Here is a little info from UC Berkeley:
Quote:
alcohol itself is high in calories—7 calories per gram, almost as much as fat (9 calories per gram) and more than carbs or protein (about 4 per gram).
Your body processes alcohol first, before fat, protein, or carbs. Thus drinking slows down the burning of fat.
alcoholic beverages give you calories without nutrition
When grapes are made into wine, most of the fruit sugars (carbs) convert to alcohol, but a few carbs remain. A 5-ounce glass of wine typically contains 110 calories, 5 grams of carbohydrates, and about 13 grams of alcohol (which accounts for 91 of the calories). A 5-ounce glass of wine supplies roughly the same amount of alcohol and number of calories as a 12-ounce light beer or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits.
Beer, too, contains carbohydrates. The new low-carb beers are not new at all, though this type of beer does indeed have fewer carbs. Low-carb beers are simply the old light beers with a new label and ad campaign. The old Miller Lite has 96 calories and 3.2 grams of carbs in 12 ounces. The "low-carb" Michelob Ultra has 96 calories and 2.6 grams of carbs. Coors Lite has 102 calories and 5 grams of carbs. The differences are tiny—hardly worth mentioning. In contrast, a regular beer has 13 grams of carbs and 150 calories.
In spite of the strong implication that "low-carb" somehow means low-calorie, and that low-carb foods in general can help you lose weight—or, indeed, that they are "health foods"—there’s no evidence this is so, and particularly not when it comes to beer, wine, and liquor. Alcoholic beverages have calories because alcohol has a lot of calories—not because of carbs. The impli-cation that low-carb beers and wine or carb-free spirits are a boon on a weight-loss program is simply deceptive advertising.
UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, August 2004
http://www.wellnessletter.com/html/w...tured0804.htmlalcohol itself is high in calories—7 calories per gram, almost as much as fat (9 calories per gram) and more than carbs or protein (about 4 per gram).
Your body processes alcohol first, before fat, protein, or carbs. Thus drinking slows down the burning of fat.
alcoholic beverages give you calories without nutrition
When grapes are made into wine, most of the fruit sugars (carbs) convert to alcohol, but a few carbs remain. A 5-ounce glass of wine typically contains 110 calories, 5 grams of carbohydrates, and about 13 grams of alcohol (which accounts for 91 of the calories). A 5-ounce glass of wine supplies roughly the same amount of alcohol and number of calories as a 12-ounce light beer or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits.
Beer, too, contains carbohydrates. The new low-carb beers are not new at all, though this type of beer does indeed have fewer carbs. Low-carb beers are simply the old light beers with a new label and ad campaign. The old Miller Lite has 96 calories and 3.2 grams of carbs in 12 ounces. The "low-carb" Michelob Ultra has 96 calories and 2.6 grams of carbs. Coors Lite has 102 calories and 5 grams of carbs. The differences are tiny—hardly worth mentioning. In contrast, a regular beer has 13 grams of carbs and 150 calories.
In spite of the strong implication that "low-carb" somehow means low-calorie, and that low-carb foods in general can help you lose weight—or, indeed, that they are "health foods"—there’s no evidence this is so, and particularly not when it comes to beer, wine, and liquor. Alcoholic beverages have calories because alcohol has a lot of calories—not because of carbs. The impli-cation that low-carb beers and wine or carb-free spirits are a boon on a weight-loss program is simply deceptive advertising.
UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, August 2004
Hey Tam, you want a little cheese with your whine?
Good for you for realizing the effects of alcohol on your weight loss. It's not easy giving up something you enjoy so much, but you have to decide if you want to drink and be fat, or give up the drink and be skinny. If you are like me, you will give it up and then decide you can handle it later on...and slip up and start drinking again, and then realize you really can't handle it. Plus, who wants to wake up in the front yard in the snow?
Life's a beach sometimes.
