How Does Alcohol Consumption Affect Your Weight and Shape?

By wlr Contributor Dr Muhamad Usman MD

Since the energy content of one gram of alcohol is 7.1 Kcal, it can be safely assumed that alcohol consumption could very well lead to weight gain. But, there is a lot more to it.

Weight gain due to alcohol is mostly seen in heavy drinkers. In mild to moderate drinkers, in certain cases, it could even be rather protective. Also, different alcohol types seem to have different effects on body weight.

This article is all about alcohol and its effects on body weight. Please see current UK health guidelines for alcohol, for recommendations on alcohol limits.

A Quick Overview

Heavy drinking, irrespective of the type of drink, leads to weight gain.
Male drinkers are more prone to gain weight compared to females.
Alcohol related weight gain targets all age groups.
Alcohol causes weight gain by giving you surplus calories, promoting appetite, increasing impulsivity and redistributing fat.
Except red wine, almost all alcoholic beverages lead to weight gain. Red wine seems to have a somewhat protective role against weight gain.

Starting with the Basics - Calories!

In the UK, where obesity rates are among the highest of developed countries, increasing alcohol consumption is a general trend.

Here, an average wine drinker gets 2,000 additional calories from alcohol every month. This adds up to 44,200 additional calories per year, which is equivalent to eating 221 doughnuts⁽¹⁾.

But the question here is: are the calories from alcohol the same as from other food sources?

Simply put, alcohol is an energy dense food, which is otherwise quite poor in its nutrient content. That is why the calories from alcohol are sometimes labelled as “empty calories”.

In theory, there are several reasons why drinking alcohol should lead to weight gain:

It is calorie dense – 1 gram of alcohol has around twice as many calories as a gram of carbohydrate or protein.
Your liver has got a special affinity for ethanol - an alcohol derivative. It turns almost all of it into energy.
Your body stops using its fats and carbohydrates as energy sources when a lot of energy comes so easily from alcohol.
When your body gets too much energy from alcohol, it starts to shunt the extra energy into the synthesis of storage products like fats ^(2-4).

So the initial impression here is that drinking alcohol will lead to weight gain, at least in theory. Let’s find out what actual research says about alcohol and weight gain.

What Research Says about Alcohol and Weight Gain

There are many studies supporting the fact that alcohol leads to weight gain ^(5-9). But one piece of research is worth mentioning in particular.

Researchers at the University of Navarra, Spain carried out a major data sweep and tried to establish a relationship between alcohol consumption and body weight.

They investigated almost all the major studies conducted on alcohol and weight between 1984 and 2010. They were able to isolate 31 studies based on their relevance and other criteria. Here is what the results looked like ⁽¹⁰⁾:

Number of Studies	Association of alcohol consumption with weight gain	Explanation
16	Strong Positive	16 out of 31 studies found a strong positive relation between alcohol consumption and weight gain
1	Little	Only 1 study found a little relationship between these variables
4	Strong Inverse	4 studies found a strong inverse relationship between alcohol and weight gain
5	No relation	5 out of 31 studies found no relationship between these two variables
5	Selective positive	The remaining 5 studies showed a selective positive relation. It means in those studies only men were found prone to weight gain compared to women

It can be safely inferred from the data above that- in general- alcohol consumption leads to weight gain.

How Alcohol Leads to Weight Gain

There seem to be a number of factors involved here. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Alcohol consumption leads to a positive energy balance

Let’s jump back to basics again. Your body weight is the product of calories you consume and calories you burn. So it all eventually comes down to “calories in and calories out”.

But not all calories are equal. Take fibre for example. Fibre is indeed healthier than alcohol and there is a difference how your body treats calories coming from fibre. Your body has limited capacity to digest fibre. Therefore, your body absorbs very small amount of calories from it and flushes out the rest⁽¹¹⁾.

The calories from alcohol, on the other hand, are much different. Alcohol does not have a complicated structure. It is easily absorbed from your gut and readily broken down into energy by your liver. So most of the alcohol you consume is swiftly turned into energy. This creates a positive energy balance⁽¹²⁾.

The story does not end here.

Alcohol is an addictive substance. It might not have a significant effect on your body weight if taken in moderation, as explained later. But a proportion of drinkers are either habitual or binge drinkers.

When you add alcohol to your diet in addition to your normal foods, it gives you a lot of surplus calories on daily basis. These calories then lead to weight gain⁽¹³⁾.

2. It increases appetite

Another important reason why alcohol leads to weight gain is its ability to increase appetite.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool studied this effect of alcohol.

Volunteers were given 3 meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plus, 30 minutes before lunch, they were given varying strengths of alcoholic beverage to drink.

The researchers found that those who consumed drinks of higher alcohol strength ate significantly more than the others. Not only that, but they also chose to eat more fatty and salty foods⁽¹⁴⁾.

In a similar study conducted at the University of Dundee, scientists looked at the appetite stimulating effects of alcohol.

Volunteers were given a standard breakfast. They were given different types of drinks, either alcoholic or non-alcoholic, 30 minutes before a buffet style lunch.

Researchers found that individuals who drank the alcoholic drinks consumed, on average, 30% more calories at lunch⁽¹⁵⁾.

Researchers are still unsure about why alcohol stimulates appetite. But one plausible explanation seems to be its effects on hunger hormones.

Leptin is one of the major regulators of appetite and serves to decrease hunger. Results of a Swedish study found that the level of leptin decreases by almost 50% after alcohol consumption⁽¹⁶⁾.

3. It triggers impulsive snacking

Drinking alcohol also seems to trigger impulsive eating behaviours (20). These behaviours include snacking and binge eating.

Research conducted at the University of Liverpool, studied snacking behaviour among drinkers.

Researchers found that urges to snack were significantly higher among drinkers. Moreover, snacking also increased after drinking sessions⁽¹⁷⁾. Not only that, but people seem to make more unhealthy snack choices when they are out drinking rather than at home⁽¹⁸⁾.

Additionally, there is a significant link between drinking and binge eating. In research conducted at the Dalhousie University, Canada, researchers studied eating patterns among female habitual drinkers.

They identified 71% of the drinkers as binge eaters too⁽¹⁹⁾.

4. It alters fat distribution in the body

As mentioned before, alcohol decreases fat breakdown and can actually stimulate its synthesis and deposition.

Alcohol consumption can increase body fat percentage^(21-22).

Drinking increases the amount of subcutaneous fat, both in men and women. This fat specifically deposits in the abdominal area of the body.

Too much of this abdominal fat in males is thought to cause ‘beer-belly’, though this common belief is not largely supported by scientific evidence^(26-27).

Alcohol also seems to increase breast size in females and males. That is mainly because of its ability to increase levels of the feminizing hormone ‘oestrogen’. Levels of oestrogen can increase by 20% after consuming a single alcoholic drink^(23-24).

Having bigger boobs is not something that all women want and can be even more of a problem for men. Alcohol consumption can increase the chances of gynaecomastia or man-boobs⁽²⁵⁾.

Some Important Variables to Consider

There is a lot more to the correlation between alcohol consumption and increase in body weight. Following are some variables to consider.

1. Heavy Drinking vs. Mild to Moderate Drinking

One thing is very important to mention here. Not all drinking patterns result in weight gain.

The weight increasing effects of alcohol mentioned so far in this article are mostly seen with heavy drinking (more than 30 g alcohol/day - there are 14.5 grams (1.8 units) of alcohol in a small glass of red wine). Please see Alcohol Guidelines for more info on safer alcohol consumption.

Mild to moderate drinking seems to be rather protective against weight gain, compared to heavy drinking. The reason why mild to moderate drinking may help promote weight loss is due to increased thermogenesis.

Thermogenesis is the natural heat generating process of your body. Like fire needs fuel to burn, your body needs fuel to generate heat. That fuel comes from the calories your body burns.

Research shows that among all other food sources, mild to moderate alcohol consumption stimulates the maximum amount of thermogenesis^(28-29).

2. Gender Difference - Males vs. Females

Although alcohol consumption can lead to weight gain both in males and females, males seem to be more prone to this effect of alcohol. This effect is perhaps because males are more habitual drinkers compared to females. Also, males tend to drink more on average compared to females⁽¹¹⁾.

3. Age Difference

Studies conducted on both adolescent and adult populations show that habitual heavy drinking leads to weight gain, irrespective of age⁽¹¹⁾.

4. Type of Alcohol and Weight Gain

This is an interesting aspect of alcohol consumption and its relation to body weight.

Surprisingly, it could be that not all types of alcohol have the same effect on weight.

Here are some commonly consumed alcoholic beverages and their effects on body weight.

Type of Alcohol Effect on Body Weight

Beer⁽³⁰⁾	Increase in body weight
Spirit, vodka, rum and whisky⁽¹¹⁾	Increase in body weight
Red wine^(31-32⁾	Possible weight benefit

The reason red wine might help to decrease body fat and body weight is due to a chemical in it called resveratrol. Resveratrol was shown to increase the amount of brown fat (burns more calories than white fat) and therefore decrease the amount of white fat (doesn't burn many calories) in preliminary experiments.

We await further relevant research in this area before drawing generally applicable conclusions, but it looks likely that red wine, in moderation, could be better for your waistline than lager or vodka.

Still, consuming too much red wine gives you extra calories too - that may cancel out any positive effects^(31-32). So, again, the message is still moderation.

Alcohol Consumption and Weight Gain - FAQs

Can I drink alcohol and still lose weight?

Yes, you can. The key here is moderation. Here is what you should aim for⁽³³⁾:

Drink not more than 2 drinks per day if you are a male.
Drink not more than 1 drink per day if you are a female.

What is the best sort of alcohol to drink if you are on a diet?

Go for red wine. Red wine has resveratrol in it, which, at the very least, is not likely to be as fattening as other alcohol.

Will beer give me ‘beer-belly’?

The answer is both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. If you consume too much of it, you are bound to gain fat and weight due to the extra calories you are feeding your system. But, if you are moderate in your intake, there is no proof about this common belief.

Is there a place for alcohol in my weight loss plan?

You can drink alcoholic beverages, as long as you are not crossing the line. See here for current UK guidelines

Will alcohol increase my bust size?

Yes, it will. It does so by increasing oestrogen in your body. It can even cause gynaecomastia (man-boobs) in males.

How Does Alcohol Affect Your Own Weight?

Even if you don't want to keep a perfect record of what you eat and drink - take a few days to log how many calories in what you're drinking, it could be real eye opener

References

More on Alcohol and Weight Gain

Overview

Drinking alcohol is a favorite pastime for humans, both socially and culturally.

Some studies suggest that alcohol can have health benefits. For example, red wine may lower your risk for heart disease.

However, alcohol also plays a large role in weight management. Anyone looking to drop those final stubborn pounds may want to consider skipping their evening glass of wine.

Here are eight ways alcohol can impede your weight loss and what you should drink instead.

How alcohol affects your weight loss

1. Alcohol is often “empty” calories

Alcoholic drinks are often referred to as “empty” calories. This means that they provide your body with calories but contain very little nutrients.

There are almost 155 calories in one 12-ounce can of beer, and 125 calories in a 5-ounce glass of red wine. By comparison, a recommended afternoon snack should have between 150 and 200 calories. A night out with several drinks can lead to consuming a few hundred extra calories.

Drinks that have mixers, such as fruit juice or soda, contain even more calories.

2. Alcohol is used as a primary source of fuel

There are also other elements that can cause weight gain outside of calorie content.

When alcohol is consumed, it’s burned first as a fuel source before your body uses anything else. This includes glucose from carbohydrates or lipids from fats.

When your body is using alcohol as a primary source of energy, the excess glucose and lipids end up, unfortunately for us, as adipose tissue, or fat.

3. Alcohol can affect your organs

The primary role of your liver is to act as the “filter” for any foreign substances that enter your body, such as drugs and alcohol. The liver also plays a role in the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.

Excess alcohol consumption can lead to what is known as alcoholic fatty liver.

This condition can damage your liver, affecting the way your body metabolizes and stores carbohydrates and fats.

Changes in the way your body stores energy from food can make it very difficult to lose weight.

4. Alcohol can contribute to excess belly fat

The “beer gut” isn’t just a myth.

Foods high in simple sugars, such as those found in candy, soda, and even beer, are also high in calories. Extra calories end up stored as fat in the body.

Consuming foods and drinks high in sugar can quickly lead to weight gain.

We can’t choose where all that extra weight ends up. But the body tends to accumulate fat in the abdominal area.

5. Alcohol affects judgment calls… especially with food

Even the most die-hard diet fan will have a hard time fighting the urge to dig in when intoxicated.

Alcohol lowers inhibitions and can lead to poor decision-making in the heat of the moment — especially when it comes to food choices.

However, the effects of alcohol surpass even social drinking etiquette.

A recent animal study found that mice given ethanol over a period of three days demonstrated a significant increase in food intake. This study suggests that alcohol can actually trigger hunger signals in the brain, leading to an increased urge to eat more food.

6. Alcohol and sex hormones

It’s long been known that alcohol intake can affect levels of hormones in the body, especially testosterone.

Testosterone is a sex hormone that plays a role in many metabolic processes, including muscle formation and fat burning capabilities.

One study found that low testosterone levels may predict the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in men. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by:

high cholesterol
high blood pressure
high blood sugar levels
high body mass index

Plus, lower testosterone levels may affect quality of sleep, especially in older men.

7. Alcohol can negatively affect your sleep

A nightcap before bed may sound like a ticket to a good night’s rest but you may want to reconsider.

Research suggests that alcohol can lead to increased periods of wakefulness during sleep cycles.

Sleep deprivation, whether from lack of sleep or impaired sleep, can lead to an imbalance in the hormones related to hunger, satiety, and energy storage.

8. Alcohol affects digestion and nutrient uptake

Your social anxiety isn’t the only thing that alcohol inhibits. Intake of alcoholic beverages can also inhibit proper digestive function.

Alcohol can cause stress on the stomach and the intestines. This leads to decreased digestive secretions and movement of food through the tract.

Digestive secretions are an essential element of healthy digestion. They break down food into the basic macro- and micronutrients that are absorbed and used by the body.

Alcohol intake of all levels can lead to impaired digestion and absorption of these nutrients. This can greatly affect the metabolism of organs that play a role in weight management.

Best alcoholic drinks for weight loss

This may all sound as if alcohol is ruining your chances of that beach body. But fear not — watching your weight doesn’t necessarily mean having to cut alcohol entirely out of your diet.

Rather than reaching for drinks high in sugar or calories, enjoy some of these 100-calorie options instead:

1. Vodka

Calories: 100 calories in 1.5 ounces of distilled 80-proof vodka

Alternative cocktail: Choose low-calories mixers such as club soda and avoid overly sugary juices.

2. Whiskey

Calories: 100 calories in 1.5 ounces of 86-proof whiskey

Alternative cocktail: Ditch the cola and take your whiskey on the rocks for a low-calorie alternative.

3. Gin

Calories: 115 calories in 1.5 ounces of 90-proof gin

Alternative cocktail: Aim for something simple, such as a martini — and don’t skip the olives, they contain beneficial antioxidants such as vitamin E.

4. Tequila

Calories: 100 calories in 1.5 ounces of tequila

Alternative cocktail: The best part about tequila is that the customary tequila “shot” is just salt, tequila, and lime.

5. Brandy

Calories: 100 calories in 1.5 ounces of brandy

Alternative cocktail: This drink is best served as an after-dinner digestif and a good brandy should be enjoyed slowly to savor the subtle fruity sweetness.

The bottom line

While cutting alcohol completely out of your diet isn’t necessarily the only way to lose weight, there are many improvements that can be made in your health journey by simply cutting back on the booze.

You can enjoy a healthier body, improved sleep, better digestion, and fewer of those excess “empty” calories.

And if you do plan to drink, enjoy a vodka or whiskey on the rocks — and skip the soda!

Source: Healthline

How Hunger Hormones Work

By wlr Contributor Dr Muhamad Usman MD

Imbalance of “hunger hormones” can make weight loss harder. That is because hunger can often defeat your willpower and tempt you to give up on your efforts to lose weight.

We have learned a lot about these hormones in the last decade. Knowing how to manipulate them can be a cornerstone in your weight loss success.

The Top 4 Hunger Hormones

Your body has a hard time fighting hunger.

It only needs to release a few hormones to stimulate your appetite. But, it has to release more than one dozen hormones to keep it down ⁽¹⁾.

Researchers have identified tens of hunger hormones in the last decade. But, this article will discuss the top 4 hormonal regulators of your appetite.

Leptin
Ghrelin
Pancreatic Peptide Family
Cortisol

We’ll also have a look at what can throw these hormones off balance and what you can do to minimize the risk of that happening.

How these hormones affect appetite

In a nutshell:

Leptin is the major appetite suppressing hormone. Increased body weight makes you resistant to its effects.
Ghrelin stimulates appetite. Although its levels fall during obesity, it still makes you eat more due to leptin resistance.
PYY and NPY are two potent peptides with opposite actions i.e. PYY suppresses and NPY stimulates appetite.
Cortisol makes you eat more and you make poor eating choices under stress.

See below for more detailed information on how these hormones work and interact with each other

Triggers for Hormonal Imbalance

Here are some factors that can throw these hormones off balance. Also let’s see what you can do to counter these triggers.

Trigger # 1: Crash Dieting/Fasting

This is the strongest trigger of all that can throw your hormones off balance. Your diet has a lot of influence on the levels of your hormones. A major reason why ‘crash dieting’ tends not to work is because it throws these hormones out of balance.

In one piece of research, scientists studied the effects of crash dieting on eating patterns and hunger hormones.

Although the participants lost weight, very low calorie dieting reduced their leptin (appetite suppressing) levels by as much as 40%.

Not only had they lost leptin, their bodies also developed increased resistance to leptin. Their ghrelin (appetite stimulating) levels also increased ⁽²⁸⁾.

This means, you are more likely to come back to your old eating patterns and gain weight again after the diet. This is the so-called “yo-yo effect”.

You have to be a bit more meticulous, and patient, when choosing a diet. To make your weight loss plan a success, you need to eat a healthy and well-balanced diet rather than an almost starvation plan.

Research shows that leptin levels fall at both extremes of caloric intake i.e. high calorie diet and very low calorie dieting. The key here is to find the right balance.

Recommendations for Weight Loss

Adjust your calorie intake to the level of your physical activity and weight loss goals. It is a good idea to start off by restricting your daily caloric intake to 1200-1500 calories/day.
Most of your calories should come from complex carbs, proteins and unsaturated fats.
The formula for weight loss goes something like this:
Weight loss = Calorie intake – (Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)* + Calories you burn through exercise).
*Your BMR is the total number of calories you burn without exercising.

Trigger # 2: Sleep Deprivation

Researchers have now started to unfold the mysteries behind sleep. No aspect of your physical or emotional being remains untouched by sleep and your weight is no different.

When it comes to weight, sleep has profound effects on your hunger hormones.

Here is what research says sleep deprivation does to your hormones ^(29-33).

Hormone	Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Leptin	Less than 8 hours sleep can cause 16% reduction in leptin levels.
Ghrelin	Ghrelin levels can increase by 32% with a single day of getting less than 7 hours of sleep.
Cortisol	A single day of sleep deprivation can increase cortisol levels by 37%.
NPY	Results of studies done on mice show that sleep deprivation causes greater food intake and higher NPY levels.

Sleep deprivation causes an increase in appetite promoting, and a decrease in appetite suppressing, hormones.

Here is what you can do:

Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep daily.
The quality of sleep is important too. Try to make sure you get uninterrupted sleep.
The best time to sleep is between 10 pm- 7 am. That is how your body’s natural rhythm works.

Trigger # 3: Stress

Stress induced obesity is not a myth.

Stress takes a huge toll on your body and eating patterns take a hit too.

The biggest reason for stress induced overeating is increased cortisol levels. Swedish researchers have found that increase in cortisol increases leptin resistance too ⁽³⁴⁾.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health, USA found another way stress changes eating behavior. Stress increases NPY level. NPY relieves stress by initiating a rewarding activity - eating ⁽³⁵⁾!

What you could do to reduce stress-related eating:

Practice mindfulness, meditation and yoga.
Get adequate sleep.
Do not snack when you are stressed, you will very likely make the wrong choices.
Exercise regularly as it keeps cortisol levels down.
Practice breathing exercises.

Hunger Hormones in Detail

Hormone # 1: Leptin

Leptin is your body’s major satiety hormone.

It sends your brain a “stop signal” when you are eating and thereby controls your food intake.

Leptin targets a part in your brain called the hypothalamus. Within your hypothalamus, leptin signals that you have eaten enough and now is the time to stop. It also boosts your metabolism and makes you burn more calories than usual ^(2-6).

Leptin is a product of your body’s fat cells - adipocytes^(7-8).

There is a direct link between the amount of body fat you have and leptin levels. The bigger your fat stores; the higher the levels of leptin in your body (9). Thus if you’re obese, you should feel less hungry.

However, the leptin situation is a little more complex.

In fact, it may become more difficult for people to control food cravings with increasing weight.

Why is that? Aren’t the raging leptin levels supposed to curb your appetite? Well, yes, but you have developed a condition called “leptin resistance”.

No matter how much leptin your body produces, it is an absolute waste if your body cannot put it to a good use. That is the general idea behind leptin resistance.

When you become resistant to leptin, your brain stops responding to even to the highest of leptin levels^(10-12). Researchers at the Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia made a startling discovery. They found leptin levels can be 318% higher in obese when compared to lean subjects ⁽¹³⁾.

In a nut shell; the more weight you gain, the less sensitive your body and brain become to the effects of leptin. You get into a perpetual cycle of eating more, gaining more weight and becoming more resistant to leptin.

Hormone # 2: Ghrelin

Ghrelin is the major hunger stimulating hormone. Its action is more or less opposite to leptin. The cells in your stomach release this hormone in response to recent food intake ⁽¹⁴⁾. It has both short and long terms effects on your eating patterns and metabolism.

When you have not eaten in some time, your stomach releases ghrelin. Ghrelin then acts on your stomach itself and empties it further. Once your stomach is empty, it signals your brain that now is the time to fill up your tanks⁽¹⁵⁾! That is its short term effect.

In the longer run; not only does ghrelin make you eat more, but makes you lose less fat as well. In other words, it makes you put on more weight⁽¹⁶⁾.

How obesity alters your ghrelin levels in the longer run? Spanish researchers showed that ghrelin levels fall by 50% in overweight individuals⁽¹⁷⁾.

If your ghrelin level falls as you weigh more, then why does your hunger worsen?

The answer, again, is leptin resistance.

Although your ghrelin levels fall significantly, your body stops responding to leptin altogether.

The unopposed action of the remaining ghrelin makes you eat more than you should.

Hormone # 3: Pancreatic Peptide (PP) Family

This family contains a lot of important hormones, but the most important are: Peptide YY (PYY) and neuropeptide Y (NPY).

PYY is a hormone secreted by your gut. It functions in a fashion like leptin, but targets a different brain area. It is so potent that a single dose of PYY is enough to reduce your appetite by 40% for 24 hours ⁽¹⁸⁾!

Levels of PYY fall as you gain weight ⁽¹⁹⁾.

NPY functions in a fashion opposite to PYY. It is a potent appetite inducer. It is so potent that mice given NPY preferred sugar over sex! It makes you eat more and increases your body fat content too ⁽²⁰⁾.

Levels of NPY increase as you gain weight.

Hormone # 4: Cortisol

Do you tend to eat more when you are stressed? The one word answer is “cortisol”. Your adrenals produce this hormone when you are under stress.

Stress can make you eat more for several reasons ^(21-22).

First, it is a defense mechanism - the fight or flight phenomenon. It gives you energy to either fight or flee.

Second, eating causes the release of calming brain chemicals like dopamine. These chemicals counter the effects of cortisol and stress.

The participants of the UCSF Health Psychology Program were studied for their eating patterns during stressful situations. Under stress, participants ate more and craved for sugary stuff ⁽²³⁾.

Also, researchers found a relationship between higher cortisol levels and impulsive snacking ⁽²⁴⁾.