Alcohol is a large part of people’s lives and is a big factor in most social events and gatherings. I regularly have clients ask me if drinking alcohol will affect them working towards their goals. I also have clients ask me how to account for their alcohol consumption since most nutrition labels on alcoholic beverages can be confusing/misleading. I am going to provide you with some information regarding alcohol and how it affects our bodies, how to accurately track/account for it and let you be the one to ultimately make the decision about whether to include it or not.  

There are several ways alcohol can affect our brain, bodies and hydration levels. As I stated above, for the purpose of this post, I am going to focus mainly on how it can affect our body composition, scale, recovery and why nutritional information available on alcohol can be misleading. 

Although alcohol is a liquid and usually contains sugar, our bodies digest and process alcohol as though it were a source of fat. Alcohol can slow down the rate at which our bodies are digesting other nutrients. What does that mean? Without getting into a fancy scientific explanation, it can throw off our body for the day in terms of how we are digesting our food. This can lead us to not feeling as satiated (or full) from our normal food intake which can lead to us eating more that night or in turn the following day, causing us to drastically throw off our calorie balance. It can also throw off our recovery for the next few days, as our nutrients were not properly absorbed. 

A night out of drinking can lead to some interesting scale fluctuations. If you went out and drank mostly, without over snacking/eating you may find that you wake up lighter the next day only to see your body weight spike for a few days after as your body tries to rid it from your system. If you went out and drank, lost your inhibitions and overate it is likely that you will see the scale be elevated for a few days as your bodies tries to break it down and rid it from your system.  

Alcohol will usually stay in our bodies for a few days after drinking which can lead too: 

• Water retention 
• A puffy feeling/bloated look 
• Scale spiking upwards of 2+ pounds 
• Feeling hungrier & thirstier 

Nutrition facts on alcohol can have us thinking that we are making smart decision based off calorie content, but let’s go over why that can be misleading! I am going to use White Claw for my example because it’s a fairly popular drink and almost everyone I know is familiar with the brand. The nutrition label indicates that it contains 100 calories and 2g of carbohydrates. Based off that information, there are a total of 8 calories accounted for and they come from carbohydrates. This leaves us with 92 unaccounted for calories. For my personal clients, I always recommend splitting the remaining calories down to 60% coming from carbs and 40% coming from fat. This will yield us with the White Claw containing 15.8g carbs and 4g fat.  

So while alcohol on its own may not cause excessive weight gain, consuming it on a fairly regular basis can slow down any weight loss related goals. The question of whether you should exclude it or not, is up to you. If I’m in a weight loss phase, I usually like to cut it out so the data is more consistent and accurate. If you do plan on including it, just be mindful that your progress will slow and you will regularly see the scale spike up throughout the week around your drinking habits.