Here’s How Drinking Excessive Alcohol Can Lead To Weight Gain

The relationship between body weight and drinking excessive alcohol is complex, involving not only the amount and type of alcohol consumed, but also drinking patterns and gender among others.

Now most of us must have noticed the common phenomena of men sporting that expanding midriff.

Popularly called beer belly, is often caused  by bad lifestyle and alcohol drinking habit.

Men particularly are more likely to store fat in their gut, obviously there are certain lifestyle habits that contributes to weight accumulation in the middle in men.

The inflated firm belly is the sign of overabundance of visceral fat. Visceral fat resides just under the skin on the abdomen, hips, thighs and arms.

Obviously, eating more calories than burning off will cause weight gain but what in particular causes men to pile on the pounds in such a specific way?

Get FREE Health Consultation Today!

 

Well the answer is down to two things apparently – gender and age. After about the age of 35 most men’s metabolisms start to slow down.

While men tend to put weight on their bellies, women’s fat stores commonly go on their backside and hips.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, people who drink heavily when they’re younger have a higher risk of gaining excess weight.

When we talk about drinking heavily it is around 8 glasses or more per week. Those who drink this kind of amount, can easily become overweight or obese when they’re older.

How drinking excessive alcohol can lead to weight gain

1] Reduced Fat Burning:

If you are sober,your liver would work hard at metabolizing and burning fat cells, which helps maintain or lower your existing weight.

However, when you your liver has to switch gears to metabolize the alcohol instead.

This creates what researchers call “fat sparing,” or a buildup of fatty acids as your liver processes the calories in the alcohol first, sparing the fat from being metabolized. 

Excess alcohol turns to fat in your liver and can raise the amount of fat in your blood.

2] Increased Caloric Intake:

It is a law of nature: you will gain weight if you don’t burn all the calories that you consume on a daily basis. And a single bottle or can of beer can contain a lot of empty calories.

The average regular beer has almost 155 calories, while a glass of wine has about 120 calories.

All these calories are deceptively easy to consume and can lead to a steady weight gain if you don’t practice some weight management strategies like healthy eating and regular exercising. 

3] Increased Appetite:

If you find yourself craving food after a couple of rounds of beer well that’s not your imagination. Beer and other alcoholic beverages stimulate the appetite.

Snacking and eating can lead to weight gain that is indirectly related to the beer itself.

Additionally, the alcohol in beer may lower your inhibitions, causing you to eat foods that you wouldn’t normally eat or cause you to stray further from your diet than you may have planned.