The Leangains article on alcohol and fat loss.

[jumpshot903]

Has anyone read this article

The truth about alcohol, fat loss and muscle growth | Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health

It intrigued me upon reading, i enjoy drinking and probally won't give it up atleast not in the near future but this helped shed some light on possible ways to prevent some fat gain from drinking.

Summary

* Moderate alcohol consumption is assocoiated with an abundance of health benefits. The long-term effect on insulin sensitivity and body weight (via insulin or decreased appetite) may be of particular interest to us.

* The thermic effect of alcohol is high and the real caloric value is not 7.1 kcal: it's ~5.6 kcal. However, it's still easy to overconsume calories by drinking. Calorie for calorie, the short-term effect of alcohol on satiety is low. Adding to this, intoxication may also encourage overeating by disinhibition of dietary restraint.

* The negative effects of alcohol on testosterone and recovery has been grossly exaggerated by the fitness mainstream. Excluding very high acute alcohol consumption, or prolonged and daily consumption, the effect is non-significant and unlikely to affect muscle gains or training adaptations negatively.

* The effect of alcohol on muscle protein synthesis is unknown in normal human subjects. It is not unlikely to assume that a negative effect exists, but it is very unlikely that it is of such a profound magnitude that some people would have you believe.

* Alcohol is converted to acetate by the liver. The oxidation of acetate takes precedence over other nutrients and is oxidized to carbon dioxide and water. However, despite being a potent inhibitor of lipolysis, alcohol/acetate alone cannot cause fat gain by itself. It's all the junk people eat in conjunction with alcohol intake that causes fat gain.

This was the basic summary of it all, the obvious fact was the last one the majority of fat gain is achieved from the junk we eat after coming home drunk. But later in the article he gave some tips on to preventing weight gain and for those trying to lose weight, how to maximise it will drinking and wanted to clarify some of the tips.

He basically said ingest very little dietary fat the day of drinking, and keep carbs to about 1.5g/kg so basically the bulk up your diet is protein he says basically consume all your carbs from veggies and tag along from protein sources. It seems pretty common knowledge limit any factors that could increase fat gain but is it this simple? just limit carbs and fat during the day of drinking and make sure you make smart choices when coming home?

I've never had a problem building a beer belly, but thats because mostly i've been eating at or below maintence but however with my recent clean bulk im a little worried about possible fat gain.

 

[Marcinator]

So would having a drink a night be better than not drinking at all?