so detrimental to your waistline.

Alcohol is a diuretic, causing the body to lose water and dehydrate. It also inhibits the quality of your sleep patterns, which in turn raises cortisol levels, which can often trigger you to eat more the following day. If this is not enough to make you think twice before reaching for the next ‘little’ drink, it also lessens your discernment and willpower over what you chose to eat (hello pizza, chicken wings, tortilla chips) etc, and the late night binging on ice cream. In this state you are more likely to over-eat, in particular the more calorie laden salty foods, making you more thirsty and leading to you drinking even more alcohol – which can cause your waistline to expand. Alcohol is only worth doing if you’re not too serious about making a major body- transformation.

If wine with dinner is part of your lifestyle, and you’re not in any particular hurry to have abs like a wash board, you might experiment a little. See if you can have a glass of wine a few times a week and still be making progress. If you’re not making enough progress, keep cutting back the number of drinks until you’re satisfied with the level of your results. Of course, if you’re wanting to radically transform yourself for a better quality of life, or a beach/pool vacation, or a class reunion with a little black dress, forget the alcohol.

Alcohol is the enemy when it comes to weight loss. It adds a lot of empty calories to your daily diet, alters the normal digestive process, turning the food that you eat into body fat. The best way to maintain a lean waistline and at the same time enjoy your life is moderation. Be blessed…Enjoy!

-Nicholas
If you are in the Los Angeles area and you would like a complimentary one-on-one assessment with Personal Trainer in L.A. Nicholas Barrett, please don't hesitate to get in touch! Personal trainer Los Angeles. Los Angeles personal trainer. Personal trainer marina del rey.

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