Nutrition and Weight Loss Ideas

What Makes Us Fat?

What Makes Us Fat?

So far we’ve talked about how much water we drink, how many miles we walk, what effect genetics might play, how getting older might play a role in our nutrition and weight loss goals, what that awful junk food will do to us, our need to avoid calorie-rich foods, and how eating out can be fun if we use some caution about what we order and how much we eat.

Today the subject can be a touchy area for many people, but it is a subject that has to be included in any discussion about why we get fat. That is the subject of alcoholic beverages — and how much of them we consume.

I would guess that there would be very few people who read this blog that aren’t aware of the fact that alcoholic beverages are loaded with calories. Beer, wine and liquor have tons of calories in them. Not only are they loaded with the stuff that makes us fat — they are easily consumed. That’s a bad combination.

It seems that alcohol should have the same slogan as one of the potato chip brands — “I’ll bet you can’t eat just one!” — or, in this case — “I’ll bet you can’t drink just one!”

When you go out to eat — or you’re entertaining guests in your home — or you just want to kick back and relax for awhile in the evening with a nice drink — the next thing you know you’ve had the equivalent of three or four drinks. (I know, the wine drinkers among us are all saying, “I never have more than two glasses”). Here’s some news for you — the average wine glass holds enough to equal two drinks — so those two glasses really need to be counted as four drinks.

The point to be made here is not whether it’s two glasses of wine — or four beers — or two cocktails — the point is that any of those scenarios will total up about 400 to 500 calories in one sitting. And if you’re also munching on some snacks while you’re sipping away — you have to add in the calories of the snacks as well. So, while this is all happening you’re piling on a bunch of extra calories at the time when you should be subtracting about 500 calories a day from your diet if you’re on a nutrition and weight loss program.

There are also a couple more good reasons why you need to cut back on the alcohol if you’re trying to lose weight — and those are:

(1) Alcohol is a depressant. When you are taking in a depressant your mood could be altered negatively. Often when a person is feeling low, they tend to want to eat. Usually, the food choices at times like these are the wrong ones. So, if you find that you want to snack when you have a drink, you’ll need to be extra careful. Make the snack something healthy like fresh fruit — or just avoid the snack altogether.

(2) Alcohol is an appetite stimulant. This sort of goes right along with the item above. There seems to be something in alcohol that makes us want to munch on something — usually something sweet or salty. Whether that is a learned behavior, or whether the intake of alcohol really does make us think we’re hungry, I don’t know. Either way, drinking and munching seem to be closely related — and that means more fat for us! (Or, should I say, “on us”.)

The main point about all this is — we need to be aware that when we decide to have a couple of drinks we’re adding lots of calories to our intake for that day. I’m not a teetotaler by any means — I like a nice relaxing drink as much as the next guy. But, if we’re trying to lose weight, we need to find a way to compensate for the calories we took in with the drink (or drinks).

I’ll be back with some more good tips for you tomorrow.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program. These have helped me more than I would have ever imagined. I’m not kidding. Click on the links in the box below — you won’t be sorry!

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

Shanti,

Ron
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