Does vodka burn fat or not?  Alcohol burns fat!  Is it possible to lose weight quickly by drinking alcoholic beverages?

Does vodka burn fat or not? Alcohol burns fat! Is it possible to lose weight quickly by drinking alcoholic beverages?

Large quantity People use alcohol as a sedative for stress, as a mandatory drink for meeting friends, alcohol is an obligatory companion to any holiday, and even just an “evening” glass. This article contains some facts about the effects of alcohol on the body.

Drinking alcohol is part of human culture. However, there are many documented harmful effects: decreased potency, diabetes, liver diseases of varying degrees, and mental retardation. Although in many cases all these effects occur with severe abuse, for many there is a reason to stay away from it.

The effects of alcohol on body composition are not often discussed. In its pure form, ethyl alcohol contains seven calories per gram! But feasts are accompanied by more than one glass. Which in total greatly affects the energy balance. The body uses calories from alcohol first, stopping the fat burning process. Moreover, alcohol calories are not stored as glycogen, which means that when they are in excess, some of these calories are stored as fat. If you're losing weight, alcohol is your enemy.

If you need to drink, wine is an acceptable option. Naturally dry. But... A little about the numbers, so that it is clearer why alcohol is so dangerous for those who want to dry themselves out.

Think about it! Protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, fat has 9 calories per gram, and alcohol has 7 (seven!) calories per gram!
But unlike proteins, fats and carbohydrates, alcohol does not contain nutrients for healthy metabolism. In any alcoholic beverage, the calories are in a very concentrated form, which unintentionally leads to excessive calorie intake. After all, when drinking alcohol, a person does not get full, as from regular food. But insulin levels increase, which leads to fat accumulation. As soon as insulin “cleans up” the consumed alcohol calories, a strong feeling of hunger occurs. Because a person is intoxicated (even if he doesn’t think so, and if his thinking is weakened, this is exactly what will happen), his self-control weakens, and this leads to eating the “wrong” food, for example, fast food. Such a diet leads to additional calories, in addition to those already received. This is where your motivation is already fast asleep.

I won’t tell you how alcohol affects the liver; there are already thousands of articles about it. But I will draw your attention to one detail. If you train hard or go on a diet, then many processes associated with catabolism occur in the body. And these are decay products. And decay products in the blood are intoxication. You don't feel it because... The liver takes the hit. It is she who fights for the purity of your body. The liver processes toxins and breaks down fats into fuel. What if the liver is loaded with alcohol? What will happen to her? She will "fall off"!

When drinking alcohol, testosterone, which has a powerful fat burning mechanism, drops. Whenever you drink alcohol, you reduce your fat-burning potential. Plus, lower testosterone levels mean less muscle mass, which means lower metabolism. After all, with a high metabolism, you burn more calories, and with a low metabolic rate, it becomes more difficult to lose fat.

And now the fun part, if you decide to drink.

Beer 4-5%:

  • 14 milligrams sodium (1%).
  • 12.6 g carbohydrates (4%).
  • 1.6 grams of protein.
  • 14.2 milligrams of calcium.
  • 96.1 g potassium.
  • Total calories: 153 (includes 97 calories from alcohol).
Beer Lite:
  • 14 milligrams sodium.
  • 5.9 g carbohydrates.
  • 0.98 grams of protein.
  • 14.4 milligrams of calcium.
  • 75.6 milligrams potassium.
  • Total calories: 105 (includes 78 calories from alcohol).

One glass of dessert wine (sweet) contains:

  • 9 milligrams sodium.
  • 14.1 g carbohydrates.
  • 0.1 milligram calcium.
  • 0.9 milligrams potassium.
  • Total calories: 165 (includes 110 calories from alcohol).

One glass of table wine contains:

  • 7 milligrams sodium.
  • 4 grams of carbohydrates.
  • 0.1 grams of protein.
  • 11.8 milligrams of calcium.
  • 146.5 milligrams potassium.
  • Total calories: 124 (including 108 from alcohol).

A glass of gin (40% alcohol) contains:

  • 1 milligram of potassium.

A glass of rum (40% alcohol) contains:

  • 1 g potassium.
  • Total calories: 113 from alcohol.

A glass of vodka (40% alcohol) contains:

  • 1 milligram of potassium.
  • Total calories: 113 from alcohol.

A glass of whiskey (40% alcohol) contains:

  • 1 milligram of potassium.
  • Total calories: 113 from alcohol.

A glass of Baileys Irish Cream contains:

  • 5.8 grams fat (3.5 grams of this saturated fat).
  • 14 milligrams of cholesterol.
  • 33 milligrams sodium.
  • 7.4 grams of carbohydrates.
  • 1.2 grams of protein.
  • Total calories: 121 (including 35 from alcohol).

A glass of schnapps (40% alcohol) contains:

  • 7 grams of carbohydrates.
  • Total calories: 100 (including 70 from alcohol).

A glass of Curacao (35% alcohol) contains:

  • 6 g carbohydrates.
  • Total calories: 95 (including 56 from alcohol).

A glass of Amaretto (38% alcohol) contains:

  • 17 g carbohydrates.
  • Total calories: 110 (including 42 from alcohol).
What follows from what is written?

    Drink alcohol with a lower calorie content, as well as a lower percentage of alcohol (wine, for example). Less will be consumed, meaning lower overall calorie intake.

    Avoid high-calorie liquors. They are very deceiving (despite the pleasant taste) and will add a huge contribution to the overall calorie content.

    Keep healthy foods on hand when drinking. As mentioned, alcohol will loosen inhibitions and stimulate appetite.

    If drinking beer, try a lower alcohol content. Also, drink diet sodas with a variety of cocktails to significantly reduce the calories in those drinks.

    Drink water between alcoholic drinks. This will increase satiety and may help prevent excessive alcohol consumption.

P.S. The most important thing is not to abuse it and be able to set priorities!

Are you determined to get rid of excess weight, and in return find lightness and good spirits?

This is a wonderful aspiration!

It's just hard for you to really lead healthy image lives, former bad habits often get the better of you?

Do you find it difficult to resist a glass of champagne during the holidays or a cocktail at a party with friends?

Let's look at whether alcohol and weight loss are compatible, and also what effect drinking alcohol has on the weight of men and women and on their bodies in general.

The breakdown of alcohol in the body and its effect on weight loss

When taken with food, alcohol is the first in line to be broken down.

In the case when drinking alcohol becomes a frequent and constant occurrence, the body begins the process of restructuring the metabolism for alcohol, that is, its breakdown becomes a priority.

This is how alcohol addiction appears, which is not easy to overcome... But that’s a completely different story.

Returning to the topic of losing weight, I would like to note that it is determined by taking into account the calorie content of ethyl alcohol ( chemical formula C 2 H 5 OH) in it.

1 gram of ethyl alcohol contains about 7 kcal, while 1 gram of carbohydrates (which are blamed for causing excess weight when consumed in excess) contains 4 kcal. Only fats, whose calorie content is 9 kcal per 1 gram, have more than this value.

But the problem is not so much in the calorie content, but in the nutritional value of alcohol.

It's simply NOT there!

Alcohol acts only as an energy boost for our body, but never as a nutritional and building material (this function is performed by proteins, fats and carbohydrates).

That's why alcoholic drinks often called "empty calories".

“And if alcohol has no nutritional value, then you can’t get better from it,” you may have thought.

But, alas, oh, everything works completely differently.

The energy that comes into the body with drinking alcohol requires immediate release. But those calories we need received naturally from proteins, fats and carbohydrates, are stored “for later”, that is, a certain reserve is created on the hips, stomach...

The following example can be given in numbers:

To perform some activity, the human body suddenly needed 500 kcal.

He could get this energy from food or take it from internal reserves(those same swollen sides).

But then my hand reached out for a 200-gram glass of cognac (this is just an example). As a result, the body had to take energy not from the sides or even from the snack, but from the aforementioned cognac. And the appetizer that was served with alcohol went into reserve on those same sides.

So draw your conclusions, dear losing weight ladies and gentlemen!

Calorie content of alcohol or why you shouldn’t drink alcohol when losing weight

The human body obtains energy (calories) from food and drinks. And the volume and weight of the body directly depend on the energy value of the food consumed.

As can be seen from the table:

  • The calorie content of dry white wine per 100 g is 66 kcal, which means that in one glass of 200 g the calorie content of the drink will be 132 kcal.
  • The calorie content of dry red wine is a little higher - 67 kcal, that is, a glass with a capacity of 200 grams is 134 kcal.
  • in one glass of sweet champagne, with a capacity of 150 grams, there will be approximately 120 kcal.
  • Liqueurs have the highest calorie content, about 300 kcal per 100 g, due to the high content of fast carbohydrates in them (liqueurs have a sweet taste).
  • strong drinks such as vodka, cognac, gin, rum are also very high in calories.

Now remember what you usually drink alcohol with. It is unlikely that these will be low-calorie vegetables and fruits (they would not cause significant harm to the figure).

Depending on the alcoholic drink, these can be sandwiches with caviar, hard cheeses, cakes, chocolates, etc. In general, everything is quite filling and high in calories.

A dehydrated body is simply not capable of working effectively.

In addition, due to the loss of water, a person wants to quickly replenish its reserves. It's just her absorption in large quantities can lead to edema, which means an increase in body weight, that is, one can already judge the negative effect of alcohol on a person’s weight.

2. Alcohol contributes to the accumulation of fatty deposits.

As mentioned above, alcohol has absolutely no nutritional value, but has a fairly high calorie content.

And since it is the calories from alcoholic drinks that the body burns first, the carbohydrates and fats that came in at the same time as alcohol are forced to go into reserve. That is, a certain number of fat cells will be added to the human body.

3. After drinking alcohol, body weight may increase due to overeating.

I think that everyone noticed the relaxing effect of alcohol on the body, and all the prohibitions and restrictions seemed completely unimportant.

Under the influence of alcohol, a person’s appetite increases, and he cannot control the amount of food he consumes; moreover, he is often drawn to “junk food.”

The reason for overeating is also the fact that ethyl alcohol has an inhibitory effect on the saturation center in the brain.

This means that when your stomach is full, you may not feel full for a long time. And the person will eat again and again...

4. Alcohol negatively affects the health and weight of men, as it reduces testosterone levels.

In addition to the fact that testosterone is the main male hormone, it also performs the function of building muscle fibers.

Frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to a decrease in testosterone levels, which has a negative impact not only on lean body mass, but also on strength and speed of recovery after training.

In addition to this, in men, alcohol provokes an increase in the production of female hormone estrogen, which promotes the accumulation of fat deposits.

5. Alcohol disrupts sleep and blocks the process of losing weight at night.

As it turned out as a result of scientific observations, alcohol almost completely blocks the REM sleep phase, which means it does not allow a person to fully rest and recover after a hard day.

And for people who want to lose excess weight, healthy and sound sleep is extremely important, since it is at this time that the body produces growth hormone, which affects the metabolic rate and weight loss.

6. Frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages disrupts the functioning of the digestive organs.

Numerous clinical trials and experiments on volunteers confirm the negative effect of alcohol on the entire gastrointestinal tract (gastrointestinal tract):

  • Alcohol disrupts the intestinal microflora, causing many beneficial substances to simply not be absorbed.
  • Under the influence of alcohol, the pancreas suffers. It stops producing the necessary amount of enzymes for a complete digestion process.
  • The liver suffers the most when drinking alcohol, because it is the liver that concentrates on processing and removing alcohol from the body. And the processing of other substances that were received during meals fades into the background, which leads to excess weight gain in women and men.

Frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages in large quantities is a direct path to complete destruction of the liver, and therefore to death.

Professor Zhdanov talks about what alcohol is and what its effect on the human body is. After watching this video, giving up alcohol is inevitable!

Alcohol for weight loss: what is possible?

From the above facts, we can conclude that alcohol and weight loss are incompatible by definition.

But there are different cases in life when giving up alcohol is almost impossible.

And if you do not yet have the willpower to give up alcohol, or are experiencing pressure from others that you cannot overcome, then, according to nutritionists, a glass of dry red wine will in no way appear on your sides and will not cause any particular harm body.

But still, do not forget that wine contains ethyl alcohol (7 kcal per 1 g). And how natural and high-quality is this drink in a particular case?

So be on the lookout!

And if you still drink alcohol while dieting and losing weight (this means a one-time intake during a feast, and not a regular one), then we recommend that you adhere to the following rules:

  1. Be sure to eat before drinking alcohol. Alcohol on an empty stomach is prohibited!
  2. If you count calories, do not reduce the amount of food you eat by drinking alcohol. So drink very little.
  3. Drink more clean, still water to help your body remove ethyl alcohol from it faster and prevent dehydration.
  4. After a feast with alcohol, the next morning take activated carbon(1 tablet per 10 kg of weight) to absorb toxins from the intestines. Also replenish your reserves of vitamins and microelements by drinking multivitamin preparations.
  5. You should not organize fasting days immediately after alcoholic feast. Your routine and diet should return to normal. And unloading can be arranged in a few days, but this is not at all necessary.

From the article you learned how alcohol affects the weight of women and men, and whether it can be consumed while losing weight.

Now the choice is yours!

Be healthy and slim!

Forward to slimness!

Do you want to lose weight without dieting? Do you need help and moral support on your way to a healthy and slim body?

Then let's get acquainted :) My name is Daria Khimchenko and I am the author of the project and part-time certified nutritionist-nutritionist.

Write me a letter indicating your goals and the note “Forward to slimness” by e-mail [email protected]. And within 24 hours you will go on an exciting journey through the world of a bright and varied diet that will give you health, lightness and inner harmony.

It describes how alcohol affects the process of losing weight, and provides scientific facts and experimental evidence, important tips and recommendations.

Alcohol and figure

Everyone knows “Fire Water”, when consumed, the sea becomes knee-deep and the mountains shoulder-deep. Heroism splashes over the edge, but besides this, alcohol suppresses the central nervous system, liver function is disrupted and addiction is caused.

In addition, for every 1g. An alcoholic drink contains 7 calories, and this cannot please your waistline in any way, in an effort to remove excess calories.

If we talk in simple words– if your goal is to maintain a slim figure without excess fat, for example, drinking beer, this is not best solution to get rid of extra calories.

It is often taken in the evening, before bed, after a hard day of work for relaxation - but few people know that it consists of a large number of high carbohydrates, which quickly release calories into the body, and since our body is at rest and preparing for sleep, the released calories are consumed in a minimal amount and the remainder goes directly into subcutaneous fat.

Alcohol and fats

It’s not for me to tell you that alcohol is a toxin for the body; imagine that endless processes occur in our body, the breakdown of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. After drinking a dose of alcohol, our body switches to processing alcohol, while inhibiting natural metabolic processes, including the processing of fats.

According to science, it happens like this - only after drinking alcohol (or ethanol) it is split into 2 substances - nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and acetaldehyde, this all happens with the participation of the enzyme - alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), it is this process that causes excess calories to accumulate and be stored in fat deposits.

The final component of the breakdown of alcohol is the acetyl-CoA molecule, which is directly involved in the transformation of fatty acids, in simple words it leads to the accumulation of fatty deposits. The more alcohol you consume, especially at night, the more fat accumulates in the body.

Over time, acetyl-Coa causes changes, as a result of which the main task becomes the accumulation of fat, so creating a sculpted figure becomes a problematic task.

Evidence and examples

Scientists conducted experiments published in the Journal of Clinical Research, which describe in detail the effects of alcohol intake on the metabolism of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.

Scientists assessed concentration and glucose levels over a 4-hour period after drinking alcohol. To do this, the subjects were given a drip of insulin and glucose at the same time. Next, blood samples were taken after 30 minutes and every 15 minutes thereafter to see how the energy source was used.

After 2 hours, instead of a glucose dropper, a standard (alcohol) dropper was placed, equivalent to 200 grams of vodka, after which fat oxidation decreased by 87%. In other words, after drinking alcohol, the body began to use alcohol rather than fat as energy . At the same time, the process of fat oxidation remained at a very low level, even after 4 hours, when it was last time alcohol is accepted, which is terrible news for those trying to lose weight.

Certainly, Each body is individual and the rate of alcohol withdrawal is different, but the fact that it inhibits the burning of fat deposits is a fact.

The same scientists performed another experiment - at the same time, a standard (alcohol) and glucose were injected into the test subjects’ bodies through a dropper, since many people like to snack on high-calorie foods between drinks, the results exceeded expectations - The combined use of alcohol and glucose reduced the process of fat breakdown down to 0 mg. per minute, that is, fat burning stops and it accumulates at a tremendous speed.

Simply put, it sounds like this - a snack with beer in the form of chips, crackers, snacks, pizza, Bavarian sausages, and so on, will greatly slow down fat burning and then don’t be surprised why you don’t eat anything all day, in the evening you drank beer with a light snack, and your waist increases in size.

Of course, you can compensate for this with intense training in the gym, but it is better in the process of losing weight or preparing for beach season, reduce the amount of alcohol consumption.

Find the right nutrition for weight loss – .

Conclusion

Let's draw conclusions after all that has been said:

1) Drinking alcohol, even in small quantities, stops the process of breakdown of fat deposits.

2) The older a person is, the slower the metabolism becomes and the more it slows down, the faster fat accumulates in the body. Therefore, as you age, pay attention to the dose of alcohol you take, what food you eat and the intensity of your exercise.

3) Although it has been scientifically proven that moderate consumption of alcohol dilates blood vessels in the body, improves blood flow to organs, normalizes intestinal function, at the same time it damages the liver and with constant consumption and disordered eating, achieving an ideally sculpted figure becomes almost impossible, of course if you don't use steroids, but that's a completely different story.

4) Some may say, why don’t alcoholics suffer from obesity???, they drink alcohol in huge quantities. Yes, because if a person goes on a binge, he doesn’t eat often, most of the time he sleeps or does some kind of bullshit, but doesn’t eat like an ordinary person and the intake of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is greatly reduced, he simply has nowhere to get fat from. sediments. I think you understood without me that you should not take such an example to burn fat deposits.

Therefore, think with your head, choose your priorities, I wish you all good luck in achieving your goals 😉!

Alcohol is a two-faced thing. On the one hand, it helps to get rid of stress and relieve tension after a long working day. But just one sip of alcohol causes devastating harm to the body. It is essentially a poison that must be detoxified by the body.

Facts proving the harm of alcohol

  1. The functioning of the cardiovascular system deteriorates. When drinking alcohol, the heart increases in size and then returns to normal, but because of this, scars remain on its surface, which can subsequently cause a heart attack or stroke.
  2. Judgment deteriorates. Alcohol is equated to drugs, as it is addictive and affects the psyche: at first a person experiences euphoria and high spirits, and after a few hours depression, irritability and aggression appear. When intoxicated, a person does not reason adequately, and his movements and speech deteriorate significantly.
  3. The brain is destroyed. This is the main evidence of the harm of alcohol. The basis of any alcoholic drink is alcohol, and it glues red blood cells, which subsequently block microcapillaries. As a result, the neurons do not receive oxygen and they die, but they can no longer recover and are excreted along with urine
  4. Chronic diseases develop. When alcohol breaks down, it begins to release dangerous substances that spread throughout the body.
  5. Negative heredity. Scientists have proven that 90% of children with mental retardation come from families where they abused alcohol.
  6. The boundaries of moral and immoral behavior are blurring.
  7. Dehydration develops from alcohol. Alcohol is a diuretic. It draws fluid from the cells and removes water through the kidneys. Increased water loss causes loss of soluble nutrients and other side effects dehydration.

The only way to reduce the harm from alcohol is to give it up or at least reduce consumption to a minimum: no more than two drinks per evening. Of course, this does not mean that you can drink this amount every day without consequences. In addition, alcohol is a diuretic, so when drinking it you need to drink more regular water.

Harm of alcohol for women

All processes that occur in female body, depend on the hormonal cycle. When a girl or woman begins to constantly drink alcohol, the toxic substances of alcohol affect the adrenal glands, and they, in turn, begin to secrete male hormones. Thus, if a woman drinks constantly, then male hormones begin to gradually accumulate in her blood, which will soon transform the woman’s appearance, giving them masculine characteristics. First of all, this can be understood by the voice, which becomes lower and rougher. Next, the manner of movement changes, which becomes sharper and rougher. climax drinking women may occur 10 or 15 years earlier.

Also, the harm of alcohol on a woman’s body is that regular drinking can affect the future ability to have children. This is due to the fact that alcohol affects the fatty tissue of the ovary, which can lead to problems with ovulation. Alcohol affects the walls of the uterus, which greatly complicates childbearing and can lead to miscarriage or the birth of a child with abnormalities.

So, here are facts about the dangers of alcohol that will make many girls think:

  • with frequent drinking of alcoholic beverages, the color of the skin worsens and traces of hypermia may appear, when in certain places on the skin the blood flow increases, but the reverse process, on the contrary, worsens;
  • the elasticity of the skin and the shape of the face are also lost;
  • dark marks appear on the whites of the eyes due to burst blood vessels;
  • due to liver dysfunction, the skin color turns yellow;
  • alcohol leads to dehydration, which causes dark circles under the eyes;
  • Due to male hormones in the female body, a restructuring of the distribution of the fat layer occurs. The figure begins to acquire a masculine body type, that is, fat is deposited at the waist. After a while, women can even develop a beer belly;
  • blood vessels lose their elasticity, hence varicose veins and spider veins;
  • Metabolic disorders lead to a deterioration in the body's absorption of nutrients, and this leads to vitamin deficiency. As a result, hair becomes brittle, nails peel and you constantly feel tired.

Is alcohol stored in fat?

The fact that alcohol burns fat is a myth that misleads many people. Alcoholic beverages have the highest calorie content of all foods - 7 kcal per 1 g, which is only 2 kcal less than pure fat. Therefore, you quietly go overboard with calories, without knowing it.

Because alcohol is processed by the liver, it is not converted directly into fat. However, alcohol suppresses the body's ability to burn fat. Because alcohol must be eliminated from the body (detoxified) as quickly as possible, the body gives this process the highest priority. In other words, while the liver is busy eliminating ethanol, the use of fats, proteins and carbohydrates is temporarily suppressed. Moreover, fat burning is suppressed especially strongly, since this process requires oxygen.

It turns out that while alcohol is in the body, the body accumulates body fat at the fastest rate. It doesn't matter where your calories come from food or drink. If you consume more than you use, you will gain weight. Since most people drink alcohol in addition to meals, additional fat deposits are a natural result.

Detoxification at home

Of course, it is better to carry out such activities under the supervision of a doctor and with the use of special medications. However, if necessary, detoxifying the body from alcohol is possible at home, and in several ways:

  1. Addressing folk remedies, you can use a combination of honey and warm milk. This drink will quickly replenish those reserves of microelements that were used up under the toxic influence of toxins. In addition, milk with honey has a good effect on the kidneys and liver.
  2. The second method can be used by people who do not have problems with the cardiovascular system. Here you need to consume enough parsley leaves. It also contains many active substances that improve a person’s condition; in addition, these substances combine the results of the breakdown of alcohol, and also speed up metabolism.
  3. Citrus fruit or beet juice will help remove the effects of alcohol intoxication very well. They significantly speed up metabolism and saturate the body with various vitamins and microelements.
  4. Various decoctions of herbs such as chamomile, ginger, St. John's wort, dandelions and the like are also suitable for detoxification.
  5. Most of the toxins from alcohol accumulate in fatty tissues, so when a person loses weight, they may experience some complications as the toxins are released into the blood. In this case, detoxification of the body from alcohol should be carried out in the direction of getting rid of toxins located in fatty tissues. Physical activity or special bathrooms are suitable for this. Can be used to prepare baths sea ​​salt And essential oils coniferous trees.

Video: “The harm of alcohol on the body.”

How many calories are in vodka?

“We will eat her, my dear,” the alcoholic replies to his son in an anecdote. And there is some truth in his words: 100 grams of vodka contains about 240 calories, and a bottle contains almost daily norm skinny man. And yes, alcohol helps you gain weight. Zozhnik deals with alcohol.

Calorie content of alcohol

First, let's abstract from the well-known harm of alcohol, cirrhosis of the liver, the effect on the death of brain cells and other hackneyed truths and talk about it from the point of view of biological mechanisms.

In general, alcohol is a very, very high-calorie thing. The basis of any alcohol is ethyl alcohol, the same C2H5OH, glorified in jokes. Even a child knows that there is exactly 40% of it in vodka, and an experienced adult knows that it is 4-6% in beer and 10-13% in wine.

So, the calorie content of this ethyl alcohol is extremely high: about 700 kcalories per 100 grams of pure alcohol.

For example, protein or carbohydrate foods contain on average about 400 kcalories per 100 grams, only pure fat is higher - 900 kcalories per 100 grams. As a result, vodka (and its 40-degree relatives - whiskey, cognac, schnapps, Calvados) contains approximately 210-240 calories per double shot, beer - about the same amount per bottle, liqueurs have the most - about 350 calories due to dissolved it contains sugar, the amount of which reaches 50% of the total mass. Dry red or white wine has the least amount - 60-70 calories per 100 grams.

At the same time, the nutritional value of pure alcohol is zero. It contains 0 proteins, 0 fats and 0 carbohydrates. It would seem that there is a catch and how you can gain weight from alcohol if there is zero fat in it.

Empty calories

The fact is that alcohol calories are usually called “empty”. This means that they cannot be directly stored in fat and, of course, in muscles. Alcohol calories are pure energy that the body needs to expend. Have you noticed that under the influence of alcohol people become more active?

The body, receiving a dose of such empty calories, immediately adjusts itself in such a way as to get rid of them first. Because he cannot store alcohol and strives with all his might to remove it. This is why the body stops burning fat and carbohydrate reserves, switching to alcoholic fuel, and these fat reserves, prepared for burning, are simply postponed for the future. In the folds above the belt, for example.

In addition to burning its reserves of fat and carbohydrates during alcohol intoxication, the body also stops the processes of muscle recovery and growth. Therefore, even a seemingly harmless bottle of beer, consumed regularly in the evening, will not allow the athlete to build up any impressive muscle mass - a significant part of the body’s resources will be spent on alcoholic calories, postponing recovery and growth for later. Thus, the more you drink in terms of ethyl alcohol, the longer the body will burn these calories and push reserves onto your stomach.

Drankorexia

This is why, for example, professional bodybuilders almost never allow themselves to drink alcohol. Especially when preparing for competitions.

But if you are not a professional athlete, then you can safely treat yourself, especially if you consciously include alcohol in your daily caloric intake. Moreover, Zozhnik, when a person reduces food intake in order to leave himself a reserve for drinking at the bar for the evening.

In general, if your healthy gut requires an intoxicating drink, you know that in terms of pure intoxication (i.e. the volume of ethyl alcohol consumed), the number of calories will be approximately the same - whether you drink wine or vodka (liqueurs do not count). And be prepared for the consequences. And may the force be with you.