Can You Drink Alcohol and Still Lose Weight?

In a word, yes. But before you leave this page and head to the bar, there are some things you need to consider.

Nearly all weight loss plans recommend that you stop drinking or, at the very least, limit your consumption. This is due, in part, to the fact that weight loss is achieved when the number of calories consumed is less than than the number of calories burned. Other factors may come into play, but calories matter. And all calories are not equal.

While it is possible to lose weight while still imbibing, binging or daily drinking makes it much more difficult. Most importantly, it could lead to other health problems that are not weight-related.

Processing alcohol places a toll on your body and interferes with the fat burning process. Normally, the liver metabolizes fats, but when a person drinks, metabolism of the alcohol takes preference, as the liver breaks down alcohol for energy first, causing a build-up of fatty acids. Your body can draw from a number of energy sources, and the source of fuel is, to a certain extent, dictated by its availability. Your body tends to use whatever you feed it. The nutrients protein, carbohydrates and fat can be stored in our bodies, but alcohol cannot. Alcohol is absorbed "as is" whereas other nutrients need to be broken up prior to absorption. This means the body uses the calories supplied from alcohol first, pushing the processing of fats to the back of the queue.

Let's say you have a few drinks with dinner, or even just munchies at the bar. The alcohol is processed by your body first. The protein, fat and carbs you just ate are being ignored, thus stored as fat. In fact, you're likely to store enough fat to mess up days of workouts and good eating.

The liver is the primary site for alcohol metabolism. The alcohol is detoxified and removed from the blood through a process called oxidation, which prevents the alcohol from accumulating and destroying cells and organs. A small percentage is excreted through the lungs (your breath) and urine. Once consumption stops, the concentration of alcohol decreases slightly every time the blood passes through the liver. The average person can eliminate about 15 ml of alcohol per hour. This equates to about an hour to negate a can of beer with a 5% alcohol content.

Oddly enough, scientists have not been able to link alcohol consumption to weight gain. Some studies have found that it increases the waist-to-hip ratio, while some have found no relationship at all. One study even professed that body fat actually decreases with increasing alcohol consumption. An explanation for this may be that heavy drinkers may be replacing real food and other beverages for alcohol, therefore reducing calories. There may never be a concrete answer, because there are just too many variables that affect weight, such as a person's normal diet, fitness habits, genes and lifestyle.  Furthermore, people tend to under-report how much much they drink, making findings unreliable. 

It doesn't work that way. Reducing calories all week for weekend binge is not advised and is likely to cause a weight loss setback.

There's a slang term for this behavior called "drunkorexia", a widespread problem that mainly affects women, from teens and college students to women in their 40's. While this behavior may get your daily calorie total where you want it to be, there are a number of reasons this is not the right method. For one, it could lead to malnutrition, and from there to organ damage and weakened bones. On a short-term basis, the drinkers could be subject to black-outs and potential for physical injury, and a host of other alcohol-related issues.

Alcoholic beverages give you calories with no nutritional value. If you're on a weight loss plan, you've already restricted your daily calorie allowance. This makes it all the more important to choose the calories you do consume more carefully.

What's more, drinking alcoholic beverages impacts your body's perception of hunger, satiety and fullness, loosening your resolve to lose weight. One study showed a 20% increase in calories consumed at a meal when alcohol was present. This results in a 33% total caloric increase when those alcohol calories were added.

Pure alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram, which makes it nearly twice as fattening as carbohydrates or protein, at about 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram.

Don't be fooled by the beverages with claims of little or no carbs. Hard liquor is distilled and contains no carbs anyway. There are a few carbohydrates in wine, because when grapes are made into wine, most of the fruit sugars (carbs) convert to alcohol, but a few remain. Beer contains carbs, as well, but this is not new. Some types of beer just contain fewer carbs than others.

Alcohol affects the hormones that are responsible for fluid balance. Drinkers urinate frequently, which starts a vicious cycle of urination, dehydration, and thirst. The only way to break the cycle is to have water or another alcoholic beverage. Drinkers also excrete important nutrients: calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc. Alcohol interferes with the absorption of vitamins B-1, B-6, B-12 and folate, as well as causing problems with the processing of vitamins A and D.

Sleep is also affected by alcohol. True, it may make you feel sleepy at first, but the end result is inadequate sleep efficiency, often due to falls in blood sugar in the middle of the night. Poor sleep habits can contribute to weight gain.

There are other arguments that could be made for not going quite so drastic in your diet. Let's face it...the more restrictive your diet is, the less likely you're going to stick with it. While it's certainly not advisable to start drinking if you don't already, there is hope if you just can't become a teetotaller. Here are some tips to reduce the impact of alcohol in your weight loss plan:

Moderation is the key. There are some studies that moderate amounts of alcohol could actually have some health benefits. Again, it's not a reason to start drinking, because the risks outweigh any benefits. Self-control is required, because it's easy to let one drink lead to another and another.  Moderate is often equated to 2 drinks/day for men and 1 drink/day for women. Initially, you should restrain from all alcohol and only drink in moderation when in maintenance mode.

1. Keep count of your calories. Like it or not, the calories count.
2. Even though calories count, you can't save up your calories. You could get away with a glass of wine each day, but don't be teetotaller all week and have seven glasses of wine on a Friday night. It just doesn't work that way.
3. Don't binge drink at all. Hangovers lead to bad workouts.
4. If the social dining/drinking atmosphere is too tempting, perhaps you should avoid it entirely, at least for a while.
5. When consuming alcohol, stay hydrated. Alcohol dehydrates the body and your body does not burn fat efficiently when it needs water. In addition, it causes extra bloatedness as your body starts retaining fluids which could sabotage your weight loss. An added benefit here is that hydration will lessen hangover symptoms.
6. Switch to lower caloric alcoholic beverages.
7. Stay away from mixers. They have about twice the calories. Stay away from fruity drinks period, because they're loaded with sugar. And whether you're keeping score or not, calories count.
8. Do not drink daily. Repeated behaviors become habits.
9. While it's not advisable to skip meals to replace the alcohol calories, you should avoid fatty foods. Alcohol and a high fat diet are a combination that favors overfeeding.
10. Add exercise to work off the extra calories.

The main takeaway from all of this is that when alcohol is present in your system, your body will convert more of the food you eat into body fat. You can drink moderately and still lose weight. You will not lose weight, however, because of the alcohol, but in spite of it. It just presents another obstacle you have to work through and can slow your results. If you're on a serious mission to lose weight, avoidance is your best solution.

With that being said, sometimes when dieting, you have to be strict about some things, and lighten up on others. No one is perfect, but balance can be achieved.   A diet that is long-term and realistic is the best way to get rid of the excess weight and keep it off.