So, I want to do a little write up here about Alcohol and Weight loss…I just recently started a Body Challenge at my gym. One of the first questions that most have is about alcohol. Can we drink it? my answer to that is yes, but you have to be accountable for it. Now don’t get me wrong, alcohol is by all means going to slow down your weight loss process, but in my Diet Doc program that I offer I do not tell anyone that anything is off limits.  This is about making healthy decisions, making your lifestyle work withing a set parameter of numbers. fat/carb/pro… so, if they want to use up their carbs drinking them, that is up to them.

One thing that you need to keep in mind is that the distributors are not required by law to list sugar alcohol on their labels. This is why the beer companies can list their beer as 6 carbs per can of beer. PLEASE don’t let that fool you.. there is NO beer, I repeat NO BEER that has 6 carbs. Now i’ll do a little simple math here. There are 4 calories for every gram of carb, 4 calories for every gram of protein and 9 calories for every gram of fat. With that said, if a label on the beer can reads 100 calories- and beer is all carbs… how can it have only 6 carbs? do the math. 6(carbs listed) X 4 (calories per carb) = 24… so why does that beer not have 24 calories? instead it has 100??? where do those other calories come from? They come from sugar alcohol.

So next time you drink that can of beer and you are tracking your carbs be sure to count it as 25 carbs! Vodka you ask? there are 76 calories in a 1.5 oz shot of PLAIN, unflavored vodka, so take 76 and divide by 4 that = 19 carbs per 1.5 oz of vodka. (more for flavored) The moral of this story is, if you are tracking your carbs, DO NOT LISTEN TO THE MARKETING scams of 6 carbs or no carbs… If alcohol has calories ( I don’t know of any that does not) then it has carbs! period. Wine? 4 carbs per oz. Or read your label and divide your calories by 4.

The only time this would change is if you are drinking something where you have added a fat source like milk or cream. I know there is always a lot of controversy about alcohol. No one wants to believe that there are that many carbs in their drinks, but there are.

Oh and one more thing, when you drink alcohol your body will store any food you eat as fat. The second alcohol enters your bloodstream your liver stops metabolizing anything else other than the alcohol. So until the alcohol is out of your system, the food you eat is stored as fat. whatever that food may be– yes salad too. your liver can only metabolize one thing at a time and to your liver alcohol is poison so it will metabolize that first….END OF STORY!

Want to know more about my program? inbox or email me. I offer all of my nutrition programs ONLINE… you do not need to live near me. ~Michelle