It's not necessarily the calories in alcohol that cause fat gain.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not necessarily true that it’s the calories in alcohol that cause you to gain body fat.

Don't get me wrong - if you consistently toss back hundreds of calories worth of alcohol, you will most likely see your belly grow out of control.

But alcohol is metabolized by your liver, so alcohol is not easily converted into body fat.

So how does alcohol cause you to gain fat?

Let me explain…

Alcohol stops you from burning body fat.

The problem is not that the calories in alcohol turn into body fat. What happens is alcohol prevents you from burning body fat.

Here's why.

When you drink alcohol, your body needs to detoxify it as quick as it can. Two reasons why - one, it's poisonous; two, your body has no built in storage space for it.

So alcohol is placed at the top of the list to be oxidized.

While your liver is handling the metabolism of alcohol, fat, carbs and protein utilization temporarily takes a back seat.

Basically your body doesn't burn fat while alcohol is in your system.

If you eat right before or after you drink, you’re really asking for trouble.

When alcohol is present in your system, your body may convert more of the food you eat into body fat.

If you consume high calorie alcoholic drinks, you’re in even bigger trouble!

Now you have all the extra calories in the alcoholic drinks plus the suppression of fat burning caused by alcohol.

Even if you drink without eating, the burning of stored body fat for fuel gets pushed back in favor of alcohol oxidation.

You store more and burn less fat.

What to do, what to do? Stop drinking?

Nah, no need to do that. Just be smart about it.

Use these tips to keep damage to a minimum.

Choose light beer, wine, or mixed drinks made with low calorie mixers.

Earlier I said it's not really the calories in alcohol that's the problem, but the law of calorie balance says that if you take in more calories than you burn, you'll gain fat.

For example, let's say you go through a day and burn around 2500 calories.

Now, let's say you eat around 2000 calories and have alcoholic drinks that add up to another 1000 calories (easy to do).

Sorry, but if you prefer sweet drinks (like strawberry daiquiris), you might want to kiss them goodbye if you’re really trying to lose body fat.

A 16 oz daiquiri could add up to hundreds of calories.

Some better mixer choices include club soda, diet soda and low calorie juices.

Fruit and vegetable juices are decent choices because they contain antioxidants and they’re also lower in calories than other mixers.

BUT, you still have to be careful with any kind of juice because of the calorie content.

If you make drinks at home, you can use crystal light or some other sugar free mixer. There’s a line-up of sugar free mixers at www.bajabob.com.

Factor the alcohol calories in to your daily total.

You need to become familiar with how many calories are in your favorite drinks. Thanks to the internet you can easily find this out.

Here’s the calorie count of some popular cocktails.

Eat before you start drinking.

Try eating a balanced, protein rich meal a couple of hours before you start tossing back drinks.

Your food will have a good amount of time to digest and the likelihood of you wolfing down a bunch of junk food after or while you drink will be decreased.

Practice self control.

You will lose body fat much faster by limiting yourself to just 2 or 3 drinks once a week.

The challenge is that once you get going drinking, it can be hard to stop.

I know, I've been there.

This is where discipline enters the picture. You need to have the willpower to cut it off.

If you follow these tips, the calories in the alcohol shouldn’t make you gain body fat or prevent you from losing it.


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