Kelli, the nutritionist I consult with, has put together a great article on alcohol binges. The article does a good job of keeping the subject simple, and describing the physical effects alcohol has on impacting weight loss and fueling the body. Trust me, I enjoy my margarita (or multiple margaritas) just as much as anyone, but here are a couple of good points that she makes -1) Drinking a sugary mix drink (like a margarita) can have as much as 600 calories in it - have about 5 of these (yes, on a binge - 5 sounds about right!!) will wipe out the calorie deficit accumulated that you worked so hard to achieve the previous week!!
2) Alcohol, converted to acetate in your bloodstream, will be the first use of fuel your body uses. Taking up to 3+ days to burn instead of the fat/current carb fuel you could be using for fuel.
Basically, with the calorie deficit from the hard work done in the previous week wiped out plus the lingering effect of acetate in the blood stream, you lose about a week to a week and a half to help sustain or reach your weight goal. Ouch.
At the end of the article, she reminds us that "Your body is a machine. Give it what it needs and it will run well. Fill it with junk and it will break down."
Here is the article - take a look!
Drop the Drag Wednesdays: Alcohol Binges
Alcohol gets converted by alcohol dehydrogenase to acetaldehyde and then by aldehyde dehydrogenase to acetate (conjoined to coenzyme A). Sorry... I'm a biochemist and had to say it. It only gets converted to acetone if you're diabetic or have some other disorder.
ReplyDeleteThanks SteveQ! I've corrected the rushed error(any Kelli the nutritionist will as well) in the blog. I believe this will have the same result: acetate is released into your bloodstream and takes precedence over the metabolism of protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
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