Does alcohol make you fat? The age old question among lifters and anyone on a weight loss program for sure. You know that drinking makes you fat right? The beer belly is evidence of this fact… or is it? Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle gives us 3 weight loss tips this week in regards to alcohol and weight loss. This is the first of two sets of tips regarding alcohol and they’re not only based in science, they’re based on common sense, just like any of Tom’s work.

Alcohol and Weight Loss Tips

(1) Don’t drink on a fat loss program. Although you could certainly drink and “get away with it” if you diligently maintained your calorie deficit as noted above, it certainly does not help your fat loss cause or your nutritional status.

(2) Drink in moderation during maintenance. For lifelong weight maintenance and a healthy lifestyle, if you drink, do so in moderation and only occasionally, such as on weekends or when you go out to dine in restaurants. Binge drinking and getting drunk has no place in a fitness lifestyle (not to mention hangovers aren’t very conducive to good workouts).

(3) Don’t drink daily. Moderate drinking, including daily drinking, has been associated with cardiovascular health benefits. However, I don’t recommend daily drinking because behaviors repeated daily become habits. Behaviors repeated multiple times daily become strong habits. Habitual drinking may lead to heavier drinking or full-blown addictions and can be hard to stop if you ever need to cut back.

Tom continues with some thoughts on the subject of the role alcohol plays in a fitness lifestyle

Alcohol has been implicated as a factor that may hurt your efforts to lose body fat. Whether alcohol is “fattening” has been a very controversial subject because technically speaking, alcohol is NOT stored as fat; it is oxidized ahead of other fuels.

Whether moderate drinking is healthy has also been a subject of controversy. Many studies show that cardiovascular health benefits are associated with moderate beer or wine drinking (which has been of particular interest lately with reservatrol in the news so much), while other studies show improved insulin sensitivity. Some experts however, say that alcohol has no place in a fitness lifestyle.

I invite you to read more on this subject by reading the full article Why Some People Can Drink Alcohol Without Getting Fat by Tom Venuto. Tom gives 4 more weight loss tips as well in regards to alcohol and weight loss.

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3 Tips Friday, a collection of weight loss tips that you can take action on today and be 3 days ahead of your friends who start things on Mondays. Each Friday, I publish 3 weight loss tips or fitness tips that allow you to take steps towards you ultimate physique today. Taking action is one of the main themes of this blog and my weight loss forum. There is a saying that Knowledge Is Power, however, it is my belief that Knowledge In Action Is Power. Take action. Begin today.

Weight Loss Tips - Playing with your food

The idea here is to test small changes to your weight loss program. Make a small tweak in your diet and then monitor the results on your body fat. I call this “playing with your food”

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Q: I know you said what started you on the road to fitness was food combining. But, it seems you recommend , like Tom Venuto, a protein and carb at each meal, except at night where you slash the carbs.

Do you still food combine?

I am a petite 5 foot one 120 pounds, which I have finally come down to but have maintained that weight for two years. I want to get down to 115, yeah just a stupid 5 pounds, but the scale does not like to budge, so I am wondering if the food combining thing would be good?

Lauren,
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A: Thanks for the question Lauren. To fully understand my answer to this question, I feel that I must describe the events that led me from food combining all the way to Tom Venuto and his Burn The Fat program.

When I first began my weight loss journey back in 1990, I learned about Food Combining. I was about 450 at this point and what food combining did for me was to reset my digestion. Digestion of foods is the most energy consuming thing the body does. By using food combining, I was able to release an enormous amount of energy. This energy went into the cleansing process of my body and I was able to improve my sleep, feel more energized and improve the quality of my skin (after the initial cleansing process).

What I found to be most interesting was the principal of proper fruit consumption.

Harvey Diamond mentions in his book Fit For Life that fruit is a completely separate entity, and within the fruit category, fruits digest at different rates.

What was proposed to me was that fruit is pre-digested and should not be eaten with a meal, or after a meal, but rather it must be eaten by itself on an empty stomach. What I learned was that fruit slides right through the stomach in 20 minutes or less with the exception of Banana’s which take about 45 minutes.

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