Little Step No. 75
What to do:
Know how alcohol affects your weight.
Why this step works:
This step is a nugget of knowledge rather than something to do. Never underestimate these little nuggets though. Knowledge is empowering; it brings awareness to our choices. And awareness is the first step of change.
The relationship between alcohol and weight is widely misunderstood and I want to set the record straight. Many people think the reason alcohol affects weight is because of the extra calories consumed. A small glass of white wine contains about 120 calories, around the same as half an avocado; skip the avocado and have the wine then? Sorry, it just doesn’t work like that. Alcohol can lead to weight gain and make it difficult to lose weight but the main issue here is not the calories. Yep really. Not the calories.
To really understand how alcohol affects weight it’s important to first know this. Achieving or maintaining a healthy weight revolves around helping your body to become efficient at burning fat. And in fact, the benefits of this go way beyond body weight. If you are efficient at burning fat and at the same time can protect and build your lean tissue, you’ll have the perfect recipe for long term wellness and longevity too.
Two key hormones involved in this process are insulin and glucagon. Insulin encourages fat storage and glucagon encourages fat burning. They’re not good and bad - we absolutely need them both - but we want them to be in balance.
One effect of drinking alcohol is that it inhibits glucagon (yes, the fat burning one); and the more you drink, the longer glucagon (and fat burning) are inhibited for. This is bad news for losing weight and maintaining it in the long run. To make matters worse, not only does low glucagon inhibit fat burning, it also stimulates hunger and cravings; cue those classic late night munchies after a night of drinking.
The point of this little step is not to scare you away from drinking alcohol. Rather it's to set the record straight on how alcohol actually gets in the way of weight loss. Many clients come to see me after years of unsuccessful calorie counting and the alcohol example is just one of many reasons why this simply doesn’t work. My hope is that this increased awareness will help you to make choices that are based on accurate information and aligned with your goals.
I'm loving seeing bright yellow daffodils blustering in the March breeze. To me they signal that Spring is nearly here and change is in the air x