Trying to Lose Your Beer Belly?
You Should Know How Many Calories are in Beer.

If you want to get rid of your beer belly and decrease your abdominal fat, then you might want to know how many calories are in a bottle of beer.

I am amazed by the number of people that I meet who want to lose weight, but refuse to give up drinking alcohol. Well, maybe not amazed. But what I can say is that if you want to lose weight and get rid of stomach fat, you will likely have to decrease your alcohol consumption.

Generally speaking, many nutritionists say that you have to create a caloric deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat... Note: This is an oversimplified explanation for the complex physiological and biochemical processes of the body, but we'll use 3500 calories as the representation of 1 pound of weight.

Okay, let's say that you're a fan of Budweiser, a 12 ounce can of Budweiser will set you back just about 150 calories. Actually, most regular beers are between 140 and 180 calories per 12 ounces.

If you are a light drinker and only drink 2 or 3 beers 2 times a week, that's 4-6 beers a week and an additional 600-900 calories a week.

600-900 extra calories a week times 4 weeks and you would have consumed an extra 2400-3600 calories a month and 28,800-43,200 calories a year from beer... I think some of you may have just had an ah ha moment, but let's keep going with the numbers.

Let's say that you're a moderate beer drinker, and you consume 2-3 beers 4 times a week or 8-12 beers a week. Now, you're looking at 1200-1800 extra calories a week, 4800-7200 calories a month, and 57,600-86,400 a year.

I know being a heavy drinker doesn't describe you ;-), but for fun let's say that you consume 4-6 beers 4 times a week or more. That would be 2400-3600 a week, 9600-14,400 extra calories a month, and 115,200-172,800 extra calories a year.

How Much Exercise is Needed to Burn Off 100 Calories?

Generally speaking a 150 pound person burns about 100 calories for every mile travelled by foot. So in order to burn off 3500 calories, you'll need to jog about 35 miles.

Even a light drinker only consuming and extra 20,000 calories a year from beer would have to walk an additional 2000 miles in a year to burn off those excess empty calories from beer.

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to realize that consuming tons of extra calories from beer can increase your beer belly and make it really difficult to lose weight.

Light Beer versus Regular Beer

I hear you, "But Charles, I only drink light beer". Well, let's look at the difference between light beer and regular beer from a calorie perspective. If you go for Bud Light, you're going to save yourself a whopping 40 calories per 12 ounces.

That's right bud light has about 110 calories per 12 ounce can. So 4-6 beers a week is still an additional 440-660 calories a week, 1760-2640 calories a month, and 21,120-31,680 extra calories a year.

With light beer here's a way to think about it... 1 light beer equals 1 mile of jogging. Hope you have a good pair of running shoes.

If you're serious about losing your beer belly, getting in better shape, and taking control of your health, you must be aware of how many empty calories you are consuming in beer or any other sugar-laden calorie-dense nutrient-poor beverage.

2 Additional Reasons Drinking Beer Increases Your Beer Belly and Prevents You from Losing Weight

In addition to excess calories, beer contains sugar and alcohol which both slow down your metabolism.

Reason #1: Excess Processed Sugar Consumption interferes with normal sugar metabolism. High amounts of processed sugar creates an exaggerated insulin response. Insulin is a storage hormone, and when insulin levels are high it is harder to burn stored fat.

Over time elevated insulin levels can lead to insulin resistance, which is a condition associated with diabetes. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder in which your body does not efficiently digest and process sugar/ carbohydrates.

Consuming high amounts of processed sugar, the kind in beer, can increase the likelihood of adult onset diabetes.

Reason #2: Alcohol is a Toxic Chemical that taxes the liver, impairs all cell function, and negatively affects hormones. Your liver is your main fat burning organ. When the liver is forced to cleanse and detoxify your blood, it has less time to help your body burn fat.

In addition, alcohol negatively affects key fat burning hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone.

You will never find a good nutritionist recommending regular alcohol consumption as a part of a weight reduction program.

The Reality About your Beer Belly

The reality is that we can't have our cake and eat it too. Consuming excess empty calories from beer just isn't good for our health or waistlines.

I know we all have things that we like to eat and drink, and I know it's hard to give them up. I keep wishing I'll find some research saying that cookies are good for you... as soon as I do I'll let you know.

At any rate, you'll have to decide what's most important. If you must have beer that's cool, I just hope that after reading this article, you'll be more mindful of the calories in beer might contribute to a growing beer belly.

For a complete list of Calories in Beer check out this site Beer100.com.

Alright, that's all for now.

Yours in Health,
Dr. Charles PT/PT

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