The real effects of alcohol on your body

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If you are curious as to the effects of alcohol on the body, this could be the most eye-opening article you will ever read.

Many of us associate the effects of alcohol on the body with the heart, lungs, liver, brain, memory, etc. Furthermore, if asked about effects of drinking alcohol in terms of our fitness goals, most people will let you know about the infamous beer belly. You know what I'm talking about right?

Must... keep... energy levels... up...

Drink too much and you end up storing too many calories as fat.

Many people will choose low calorie alcohol drinks or low carb alcoholic beverages in an attempt to avoid the fat storage issue. They feel that by making this choice the only bad effects of alcohol - increased fat storage - will be minimized.

But what you didn't know is that only about 5% of the calories from alcohol are stored as fat!

Then it hit me as it should hit you right about now...

The effects of alcohol on the body are far more damaging than can be predicted by the number of empty calories in some alcoholic beverage. The truth is...

1 Alcohol really affects the amount of fat your body can and will burn for energy!

In a study done by the American Journal of Clinical Research they concluded that just a mere 24g of alcohol consumption showed whole-body lipid oxidation (the rate at which your body burns fat) decreased by a whopping 73%!

When alcohol goes thru the liver, the by-product is called Acetate. It would appear that acetate puts the proverbial brakes on fat burning. Your body can use many types of fuel. Protein, carbohydrates and fat. In many cases, the fuel used is dictated by it's availability. Trouble is...

Your body tends to use whatever you feed it for fuel right? As your acetate levels increase, your body burns more acetate as fuel. What this means is...

Fat burning takes a back seat! What it all boils down to is this...

a) You consume a couple of alcoholic drinks or more. b) Your liver metabolizes that into acetate. c) Your body uses the acetate for fat as fuel.

Reader's Comments Comments RSS Feed

says

These are all the negative damaging effects of alcohol. However I'll like to know both sides of the story. What are the positive effects of alcohol?! How does it help. I'm sure it must have some positive influence at least if taken in a moderated amount.
George Norris says

The fact is that people don't need to know the good side, because there are hardly any people that you need to convince to drink! However having said I must said that most things are in some degree harmful for the body! I trick, I believe is to balance it all out. Too much of anything is bad! So drink up but stay in line!
Ryan C says

also, there's plenty of evidence out there that supports the idea that chronic alcohol consumption contributes to low bone density and the inhibition of new bone formation/remodelling/fracture healing.

having said that, i still drink and train, but to the anon. poster above.. the negative effects of drinking a la NZ booze culture style FAR outweigh any would-be positives.

It's like saying smoking is good for your health because the temporary increase in blood pressure increases core body temp and therefore metabolism.

don't kid yourself. if you're happy drinking.. keep drinking.
DaveM says

Anything that we put into our bodies is detrimental in some way - alcohol just happens to be something that we tend to over do...

It has been said time and time again, but New Zealand's drinking culture is far more to blame than the contents of a glass of wine or pint of beer.

Society has been drinking alcohol (beer) as far back as history tells, and when consumed in moderation it has never had an overly negative impact on our lives.

The issue is to identify a way to encourage a European style culture where one or two drinks is fine but any more than that and you risk being ostracised by your peers.

I digress.
Chris Dick says

crap, all those wasted hours at the gym..
Cindy Kane says

I'm in recovery (alcoholic) and only been sober 3 months, there are so many more pro's to being sober and wow what a difference - I lost 7 kgs in 2 months, it's so nice not waking up with a hangover every morning! I take my hat off to those who can drink socially and not feel they have to get pissed, I think drinking in moderation is fine (for those who can), just as it is with everything we do - in moderation it's okay...
R Carter says

Certainly explains a few things! Why did I have to read that so close to all the Christmas parties.
Dave Wells says

Good motivation to make some positive changes, thank you.
barnes10 says

If we stopped eating and drinking everything which people said was bad for us it would be boring....enjoy your life as you never know when your number is dialled!

Everything in moderation!
Kristy Dekker New Member says

I think there needs to be more awareness of the damage alcohol can do and more advertising for where to go if you or someone you know has a drinking problem. The problem is the young people that think it's impressive to drink more than they possibly can and they don't understand that it kills nor the damage it does when you're older. Another one of the problems is people who have depression and just don't care about the damage it is doing to them, not realising that one day when they've got their life back on track, it might hit them then and cause health problems.