Yes, drinking excessive wine will eventually leave you with a beer belly. You will be surprised to know how wine makes you gain belly fat because the body isn’t storing excessive fats from alcohol.
Your digestive system gets stronger after drinking alcohol. Alcohol is treated as toxic content by your body; thus, your digestive system works actively to get rid of it as soon as possible. The real reason behind weight gain due to drinking is the slow metabolism caused by excessive drinking.
Drinking alcohol reduces the metabolism rate of your body, which eventually reduces the amount of fat burned. However, there are conflicting ideas about whether drinking wine can lead to weight gain. Here you can find out about how alcohol leads to weight gain, especially around the belly area.
Alcohol And Weight Gain
Drinking alcohol leads to the loss of essential nutrients from your body. As a result, you lose protein, nutrients, and calories from your food, eventually gaining weight. The main reason behind this is that when your body is digesting an alcoholic beverage, it is entirely focused on getting rid of toxic alcohol from the system.
While your system gets rid of alcohol, the intake of macro-nutrients and minerals stops. Additionally, alcohol is also known to slow down the metabolism, leading to unwanted fat storage in your body. Also, when your body loses out on essential nutrients such as protein, it gets stored as fat to maintain energy levels. So within a few months of drinking, increased belly fat and weight start showing up.
What Other Problems May Occur From Weight Gain?
While weight gain due to drinking may seem normal, many health-critical problems come as you gain extra weight. Hypertension, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, bladder issues, lack of energy, and heart stroke are common conditions that an overweight person can face. A few common problems associated with weight gain include:
Risk of Diabetes
If your blood sugar levels are high, then you will gain weight faster. In this case, wine only increases the weight you gain since it affects your body’s metabolism. However, drinking wine may increase fat levels and cholesterol in your body, increasing your chances of developing diabetes.
High Blood Pressure
Excess weight around the waist leads to increased pressure on the heart, thus burdening heart muscles and veins, ultimately leading to high blood pressure. Alcohol also increases the risk of hypertension because drinking too often can lead to long-term consequences for diabetes and heart stroke.
Gallbladder Issues
Gallbladder issues are often found in obese people. The gallbladder removes fat and cholesterol from the digestive system; therefore, when your gallbladder malfunctions, you start secreting gallstones. This can lead to a few complications, such as liver failure, jaundice, and cirrhosis.
Loss of Muscles
If you continue drinking alcohol more than twice a week, it can affect the muscles in your stomach. As a result, your stomach muscles will weaken and eventually stop functioning as designed.
Excessive alcohol drinking can lead to an increase in blood sugar levels and blood pressure. There is no doubt that both diabetes and high blood pressure are common problems that result from alcohol consumption.
Is It Possible To Drink Every Day Without Gaining Weight?
It is not possible to drink alcohol regularly as you are eating more food every day than your body needs. Even if you drink just two glasses of wine in a week, your system will eliminate that amount of alcohol, and the weight gain will continue. A better practice is to drink a small amount of alcohol gradually over time, reducing the chances of gaining weight.
People who are overweight or obese do not have enough margins to lose extra fat by drinking alcohol. Instead, they have to reduce their intake along with exercising regularly. The recommended amount of alcohol is normally less than 14 units per week.
However, when you drink more than this, you start facing many health issues, including obesity. Therefore, if you want to drink less or more alcohol, you must exercise or reduce your food intake to prevent weight gain from drinking.
Why Does Drinking Wine Make You Fat?
To know the answer to “Does Wine make you fat?”, you must know how your body processes alcohol. First, wine is an anti-nutritional drink with no nutritional value. To process and remove alcohol from the system, your body has to spend precious energy that otherwise could be used for metabolism. When you drink wine frequently, it affects your body in several ways:
- It affects insulin resistance which in turn changes your blood sugar levels.
- Triggers an increase in fat storage in the body and also increases serotonin synthesis, which leads to a feeling of hunger.
- Releases appetite-suppressing hormones such as leptin and ghrelin.
- Increases the secretion of stress hormones like cortisol, which can lead to more weight gain.
- Alcohol lowers testosterone levels in the body which usually helps gain muscle mass and burns fat.
Different people have different digestion rate that depends on many factors, including age, physique & eating habits. When it comes to alcohol, it’s all about moderation rather than saying no to wine altogether. The best practice is to keep track of your intake and reduce the amount to what’s good for your body. It all depends on how much alcohol your body can handle before it shows any negative effects such as weight gain, obesity, or diabetes.
How Can We Limit Weight Gain?
It is best to start drinking alcohol in small amounts, as you can keep track of your intake and limit it. For example, you can drink out of shots instead of full bottles or glasses. You can also drink alcohol anytime during the day, not just at night. Drinking alcohol indeed leads to weight gain and many other health issues. However, there are a few things we can do to limit our weight loss from drinking alcohol:
Eat Before Drinking
Having a drink before a meal reduces your appetite, and you end up eating less food during meal times. But having a drink after a meal increases your appetite and makes you feel hungry again.
Exercise Regularly
Doing regular workouts helps in keeping your weight under control and reduces fat levels in the body. You can start by doing simple exercises like jogging, walking, or going to the gym. Try to have as balanced a diet as possible, have limited alcohol, and eat the necessary food. For example, if you want to drink wine, eat healthy food and drink wine in small quantities.
Do Not Mix Alcohol with Sugary Drink
Moreover, avoid mixing alcohol with sugary drinks as it increases the chances of gaining weight and causes various gastrointestinal issues. Remember, the best practice is to drink wine in moderation. Keep track of your intake and limit it to avoid weight gain or obesity.
Try Wine with Low-Calorie Intake
In addition, drink only light-colored wines with a low amount of alcohol content, like white wine or sparkling wines, rather than red ones, as red wines contain more calories.
If nothing works for you, it is better to cut off alcohol completely. It can cause severe damage to your body, including body fat increase, stress, depression, and hormonal imbalance.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does wine belly cause weight gain?
Drinking wine frequently will eventually lead to weight gain. Alcohol disturbs the digestion process and reduces the metabolism rate of the body. These two factors increase the fats stored in your body and contribute to unwanted weight gain.
2. How much weight do you gain from wine?
Though it’s not possible to say exactly how much weight you gain from wine, it’s a proven fact that drinking excess alcohol can cause weight gain. Hard drinks and beer contain more amount of calories than wine. Remove hard drinks and beer from your daily routine to reduce the risk of getting fat.
3. Can I lose weight and still drink wine?
An occasional drink of wine does not cause weight gain. However, continuous drinking with or without food will make you gain weight. Therefore, if you want to lose weight, keep drinking wine to a minimum. Also, a balanced diet and regular exercise do more good than drinking wine.
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