Even if you are a moderate drinker (as in 1-2 drinks a day), those empty calories can add up quickly. As in an additional 1000 calories or more each week. (For heavier drinkers, that could easily be each day!)

For example:

A single glass of wine is 5 ounces. Most restaurants pours are about 6-8 ounces. My wine glasses at home can hold 15 ounces! So much for “just one” glass of wine!

On average beer contains 90-300+ calories. Take that times the few beers you have after a long day.

Beyond just the added calories…just how else does alcohol effect your diet?

Alcohol slows the metabolism. When we eat food our body has to metabolize or break it down to be stored for energy. However, as alcohol can not be stored by our bodies, our body goes into attack mode immediately and begins breaking it down to get rid of it. While our bodies are busy breaking down the alcohol everything else we consume (nutrients/food) gets stored as body fat. Alcohol use overtime causes the metabolism to get slower and slower and we accumulate more and more body fat.

Alcohol can lead to unhealthy choices.

I don’t know about you, but the first thing I am reaching for after a few drinks is a big ol’ plate of nachos. Studies prove that along side the empty calories we are drinking, we are also much more likely to reach for savory, high fat, sugar loaded foods when drinking.

Sleep and Alcohol…not the good combination you may think.

Whether it’s a glass of wine, a beer, a night cap…alcohol has a direct impact on the quality of your sleep. I wear an Oura Ring on a regular basis that measures my sleep quality. My scores are in THE TRASH not just the morning after, but for about the next three days after I had even one or two drinks.

That said, poor sleep is also going to have a huge impact on your weight loss. Crappy sleep leads to crappy food choices, leads to blocking your body ability to metabolize, leads to increases cortisol levels..so on and so forth. Studies have shown that even as little as .25 grams of alcohol per kg of body weight results in a 9% drop in quality of sleep. Heavier consumption can lead to a 39% drop in sleep quality. Add in that even if you can bring yourself to haul your butt to the gym the morning after drinking, that training session is sure to be a wash.

Soon, we’ll dive into some ways you can help limit the booze during social situations.