Does Alcohol Make You Gain Weight? 5 Ways It Sabotages Weight Loss

A standard 7-ounce mixed drink and 12-ounce beer typically have the same does liqour make you fat number of calories and will likely contribute to the same amount of weight gain. However, pure spirits alone contain fewer calories and carbohydrates. Alcohol does not cause weight gain the same way eating a donut does.

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• It impacts our decision-making, lowers our metabolism, produces additional stress, and traps us in an unhealthy cycle of binge eating and lounging.
• Like a clog in a drain, those thickened fluids can jam up your ducts.
• A recent animal study found that mice given ethanol over a period of three days demonstrated a significant increase in food intake.

And this will have a more significant impact on you gaining weight from alcohol rather than just the calories the alcohol contains. She received a master’s degree in nutrition and physical performance and is certified as an exercise physiologist and intuitive eating counselor. She’s a student of herbal medicine and women’s integrative and functional medicine. She lives with her husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where you’ll find her out on a trail or in her garden. Pancreatitis can be a short-term (acute) condition that clears up in a few days.

Your Risk of Cancer May Increase

Sure, alcohol contains empty calories, but how your body metabolizes it, your food choices, and the sleep you get to make the most significant impact. A 12-ounce craft beer runs about 170 calories (or more), according to MedlinePlus. The reason for this difference, compared with commercial beers, is that craft beers often have extra ingredients and carbs that amp up their flavor. Though the latter may lead you to drink less than you would when sitting with a light beer, ultimately craft beers tend to have higher alcohol content, and more alcohol means more calories. You’ll save about 35 calories per serving by choosing bubbly over a sweet white wine, according to MedlinePlus. And while that might not sound like much, it’s also possible that you’ll feel fuller and turn down that second drink as a result of the carbonation.

Does Drinking Alcohol Make You Gain Weight?

Alcoholics Anonymous is available almost everywhere and provides a place to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss alcohol issues with others who have alcohol use disorder. Like a clog in a drain, those thickened fluids can jam up your ducts. That can lead to pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas.

A review by Yeomans 5 highlights some of the potential explanations for alcohol’s influence on weight gain or obesity. First, as previously mentioned, energy from alcohol appears to be additive to energy from other sources 5. Several studies suggest that consuming alcohol before or during a meal does not influence the amount of food eaten in that meal, despite increasing the energy density of the meal 5. Thus, individuals do not appear to compensate for the added energy from alcohol in the short-term, and alcohol appears to have little effect on satiety 5.

• Anyone looking to drop those final stubborn pounds may want to consider skipping their evening glass of wine.
• Of course, this makes it easier to eat bad foods and even more alcoholic drinks.
• Your body will prioritize burning the calories from alcohol first over other calories you consume from food.