To maintain a healthy weight is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves. We have often heard that consuming alcohol can increase the overall weight of a person and can also decrease a person’s weight. It depends on the amount and regularity of consumption. It also depends on the intake of food that a person takes after consuming alcohol. If a person is thinking of losing weight, then they have to cut alcohol altogether but studies have shown that people who are alcoholic are found to lose a substantial amount of weight and have gained a belly because of it.

Here is what one should know about alcohol, its relation to weight loss and the importance of maintaining a healthy weight. We have seen that alcohol has become a major part in our culture. We ignore the risk that it carries with it. Drinking excessively is totally linked to a person being overweight and in other they have lost a substantial amount of their body weight but have gained a belly.

How does your body respond to the alcohol intake?

Because the body identifies alcohol as a toxin, it therefore tries to process and flush it out. When we consume alcohol, the liver metabolizes it before it metabolizes fat and sugars. Fatty acids are formed which are the basic components of fats. Because the liver metabolizes alcohol first, our body burns calories from alcohol before it burns from fats.

Alcohol and its effect on metabolism

When we consume alcohol, our body prioritizes on what substance to act on first. Our liver starts acting on alcohol first, breaking it down. So, the presence of food contents in a person’s digestive tract slows down the digestive process. This maximizes the impact of alcohol on a person intestine which is unable to digest the food and making a person feel full and thus reduces their weight.

When we link the term metabolism with alcohol, the focus is purely on your digestive system and how your body processes it. Depending upon different people metabolism, alcohol acts differently. The metabolism of our body is responsible to break the substance that we eat or drink into useful compounds for the use of our body. It should be taken into notice that it is not the liver wholly responsible to get involved in dealing with the alcohol but our brain, stomach, and pancreas too are responsible.

Relation between weight loss and alcohol

Studies have also found that people who are drinking alcohol for quite some time have acquired the ability of unexplained weight loss. Unexplained weight refers to decrease in persons weight which is quite noticeable even if the person is not trying to lose weight. The weight loss does not come due to exercise and lifestyle but it has come due a change in a person’s lifestyle.

People who drink too much have acquired the habit of taking alcohol as the basic need of life without knowing the hidden dreadful effect it will do on a person’s body. Drinking alcohol changes how a person’s metabolism works. For most people it is quite common that alcohol leads to weight gain. But in some it appears they have lost some weight.

It is possible that alcohol curbs down appetites and reduce snacking habit of some people. Alcohol dehydrates a person’s body in a very short time which will eventually show up as weight loss on the scale. Alcohol cuts down a person appetite and make a person feel full. This sense of fullness is not good as we are taking calories which are bad for our health.

People who have the habit of heavy drinking have more chances to cut out their appetite. Their metabolism works differently because their body have acquired this alcohol as the basic need for energy. Their brain and body are synced together and does not respond to the need of taking the calories their body requires the most. This is common in people who drink heavy that they have required the habit of taking in less food in order to keep some space for alcohol which in fact reduces weight of a person.

So, a person who drinks regularly is about to lose weight which is not a good way to. It is proved that people who drink alcohol have seen a substantial weight loss in long run as compared to their peers who does not. The calories which come with the intake of alcohol is mainly empty calories. And when this enters our system, it forces the body to reduce its metabolic process using alcohol calories as an energy supply. Furthermore, when our body uses this alcohol as an energy supply for carbohydrates, this results in weight loss.

Alcohol also inhibits the proper functioning of a person’s digestive system. The liver starts breaking down alcohol first rather than the fat. It also damages the cell lining which is responsible for absorption of some important nutrients. When these minerals will not meet a person’s body, they eventually lose weight. The pancreas also starts diminishing the supply of digestive enzymes.

The fact the alcohol is bad for health and people who wish to lose weight should avoid alcohol is true. Most people use alcohol to acquire coping skills for life’s many issues, but this quickly turns fatal when drinking turns into alcohol use disorder. Alcohol also minimizes brain function due to which a person is prone to accidents, self-inflicted injuries, and making some illogical decisions that one will most likely regret the next day.