The festive season is fast approaching with its many traps for the avid dieter. But you don’t have to let the free-flowing drinks ruin your weight loss regimen this year. Just like any other aspect of losing weight and getting in shape, you have to make a plan and stick to it.
Vicious cycle of dehydration
Drinking alcohol is a vicious cycle. Alcohol is a powerful dehydrator and just 1 drink makes the body lose water. If you are in a social setting, that water is likely to be replaced by another drink, which makes you lose even more water, and so on.
Alcohol also affects your judgment, making it more likely that you will keep drinking, even though you know you've had enough.
One easy way to avoid drinking too much is to have plenty of water between the cocktails. This way you break the cycle by replenishing lost fluids. Make it a rule to alternate non-alcoholic, sugar-free drinks between each alcoholic drink.
As a bonus, you might lessen that hangover in the morning as it is caused partly by dehydration.
How much can you drink?
Everyone has a different tolerance to alcohol. Unfortunately, this means that it is impossible to say how much is appropriate for you at the company Christmas party.
Your tolerance depends on a variety of factors, including:
- genetics
- health
- gender
- body composition
- age
- family history
A moderate consumption of alcohol has been associated with a lower risk of heart disease. However, this has only been shown for people over 35, and no health authority recommends that non-drinkers start hitting the bottle to gain these benefits. The net damages of alcohol far outweigh the benefits. For example, a study published in 2011 in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that as few as 3 drinks a week are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women.
In the national guidelines, the Government recommends that both men and women drink no more than 2 standard drinks a day but, more importantly, no more than 4 drinks on a single occasion.
Examples of standard drinks are: a 285 ml glass of full strength beer, a 30 ml shot of spirits and a 100 ml glass of wine.
Alcohol and weight gain
Alcohol affects weight gain in 2 ways:
- It provides energy, which can be stored as fat, particularly around the mid-section. Moreover, it is usually consumed as additional energy to your normal food intake. These calories are empty of nutrition, but are all too easy to over-consume.
- It frequently leads to overeating. The infamous beer gut, for example, is not only a result of the calories in alcohol but also of the additional food that accompanies drinking.
One of the first effects of alcohol on our brains is to suppress the centres responsible for decision-making. By losing our normal inhibitions, we tend to eat more and eat less mindfully while drinking. We are also more likely to eat food we might hesitate to touch when not affected by alcohol.
The social, relaxed situations in which we drink alcohol can also have a significant effect on weight gain by encouraging over-indulgence.
Party planning
Approach parties and the festive season in the same way you approach your weight loss program: be organised and honest. Check with the diary before you go to get an idea of how many calories you might end up eating and drinking.
- Start by drinking a glass or 2 of something non-alcoholic, preferably water
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Set limits before you go – say 3 drinks and/or leave by 11 pm
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Alternate each alcoholic drink with a glass of water
- Drink no more than 1 alcoholic drink per hour
- When it’s your round, don’t buy anything for yourself, or get a glass of water
- Go for low alcohol, low carb drinks if they are available
- Remember to eat something filling before you go
- Have a couple of big glasses of water before you go to bed
Alcohol hits you fast
Alcohol has a surprisingly quick effect on the brain and judgment. If you drink on an empty stomach, the alcohol can hit the brain in a matter of minutes. This is because it is rapidly absorbed. In fact, it can be taken up in the blood as soon as it hits an empty stomach.
So, when you have that first glass of champagne and instantly feel light-headed, it's not the bubbles fizzing in your head, it's because the alcohol has already hit your brain.
To stay in control, it is best to eat something before you go to the party. Lining the stomach with a little food means the alcohol isn't absorbed as quickly and slows down how quickly the alcohol reaches your brain.
Alcohol is given priority
Because alcohol is potentially toxic, the body gives it special privileges. It is mainly metabolised by the liver but around 5% to 10% leaves the body through the breath and urine. This is what is used in breath and urine tests, and it corresponds to the blood alcohol level at any given time.
On average, liver enzymes can metabolise about 10g, or 1 standard drink, of alcohol per hour. Drinking more than that means the alcohol is circulated around the body until the liver is ready to process it.
Effects of alcohol on the liver
A build-up of fat in liver cells is called a fatty liver. It is a common affliction among heavy drinkers and can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure if not treated early.
This is a serious consequence of prolonged over-drinking, and even the regular drinkers among us do not generally consume alcohol in such dangerous quantities. Nevertheless, even a single glass of wine makes the liver work harder.
Luckily, abstaining from alcohol can reverse negative effects, but the more you drink, and the more often, the more fat accumulates in the liver. No matter how healthy your diet is, or how often you exercise, only cutting out alcohol can reverse the damage to your liver.
To look after your liver and care for your health, we recommend you reserve a few alcohol-free days during Christmas. We also recommend 2 or more alcohol-free days a week – preferably consecutively – during the rest of the year to allow the liver to detox.
Effects of alcohol on the brain
Alcohol sedates different parts of your brain in order, starting with the areas that are responsible for rational thought and ending with those that regulate automatic functions like breathing and heartbeat.
The more you drink the further along these stages you go.
4 stages of alcohol intoxication
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Poor decisions
First, the judgment and reasoning centres in the brain are weakened, meaning you make increasingly poor and irrational decisions.
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Slurred speech, blurred vision
The second stage sees the sedation of speech and vision centres. This leads to weaker eye sight and less control over speech.
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The stumbling starts
The third stage involves visibly intoxicated behaviour. You lose muscular control, affecting things such as eye-hand coordination and limb movements. Speech is noticeably slurred.
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Party is over
The last stage marks the complete subjugation of the conscious mind and you fall unconscious. The deepest brain centres controlling breath and heartbeat are anaesthetised, and in the most serious cases can lead to death.