Alcoholic Drinks And Weight Loss

Alcohol and weight is a subject relevant to millions of people who like to drink alcoholic beverages and who also either want to maintain or to lose body weight. It is uncertain whether alcohol leads to increase in body weight or if it does not. Some studies find an increase in body weight, some studies do not, and some find a small decrease among women who begin consuming alcohol. There has been a good amount of research over the last few years about the benefits of red wine and safe limits for alcohol consumption, but what about alcohol when you’re trying to diet? The truth may be surprising to you.

Drinking alcohol, whether in the form of wine, liquor, or beer, can negatively affect weight loss. People who try to find the best diet but also drink alcohol have a harder time losing weight than those who do not drink at all. Here are some facts:

Pure alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram, which makes it nearly twice as fattening as carbohydrates or protein (both contain about 4 calories per gram) and only just under the caloric value for fat (9 calories per gram). This means that if you want to lose weight and reduce excess body fat, alcohol is not a good choice. But how does alcohol make you fat?

The energy from alcohol cannot be stored so it must be oxidized and converted into energy for immediate use by the cells. While our body uses up all the alcohol circulating in the blood, the oxidation of fats, carbohydrates and protein becomes suppressed; because of this more of these macronutrients are forced into storage than under normal conditions without alcohol. Alcohol can make you fat in an indirect manner.

An Occasional Drink
If you want to add an occasional alcohol beverage to your weight loss or weight gain plan, you can add it your plan and consider that these are extra calories. Again, for weight loss, it will add up to extra calories that may slow your progress. You will need to increase your physical activity to make up for it!

Some evidence for this comes from research carried in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by a massive 73%.

Don’t drink on a fat loss program. Although you could certainly drink and “get away with it” if you diligently maintained your calorie deficit as noted above, it certainly does not help your fat loss cause or your nutritional status. Although wine contains fewer calories than beer, this can also lead to extra calories. Having a glass of wine provides 100 calories, but this is dependent on the glass size. A serving size of wine is 5-ounces. The larger wine glasses hold about 10 ounces turning your one glass of wine into two glasses. To put this into perspective, drinking two glasses of wine each night with dinner will add an extra 200 calories each day. If these calories are not burned through exercise and daily activity it can lead to a 20 pound weight gain in a year.

Successful Weight Loss with Green Tea Extract

Is Green tea is good for weight loss?
Yes, believe it or not, more and more often you’ll find green tea (or green tea extract) included in the compilations of many of the more popular weight loss supplements today. Tea has been used as an aid for weight loss. Drinking a cup of tea with each meal is a protocol for using tea successfully as a metabolic stimulant. Tea by itself carries only 4 calories per serving, and it’s most healthy when consumed with nothing added. The caffeine in tea increases body function to help burn more calories and the polyphenols seem to aid in the digestion of fat, truly making it a Chinese diet tea.

Green tea is recommended for the diet aid mainly because of its multifaceted effects on health. The major active component that attributes the properties to the green tea are the polyphenols such as catechin, epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, gallaogatechin, epigallocatechin, and apigallocatechin gallate (known as EGCG).

Green tea contains high concentrations of catechin polyphenols. These compounds work with other chemicals to intensify levels of fat oxidation and thermogenesis, where heat is created in the body by burning fuels such as fat. Drinking Japanese green tea regularly will increase your metabolism and help burn fat safely and naturally.

In Thailand, India, Japan and China, green tea has been used as a medicine for a variety of conditions from helping with digestion to healing wounds.

But while many in the medical field proclaim the wonders of this much talked about tea, others are quick to point out that there is little or no evidence to support at least some of the claims.

Glucose Regulator
Green tea also acts as a glucose regulator i.e. it slows the rise in blood sugar following a meal, by slowing the action of a particular digestive enzyme called amylase. This enzyme is pivotal in the breakdown of starches that can cause blood sugar levels to soar following a meal.

Green tea contains Vitamin B, C and thiamine. This will ensure that our brain cells have sufficient energy to protect the nervous system from being over stimulated. A good nourished brain will surely help in achieving your weight loss goals.

In November 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, in which researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.

The study conducted by the University of Geneva on the weight loss benefit of green tea extract implicated that green tea extract can also help thyroid patients. According to dietitian Lynn Moss, M.S., R.D., green tea extract is a healthier choice for people with thyroid who may be too sensitive to stimulants. Green tea extract can promote weight loss by increasing metabolism without over stimulating the adrenal glands.

Bottom Line: Green tea helps you with weight loss by boosting your metabolic rate, regulating your blood sugar, suppressing your appetite and giving you something else besides that high calorie, high sugar coffee beverage to drink in the morning. While it’s not the magic bullet, it can definitely give you a boost in weight loss and in your overall health

Metabolism and Weight Loss

Metabolism and Weight Loss
Metabolism is the process of burning calories. Metabolism burns it off fat and you burn calories no matter how many meals a day you eat. That’s why it is an essential part to weight loss because the higher metabolism you have the easier it is to lose weight.

Increasing metabolism is a fairly simple concept if done the right way. It is better to eat 6 or 7 meals a day rather than eating a couple big meals. Eventually you will lose weight gradually because you are giving your body time to burn off whatever you are eating rather than having to burn of a complete meal.

Basics Of Metabolism
Catabolism and Anabolism are the two main parts of metabolism. Catabolism breaks down food to give you energy. Catabolism is can also break down protein and use it for energy also.
Anabolism is where your body uses up its resources to create energy to be used. Your body uses this whenever you eat protein and later on that protein being used up during some kind of activity.

Important Factors Dealing With Weight Loss There are many factors which effect weight loss which people might already know but never apply. The most important factors would have to be the foods you eat. Anything organic is good and healthy for you. Stay away from harmful chemicals like fast foods. Make sure you maintain a healthy liver because your liver is the main organ that processes everything. Eliminating fat cells is crucial to burning fat and can be done by eating apple cider vinegar. Stay clear from any processed foods or any foods high in sugar and fat. Always exercise because a healthy diet will not do much if you don’t exercise to burn the fat. Last but not least stay true to your diet and your goals and focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle in which you can lose weight to achieve your goals.