i'm gonna make a very broad exciting statement about
what's going on everybody schuyler diehm here men's fitness coach and in today's video we
are diving into the controversial topic of alcohol now alcohol is one of those things
where there's a lot of mystique around how it impacts the body how it impacts weight loss
and so in this video i really want to talk about you know what is the actual effects of alcohol
should you avoid it can you have some and if you can have some how can you do it in a way that's a
little bit more effective right a little bit more helpful for your goals and before we get into it
today if you are interested in learning how we help our clients massively massively reduce the
difficulty and just simplify the process of weight loss check the link in the description
for our free guide on how we help our clients lose weight with awareness and mindfulness
fasting and fitness it's a really powerful combination and we walk you through exactly
why it's so effective and how you can use it to see incredible results so with that being said
i'm going to make a very broad exciting statement about alcohol that's kind of going to shift things
for a lot of you and it's that alcohol is a macronutrient now a lot of people don't know
this when they think of macronutrients they think of fats they think of carbs they think of proteins
well alcohol is technically a macronutrient of its own and just like any other macronutrients
there are calories that go to it and there's a specific way that it interacts with your body now
as you probably know alcohol is not the greatest for your body no one who's drinking heavily has
an incredible life and is super healthy right but alcohol is actually treated like a poison by your
body now we're taking in poisons and toxins all the time right but our body's job is to be able
to effectively and safely push them out as long as they're not overwhelmingly toxic and so basically
how alcohol interacts with the body is when you drink your body completely halts using carbs fats
and proteins your body completely halts digesting everything else it completely halts
the burning of body fat the burning of glucose and the burning of other macronutrients and so just
like any other poison alcohol cannot be stored by the body we can't use it right whereas with
carbs with proteins with fats our body can utilize that in different ways with alcohol our body's job
is to just get it to the liver so the liver can cleanse it right away and so if we look at this
from a very straightforward standpoint what i would say is there's four specific reasons of
why alcohol impacts weight loss how it impacts weight loss so number one is it stops burning
stored fat right and that's going to be the most important is if your body is in fat burning mode
if you're in ketosis if you are after a great workout and you know your body's basically
burning through calories burning through macros burning through glucose all of that all of that's
going to stop okay so you could be doing the right things with exercise with eating right and putting
your body in that fat burning mode but if your alcohol timing is off when you're right in the
middle of that stage you're basically leaving a lot of other fat burning out on the table now
as far as health goes there is a study in the journal of the american college of cardiology
and this is really interesting because when we think about alcohol we think that it's really bad
right we think that anyone if you drink even just the slightest amount of alcohol it's toxic for you
it's poison it's not healthy but this study found that moderate drinkers were 20 less likely to
die from any cause now there is a little asterisk there there is no note of other lifestyle factors
so these drinkers could have been super healthy whereas the people who weren't drinking could be
you know smoking and overeating and having all this unhealthy stuff but it's a really interesting
perspective especially when you get into the antioxidants that are in things like wine and
how some alcohol can have a positive impact on you not to mention the stress factors right like if
you're having a really good day and you come home and you have a nice glass of wine and you're in a
great relaxed mood while you have it it's probably going to be more healthy for you than if you
come home you sit on the couch and you're super stressed not eating anything while just watching
a tv show now of course that line is there right when you move from moderate drink to heavy drinker
that's when there's a drastic increase in risk of death that's when there's a risk of obesity
like all these things start to shift when you move from light or moderate to heavy so number
one alcohol stops the burning of stored fat now number two is there's actually been studies out
there that have shown that moderate intake of alcohol can actually have an inhibitory effect
on leptin now leptin is more of the satiation hormone right the one that makes you feel full
and so what you've probably noticed if you had a night out drinking is you drink a lot and then
you come home and you just want to eat a lot you want to order pizza you want to go get something
from the fridge you want to have ice cream you want to drink more right there's an effect where
when you have that it just your your cravings go up your hunger goes up and you're more likely to
actually consume more food and then again if we remember if we're in that drunken state and our
bodies processing alcohol if we eat more food we're more likely to store that food as fat
rather than having our body be able to work through it along with that if we look into
number three it would be that alcohol impact sleep quality all right i've gone into sleep in one of
my previous videos but if you're not getting deep sleep every night you're leaving a lot of fat loss
on the table right deep restful sleep putting in rem sleep going to the stage four stage three
sleep is what allows your metabolism to pick up and to really recover right to really allow
you those benefits of fat loss whereas if you're not going into those stages even if you black out
right and you're asleep for 10 12 hours you're still not in those healthy recovery stages and
so again it could stop the burning effect and then number four if we're looking at this very holistic
lens you know besides how it changes macros how it changes your metabolism drinking obviously
also leads you to making poorer decisions you're more likely to eat a whole pizza after drinking
than if you were just sober and a clear mental state and so what do we do with this information
number one i would say the form of alcohol that you're consuming matters if you're having a wine
a conventional wine is most likely going to have added sugar if you're having a mixed drink with
added sugar your body's definitely more likely to store fat whereas if you're having a bourbon
or you're having something that's maybe an organic wine without added ingredients it's probably going
to have a bit of a better effect on your body and then along with that if you do decide to drink so
make the smart choices avoid the super carby beers avoid any alcohols that are highly processed also
try not to eat a lot after drinking i know this can be tough for someone but if you're having
a drink let's say during the weekday and you're just having a glass of wine or a glass of bourbon
it may be a good idea to have it after dinner so that you're not consuming anything else after and
your body can work through it effectively now i'm just going to get real with you here it really
depends on what you're looking to achieve from the process of losing weight if you are in full
weight loss mode you're willing to do whatever it takes my best recommendation is to cut out
alcohol i got in the best shape of my life when i did 75 hard i wasn't drinking alcohol as part of
it and obviously i was eating healthier too but there was nothing interacting with my body that
way however if you're really looking to enjoy the process and make sure it's sustainable and
make sure there's no kickback it's okay to drink every once in a while just make smart choices
time it the right way and just don't do it every single night or drink in excess right because the
truth is that if you're working on losing weight the people who don't drink are going to more
effectively lose the weight than the people who do so that's really what this all comes down to
right make smarter choices with the alcohol you drink try to time it in a way where you're not
overeating after you drink and of course just moderate moderate moderate moderate moderate
so i'm curious below number one do you drink and if so what's your favorite drink right i myself
do drink right i cut it out for 75 hard but i love a glass of bourbon every now and again and
something i i really do enjoy i'm okay with having a little extra body fat i'm okay with not walking
around with six percent body fat all the time if it means i can enjoy life and that's really the
philosophy i like to work with so if you are interested in hearing more about what we do
again make sure you check the description for a link to a breakdown of our process and besides
that make sure to subscribe if you're looking for more awesome videos comment below if you have any
questions or are looking for any video ideas and besides that make sure as always to eat smart
move more sleep deep and be grateful for this moment i'll see you in the next video