Our writers include physicians, pharmacists, and registered nurses with firsthand clinical experience. All condition, treatment and wellness content is medically reviewed by at least one medical professional ensuring the most accurate information possible. Alcohol is known to lower inhibitions, impairing the logical decision-making sections of your brain like the prefrontal cortex. That can make it easy to inadvertently consume more calories than you need. To prevent alcohol poisoning and possible death your liver focuses all its energy on metabolizing, or breaking down, the alcohol into non-toxic components.
How alcohol links to weight gain
Excess alcohol consumption also impairs the liver’s capacity to metabolize and store fats and carbs. Heavy alcohol consumption can damage your digestive system and impact your metabolism because the body would have to prioritize eliminating alcohol before other nutrients. The Nutrition Insider exists to educate individuals through unbiased reviews of nutrition products and companies, empowering them to take back control of their health. Although we need cortisol, it becomes unhealthy when cortisol levels are too high for too long.
Alcohol Inhibits Fat Oxidation and Slows Metabolism
- This is why after weighing yourself on Monday, your weight may have skyrocketed up a handful of pounds but a couple of days later is back down to its normal weight once you get back on your diet.
- Let’s take a look at six potential reasons why drinking alcohol may cause weight gain or prevent weight loss.
- People with alcohol use disorder (AUD) have a higher insomnia risk than others.
- That can make it easy to inadvertently consume more calories than you need.
So alcohol will change your body shape with increased body fat, weight gain, and abdominal fat. But keep in mind this is exponentially increased if you’re a heavy drinker, eat bad fattening foods, and aren’t exercising. Although there is evidence to suggest that frequent alcohol intake may predispose to weight gain or obesity over the long-term, this effect is not strongly reflected in the recent research. First, it has been found that alcohol intake increases energy expenditure, likely due in part to the fact that it has a high thermogenic effect [53]. It has also been suggested that some of the energy ingested as alcohol is ‘wasted’, due to the activation of the inefficient hepatic microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system (MEOS).
- Even if you think you are “burning off” all the extra calories you drank last night by hopping on the treadmill for an hour or skipping out on dessert, it’s not quite as simple as that.
- If your goal is to be able to still drink and get skinny, then you’re going to need to pick the healthiest alcoholic beverages.
- This reduces digestive secretions and food movement through the gastrointestinal system.
RELATED: 5 Trainers Share Their #1 Tip For Clients Trying To Lose 10 Pounds
So, if you’re trying to lose weight and improve your health, switch to a diet mostly based on whole, unprocessed foods and cut back on added sugar (42, 43, 44). Unfortunately, there’s not one perfect diet for reducing belly fat. However, diets that contain low amounts of processed meats, sugary drinks and refined grain products have been linked with smaller does alcohol make u gain weight waistlines (40, 41). Interestingly, some studies have linked drinking moderate amounts of wine with lower body weights (35). This is important to note, since low levels of testosterone may increase your risk of weight gain, especially around the belly (30, 31, 32, 33). The link between weight gain and drinking alcohol is stronger in men than women.
Can Beer Give You a Big Belly?
- He has over 15 years of experience as a personal trainer and nutrition coach.
- It can increase anxiety, heighten your blood pressure and even affect your brain.
- Now you may fall asleep quicker after consuming alcohol, but your body will not achieve the deep sleep it needs for proper recovery in the night (6).
- Prospective studies have looked at the association between alcohol intake and adiposity gain in various populations, with follow-up periods ranging from several months to 20 years [4, 30, 31].