Day 12 - Barbie Dolls?

Alright. Without trying to say the words, I am thinking that the hits off of yesterdays blog were a bit askew to the intention of this WEIGHT FITNESS & LIFESTYLE blog. :P Grats to Google for placing ads that pertained to DIETS, SUPPLEMENTS and NARCOTIC DRUGS instead of Barbie cloths. I know I plan to be thinner, but not that damn thin. Wake up Google and smell the protein shakes.

Ok. With that out of the way. Today's weigh in was a bit sad for me. I was at 229 even. I am trying to blame a bag of popcorn and a soda for this, but I think the reality of the situation is that I have dropped my calories a bit too far and my body is probably starting to store energy. Or I have to go #2...either one is the most likely culprit.

I was reading an interesting article (as it seems like I am doing every day now). This article was about the effects of alcohol and how alcohol calories are treated by the body.
First off, alcohol is considered an empty calorie. What that means is that there is no nutritive value to the calories. We know right away that if your intent is to balance your diet, then alcohol is out. There is no point in consuming anything that does not have a nutritional value. (With water being the one and only exception that I am aware of at this time)

A balanced diet means controlling your intake of fibers, fats, proteins, carbs, sugars, vitamins and minerals. Your body depends on all elements of a balanced diet to run smoothly. It is no shocker that alcohol and alcohol byproducts is not listed as a food group in the Canada Food Guide. (Despite pleas from pub goers world wide). So taking alcohol calories vs dietary calories is a bad idea. One could contend that the average drink of alcohol contains around 100 calories...no big deal...but there is more to this picture than meets the eye.

Have you ever noticed that people who drink a lot tend to have that bulging belly? Well the reason is not just the masses of calories they are consuming in a day. The reason is 2 fold. 1. Alcohol causes your appetite to increase. Imagine taking 5 shots of pure alcohol and mixing it with 8 oz of cola. You would take in about 1300 calories. While you are drinking you may get the munchies and eat 1/2 a large bag of nacho chips...that's another (115 grams of chips) 1000 calories. Before the festivities started, you have a normal meal of say 500 calories. In total you have consumed 2800 calories. 2800 calories alone is not too horrible. 2800 calories per day normally would keep a person at 220 lbs (give or take).

The bad news...As your body digests the booze, it can store up to 5% of those calories directly as fat. The other 95% is processed by your liver and turns into a chemical called acetate. Your body will burn acetate as a fuel source before it will burn fat. What this all means is that instead of your body burning good calories from your diet, it stores them as fat and burns the acetate from your alcohol. Not only does it use acetate first, it will suppress the body from burning fat for many hours after you drink. So for hours during and after drinking, your body will go into a frenzy of storing excess energy as fat.

A note to the men....This is not part of what I had learned today, but rather some tidbits I have picked up through previous readings. Drinking creates a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol effectively breaks down the testosterone hormone. Without an adequate supply of testosterone, your body is unable to either build or maintain muscles. (not to mention the other things we all love our testosterone for). As well, alcohol breaks down a vitamin in your body called B-1 (thiamine). Thiamine is required by your body to move short term memories to long term memories. So when you don't remember what happened last night...that's why. When you start to forget where your house keys are, or if you paid a bill...that's why. What little thiamine you take in in your diet is broken down by the alcohol and you start to forget...or not remember..I forget. :P

The moral for today is a simple one...Going by calories alone is BAD! Look at the total nutritive value of the foods that you intake. Make sure you balance your diet with many different types of calories. Let your body do its job. You do not own your body, you are just renting it.