- Joined
- Feb 1, 2022
Ralph's drinking will fuck up his dieting efforts in several different ways.
The obvious one is calories alone. Each shot of hard liquor (Maker's Mark included) is roughly 100 calories, which is equivalent to one slice of bread or one apple. Because alcohol is nutritionally empty and a liquid, it also does nothing for satiety, meaning you'll still be hungry regardless of how many calories you take in from alcohol.
The other problem, and the reason why all dieting advice comes with a suggestion to limit alcohol as much as possible, is that as soon as your body detects alcohol in its system, it prioritizes the alcohol as its main energy source over carbs. That means that carbs you take in that your body would normally focus on as fuel are immediately shoved aside to be made into fat instead.
Not only does alcohol make it easier for your body to add fat, it also makes it harder for your body to burn it. If your body is in a calorie deficit and you drink alcohol, instead of turning to your fat stores, your body turns to the alcohol first. Which means it takes longer to burn fat off.
That doesn't mean you need to get rid of alcohol completely. Lots of people are able to have an occasional beer or glass of wine and still lose weight. The kind of alcohol Ethan drinks, and the quantity he drinks them in, are going to far exceed that range and will slow his progress considerably.
Literally all Ralph has to do to hit his goal is to stop drinking, and that's the one thing he's going to struggle with the most.
The obvious one is calories alone. Each shot of hard liquor (Maker's Mark included) is roughly 100 calories, which is equivalent to one slice of bread or one apple. Because alcohol is nutritionally empty and a liquid, it also does nothing for satiety, meaning you'll still be hungry regardless of how many calories you take in from alcohol.
The other problem, and the reason why all dieting advice comes with a suggestion to limit alcohol as much as possible, is that as soon as your body detects alcohol in its system, it prioritizes the alcohol as its main energy source over carbs. That means that carbs you take in that your body would normally focus on as fuel are immediately shoved aside to be made into fat instead.
Not only does alcohol make it easier for your body to add fat, it also makes it harder for your body to burn it. If your body is in a calorie deficit and you drink alcohol, instead of turning to your fat stores, your body turns to the alcohol first. Which means it takes longer to burn fat off.
That doesn't mean you need to get rid of alcohol completely. Lots of people are able to have an occasional beer or glass of wine and still lose weight. The kind of alcohol Ethan drinks, and the quantity he drinks them in, are going to far exceed that range and will slow his progress considerably.
Literally all Ralph has to do to hit his goal is to stop drinking, and that's the one thing he's going to struggle with the most.
