3 Ways Alcohol Stops You From Losing Weight

In today's episode I will be sharing 3 ways how alcohol stops you from losing weight. If you're thinking about getting sober then this podcast is a must listen!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Stop Drinking podcast, where we help you make stopping drinking a simple, logical and easy decision. We help you with tips, tools and strategies to start living your best life when alcohol free. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, then head over to wwwsoberclearcom Now. Have you ever felt like you're doing everything right, but those stubborn pounds just won't budge? Well, you are not alone. But have you considered that your drinking could be the silent saboteur in your weight loss journey? Well, today we're going to be diving into the three shocking ways that alcohol might just be keeping you from reaching your gold weight. The second one might just have you rethinking your weekend plans. So stay tuned while we dive deep into the science to help you not only on your alcohol free journey, but also on your weight loss journey.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Now, part number one is that alcohol calories are additive to food. So the first thing that you need to understand is that our body does not adjust our appetite to compensate for calories from alcohol. Our alcohol calories simply get added to those that we already get from food. So let me break this down a little bit. So, for starters, a lot of the alcohol that we consume is just before or during a meal. Let's say a meal is 600 calories and a glass of wine is 150. If we drink the glass of wine with our meal, we don't reduce our food consumption to 450 calories, so we consume as normal, or 600 of them plus the 150 calories from the wine. For whatever reason, alcohol does not trigger the normal satiety mechanisms like other sources of energy. This is what scientists mean when they say that there is no compensation mechanism and that calories from alcohol are additive to food. For regular food, calories before the main meal are compensated to a larger or lesser degree. For example, if you have a snack before your main meal, then you're likely to have less of the meal. With alcohol, this does not happen. Not only that, but there is also evidence that alcohol stimulates our appetite. In other words, we get the full calories from the drink, the calories from our regular food consumption, and then some on account of alcohol stimulating our appetite.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Which brings us to the next point, part 2. Meet Grelin. So Grelin is a hormone that is primarily produced in the stomach. Discovered just over 20 years ago, in 1999, scientists soon realized that this hormone is critical to the regulation of numerous physiological processes. Research quickly revealed that Grelin could stimulate the release of growth hormone, regulate the movement of our gut and the secretion of gastric acid, as well as the metabolism of glucose and the sensation of taste. A picture also began to emerge of this hormone being intimately involved in the regulation of appetite and meal initiation. So, for example, administering Grelin to animals makes them eating conditions where they would normally not do so. On the flip side, artificially inhibiting Grelin reduces food consumption. Now scientists also found that Grelin levels rise in animals that are starved, but quickly fall when the animals are fed. Findings like these gave Grelin its popular name as the quote hunger hormone.

Speaker 1: 2:59

In 2005, just a few years after its discovery, we got the first evidence that alcohol interferes with the Grelin system. A team of researchers out of Germany compared 118 alcoholic patients to 24 healthy controls. Some of the heavy drinkers were still consuming alcohol and some had stopped drinking 1-3 days prior, but in fact, compared to the healthy controls, both groups of heavy drinkers showed increased Grelin levels, and the heavy drinkers that had just started to abstain from drinking showed the highest Grelin levels of all. So it became apparent very early on that alcohol interferes with the Grelin system and this is potentially linked to waking Now. It's important to note, however, that the correlation between alcohol intake and Grelin levels is not always positive. Other researchers found that in healthy people that drink occasionally, alcohol seems to actually suppress Grelin levels. Now this squares up with alcohol's appetite stimulating property, which we discussed earlier, is not yet clear.

Speaker 1: 3:53

At part 3, enter leptin. Just like some hormones that have associated with increased appetite, others have the complete opposite effect. One of these is leptin, from the Greek word leptos, meaning thin. Now, leptin is basically a satiety signal. It signals to the brain that we've had enough, that it's time to stop eating. Whereas Grelin is primarily synthesized in the stomach, leptin is produced by fat cells, so this serves as a kind of control mechanism. The fatter that we become, the more leptin is produced, acting as a negative feedback mechanism to control our eating and weight.

Speaker 1: 4:24

In 2001, a team of researchers out of Sweden set out to see how alcohol affects our leptin levels. They recruited 14 healthy volunteers and administered alcohol to them at various times of the day and at various intervals. They actually found that alcohol acutely inhibited the secretion of leptin, in other words, it lowered leptin levels. This effect was independent of the time of the day that alcohol was consumed and lasted for up to eight hours afterwards. Now it's not clear exactly how alcohol affects leptin in this way. It might be indirectly through its effects on other hormones, or it might have a direct action on the fat cells. Whatever the reason, it now seems very likely that at least part of alcohol's stimulating effects on the human appetite are mediated via its effects on the leptin system. Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking podcast by SoberClear. If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly, then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom.