Alcohol and metabolism

[han-grrl]

Alcohol is brutal on the metabolism of women. For whatever reason, the studies that show a glass of red wine or whatever is good for us, does not seem to hold true for ANY of my clients or friends. those who drink keep gaining weight, those who don't manage their weight better.

[Geonz]

I"d have to agree... when I stop drinking beer, I can lose weight. There's this pretty direct correlation. Whether it's just the calories or whether it has a more general effect, I dunno, but in a way it's nice, because I know what works.

[spokewench]

I do drink - but when in the winter when my exercise level is down, I just have to cut down on the beer - If I don't, I have the after 45 flabby tummy syndrome that was talked about on another thread. Actually, I have it right now cause I just went on vacation and drank lots of beer and didn't have a bike with me!

[tattiefritter]

I also notice a correlation between drinking and weight, I don't drink at all during the week, usually wine at the weekends. I find that more than a couple of glasses (ok large glasses) or beers then I feel puffy the next morning, like my body is retaining fluid. I find that lots of cycling doesn't effect my alcohol tolerance but running does - In my training for my recent 10K I was running 3 times a week I got my longest run up to 8 miles and was doing intervals etc I would get drunk on half a glass of wine, who knows what I'll be like at the end of my half marathon training, probably won't be able to even walk into a pub!

I caught part of a TV program a few weeks ago (Diet Doctors or something I wouldn't normally watch). It had an experiment where a British athlete (Katherine Merry I think - 400m runner) who was almost teatotal was to drink two bottles of wine in one sitting every three days.

First of all she ended up really ill and on antibiotics, however being a trooper she got back on the experiment and the results were interesting. One of which being that she got really flabby although her weight stayed the same, she put a couple of inches on all over. I normally don't bother with these kind of programs but for some reason that really stuck in my head.

http://www.five.tv/programmes/dietdoctor/labrat/