Does Alcohol Make it Harder to Lose Weight?

Most people are aware about the general effect of alcohol on your body. We know thatalcohol can produce bad effects on your heart, lungs, liver, brain and memory. Alcoholaffects the metabolism of the body as well, and this effect leads to other complicationslater in your life.Metabolism is the collective term for all the chemical reactions occurring in a living thing.The major components of our diet are reduced to micro components to yield energy;using this energy, the cells will produce some necessary components for the structuringand functioning of the cell. There are different types of metabolism occurring inside thebody,Carbohydrate metabolism, lipid or fat metabolism, and protein metabolism aresome of them.So what does this mean? When you drink alcohol, it will interfere with some of thesemetabolisms, producing harmful effects on your health. Alcohol mainly affects the fatmetabolism of the body. Alcohol has an inhibitive effect on the amount of fat that your body can use up for energy production. American journal of clinical research hasconducted a study and found that alcoholic consumption of merely 24 gm will reduceyour body’s lipid oxidation or the ability to burn fat by almost 73%. It has been found thatacetate, which is formed in the liver when the alcohol passes through it, is the culprit inreducing the fat metabolism. Instead of fat, the body will start using the acetate as fuelfor the body functions.Alcohol also interferes with vitamin and mineral absorption. Vitamins and minerals arenecessary for the proper functioning of the metabolism. When you consume alcohol,your liver will be busy in converting the alcohol to acetate, and the absorption of vitamins and minerals are taken over by the de-toxification of the alcohol. Another affectof alcohol is that it causes excess excretion of magnesium and calcium through urine,which are much needed for the proper functioning of the body.

Another drawback of alcohol consumption is that the alcohol will compete with food toget absorbed into the blood stream, thus preventing the absorption and processing of the nutrients for the metabolic activity. If your body does not get enough nutrients, this