Whether you drink alcohol or not, weight loss always comes down to a matter of calories. A pound of body fat is equal to 3,500 calories. To lose a pound a week, you must either burn 3,500 additional calories, eliminate 3,500 calories from your diet, or whittle those calories away by doing a combination of both. Since alcohol contains calories, it contributes to your caloric intake if you drink. Metabolism factors in, as well.
Calories
The calories in alcoholic beverages all come from the alcohol content. Each gram is equal to seven calories. A 4.2-oz. glass of wine has about 80 calories. Distilled liquor has about 55 calories per shot, the equivalent of about 1.5 oz. A 12-oz. bottle of light beer has 110 calories. If you typically have one beer a night and you give that up, you'll shave about 770 calories off the 3,500 you have to eliminate to lose a pound of fat in a week. If you usually drink two beers a night, you can whittle away more than 1,500 of those 3,500 calories if you stop drinking.
Metabolism of Alcohol
Giving up alcohol can also help your fat-losing efforts because of the way your body metabolizes it. Unlike carbohydrates, protein or fat, your body has no way of storing calories that come from alcohol. Therefore, it uses them right away. While your body is metabolizing any alcohol you've consumed, it's not burning any of the calories you might have taken in through food. If you give up alcohol, it can boost fat-burning. Instead of burning the liquor for energy, your body will burn your food calories and your own body fat instead.
Mixers
If you usually combine a shot of distilled liquor with a high calorie mixer, the number of calories you can eliminate per week by not drinking would be far greater. If you usually mix vodka with orange juice and have one drink per night, you'll cut not only the 385 weekly calories you took in from the vodka, but an additional 784 weekly from the orange juice. A cup of of orange juice equals about 112 calories. You'd save about 1,169 calories per week and could lose a pound of body fat in three weeks without making any other changes at all.
Tips
Weight Watchers indicates that the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends no more than one drink per day for women and two for men. If you keep to these limits, it probably will not contribute a great deal to weight loss or weight gain, as long as you're not also overeating. But Weight Watchers indicates that alcohol might increase your appetite. Even if you're a light drinker, and you don't eliminate a lot of calories by giving up alcohol, you might save yourself extra calories you consume through food while you're drinking.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Counting Calories: Get Back to Weight Loss Basics; Mayo Clinic Staff; December 2009
- "Elle"; Alcohol and Calories: Does Drinking Cause Weight Gain?; Rachael Combe; February 2010
- Weight Watchers: Alcohol, Health and Weight; The Weight Watchers Research Department; March 2011
- ShapeFit: How Alcohol Effects Weight Loss - Calories & Carbs In Alcoholic Beverages; 2011
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