If you want to lose 10 pounds in 6 weeks consider quitting drinking.
There are many studies out now that suggest that we derive some health benefits from moderate drinking—to the heart, the nerves, to easing self-consciousness. Drinking does help us manage stress but it is also unhealthy in many ways including in the way it causes us to gain weight.
Drinking alcohol can also lead us down a fairly slippery slope, where that glass or two of wine a few times a week becomes a glass or two every day without our noticing, and pretty soon we become addicted to booze. The problem is that this alcohol is full of empty calories that can make us really fat and unhappy.
Alcohol abuse can interfere with the brain’s chemical messengers, specifically the neurotransmitters serotonin, GABA (gammaaminobutyricacid), and dopamine. When you mess with these transmitters it affects our moods, our ability to think clearly, and the signals the brain sends to the body. We suffer from distorted thinking and bad moods that make us want to eat the wrong things.
Serotonin affects our emotions, memory, appetite, body temperature and endocrine regulation. Dopamine is involved with feelings of pleasure and reward. GAB A is involved in memory and cognitive functioning. Alcohol destroys the effectiveness of all three and the result is weight gain.
Alcohol can also be hard on our metabolism. Metabolism is the process by which the substances we eat and drink are converted into other compounds, less toxic than the original, some more.
As our bodies treat alcohol as a toxin, a poison to be purged (because, for your liver, that’s exactly what it is.) It is detoxified and removed from the blood through the process of oxidation. The liver is where most of the metabolism takes place. Your liver treats the alcohol like a toxin and goes about the detoxification process whenever it is in your body. It puts off releasing glycogen until it is complete. This process leads to hypoglycemia and overeating.
Alcohol causes stress-related issues in the body as well. One way is by raising cortisol levels. Cortisol is the “stress hormone,” and elevated levels of it can destabilize blood sugar levels and also add fat to the body.
Alcohol also depletes vitamins and B12 as well as folic acid—nutrients the body needs to cope with stress—and can interfere with REM sleep, leaving you less rested than when you wake up in the morning.
When you take a break from alcohol your body is again able to recover from stress on its own. You are able to keep dopamine in balance so your brain isn’t always craving a drink to temporarily elevate its levels.
Don’t think that quitting drinking will cause you to lose 10 pounds in a day. That is just not possible unless you count going under the plastic surgeon’s knife to have fat and tissue removed. However quitting alcohol should definitely be part of a serious weight loss plan.
