Many of us like to come home and have a beer or a glass of wine. It helps us to unwind and forget the troubles of the day. It makes us feel relaxed. All those things that have been worrying us seem to disappear into the ether. After a few more glasses the world seems an altogether better place and we feel our self-confidence growing. A few too many glasses and things start to change. Reality returns and everything seems to be worse than it was before. The precipice seems even closer. We go to bed to try and forget, only to wake up in a cold sweat three hours later and spend the hours until daybreak contemplating the end of the world. It may be a familiar story for some, but it serves to illustrate that everything has consequences and that we have choice.
We make choices based on our likes and dislikes. We choose to do something because we have facts that influence our decision, but we sometimes make some bizarre choices and stupid decisions. In fact, it's said that most of us take decisions based on 5% of the available information. No wonder we get ourselves into a mess.
Let?s take alcohol. We all think we know all about alcohol, after all we know what it feels like to enjoy it and what it means to have too much, but do we know what it does to our body? Do we really know if it makes us fat? It is a common belief that it does, but is it true?
The most important thing to realize with alcohol is that it contains a lot of calories ? which is probably why people believe it makes you fat. Alcohol is a nutrient like, protein, fat and carbohydrate, and as such it provides us with energy, lots of it. It contains nearly the same number of calories per gram as fat. Fat has 9 and alcohol has 7. Protein and carbohydrate have 4.
The problem with alcohol is that the energy it supplies cannot be stored by the body. The reason is that it contains no carbohydrate. Unable to store the energy, the body converts the alcohol into something called acetate.
The body uses acetate as a source of energy as it would the stored glucose and fat in your body - but here's the rub. It uses the 'acetate energy' before and in preference to your stored glucose and fat.
You may well have noticed that when you drink alcohol you feel hungry. This is because alcohol stimulates you appetite. It encourages to lose your inhibitions and to say ?yes? to another helping of your favourite ice cream. It can seriously harm your weight loss efforts.
If you want to lose weight then you should think of breaking that habit and learning a new one ? a slim habit. A useful slim habit would be to either not drink alcohol at all or to get into the habit of drinking very little. If you do losing weight will become a whole lot easier. - 15266
We make choices based on our likes and dislikes. We choose to do something because we have facts that influence our decision, but we sometimes make some bizarre choices and stupid decisions. In fact, it's said that most of us take decisions based on 5% of the available information. No wonder we get ourselves into a mess.
Let?s take alcohol. We all think we know all about alcohol, after all we know what it feels like to enjoy it and what it means to have too much, but do we know what it does to our body? Do we really know if it makes us fat? It is a common belief that it does, but is it true?
The most important thing to realize with alcohol is that it contains a lot of calories ? which is probably why people believe it makes you fat. Alcohol is a nutrient like, protein, fat and carbohydrate, and as such it provides us with energy, lots of it. It contains nearly the same number of calories per gram as fat. Fat has 9 and alcohol has 7. Protein and carbohydrate have 4.
The problem with alcohol is that the energy it supplies cannot be stored by the body. The reason is that it contains no carbohydrate. Unable to store the energy, the body converts the alcohol into something called acetate.
The body uses acetate as a source of energy as it would the stored glucose and fat in your body - but here's the rub. It uses the 'acetate energy' before and in preference to your stored glucose and fat.
You may well have noticed that when you drink alcohol you feel hungry. This is because alcohol stimulates you appetite. It encourages to lose your inhibitions and to say ?yes? to another helping of your favourite ice cream. It can seriously harm your weight loss efforts.
If you want to lose weight then you should think of breaking that habit and learning a new one ? a slim habit. A useful slim habit would be to either not drink alcohol at all or to get into the habit of drinking very little. If you do losing weight will become a whole lot easier. - 15266
About the Author:
Henry John is a well known authorand commentator on diet and weight loss and has a particular interest in behavior change and its role in achieving permanent weight loss. Learn more about how to lose weight permanently. Click here
