Can Wine make You Thin?

Can Wine make You Thin?
A recent statement from the department of health has
suggested that women who drink over the recommended limit
may increase their risk of breast cancer by up to 50%.
This is a serious wake up call that alcohol may be more
dangerous than many think.

The price of alcoholic drinks is allowing people to buy
large quantities and has allowed many to increase their
consumption. It is not uncommon for people to drink
several bottles of wine a week, or maybe just at the
weekend.

What is the story though on alcoholic drinks and weight
loss though?

For years there has been controversy over alcohol
consumption. I regularly have many of my clients telling
me that it is good for you. They tell me a couple of
glasses of wine can help you relax. Wine is a low fat
product isn't it?

Unfortunately they are often the same people who find it
the hardest to lose weight, and get in shape.

So what's the problem? No matter what way you look at
things, alcohol is a toxin and the body has to rid itself
of it as quick as possible. As soon as the drink enters
the stomach and intestines the body starts absorbing the
alcohol and other nutrients in the drink, usually alcoholic
beverages contain a fair amount of sugars. This alcohol
then flows around the body. The liver has the job of
processing it and then flushing it from the system.

What causes the problems with regards to weight loss is
that alcohol has a calorific content. Just 1 gram of
alcohol contains 7 calories. This compares to protein and
carbohydrate, which have 4 Kcals per gram and fat, which
has 9. What makes alcohol an especially troublesome
nutrient is that the energy cannot be stored. It must be
used as quickly as possible.

When the body starts using the alcohol as a fuel the
process of fat metabolism slows down. The energy that fat
metabolism creates is not needed till the body has rid
itself of the alcohol.

Now if you drank for instance a bottle of wine it could
contain about 750 Kcals. This is about as much energy you
would burn if you ran for a whole hour at a fast pace. For
a woman it is about half of the recommended calories for a
day. So if you are a woman and you drink two bottles of
wine per week in theory to balance out the intake you
should fast for one day.

It is this combination of the calories from the alcoholic
drinks and the metabolism slowing process that it creates
that can cause many people who drink regularly to find
weight loss difficult.

If you are serious about losing weight and body fat it is
recommended that you limit or remove alcoholic drinks from
your diet at least until you have achieved you weight loss
goals and instead drink low sugar soft drinks.

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Matt Murphy is a top fitness coach who specializes in
results based training, to find out more about his training
methods or to learn more visit his website at
http://www.mattmurphyfitness.co.uk or the blog at
http://mattmurphysolutions.blogspot.com/