Hi—I just switched from wine to light beer, which means shaving off about 500 calories per day. But I was just curious ... is there anything about beer, other than the calories, that would cause weight gain? Thanks.

My impression of the literature from some studies I read 10 years ago is that wine is more likely to be associated with lower weight in women, although some studies don’t find a difference when they look for it.

People refer to a “beer belly”, but I’ve never heard anyone say “wine belly”.

However, if you are saving 500 calories per day, this is probably the most important thing.

Let the scale be your guide.

how about lite beer? how much better is it. I mean no alcohol is better but sometimes we can’t help it on some occasions. thanks!

When you see people who drink Lite Beer, are they lean? Or do they have a beer belly?

If it were me, I would avoid Lite Beer.

Here is the problem with alcohol when it comes to body fat.

The body can’t store alcohol, so it burns it before anything else.

It burns it before burning carbohydrates, and burns it before burning fat.

The body can store hundreds of pounds of fat, so it does not have to burn it immediately, but can simply store it for later.

The body can store about 2 lbs of carbohydrates in the form of glycogen—a long chain of glucose molecules—so it can store a little bit, but will burn carbohydrates before it burns fat because it can only store a little carbohydrates.

However, your body can’t store any alcohol, so it has to burn it immediately.

So it burns alcohol before burning anything else—before burning carbs and before burning fat.

So when you drink alcohol, it shuts down the burning of fat until the alcohol is burned.

However, that being said…

Regarding wine…

Although the research varies on this, and researchers don’t always agree, there is research suggesting that wine consumption seemed to be associated with lower body weight in women.

The research even suggested that the more wine that women drink, the less likely it was that they were overweight.

This seemed to be specific to women, not men.

I can imagine a couple possible reasons for this.

One is that wine contains resveratrol which is associated with less weight gain when given in large amounts to rats.

Wine might also increase testosterone temporarily or thermogenesis in women, whereas alcohol decreases testosterone in men.

Some women say they are more interested in sex when they have some wine—a temporary increase in testosterone in women—whereas alcohol may impede men’s sexual performance—a temporary decrease in testosterone in men.

In men, alcohol consumption seems to be associated with higher body weight.

Some research suggests that when men drink, they become disinhibited, and therefore, eat more than they normally would.

So, if it were me, I would avoid Lite Beer.

My impression of the literature from some studies I read 10 years ago is that wine is more likely to be associated with lower weight in women, although some studies don’t find a difference when they look for it.
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I agree with your reading of the literature about wine and women.

In fact, some studies I read suggested that the more wine women drank, the leaner they tended to be.

It could be that some women drink wine instead of eating.

It could also be that the resveratrol in wine has a weight-reducing effect.

It might also be that in women, alcohol raises testosterone and may increase metabolism slightly.

Thanks for your nice comment.

completely agree with you, my uncle was an alcoholic and ate too much, I’ve also heard that beer is fattening think it’s true.

For the moderate consumption of beer, it will lessen the risk of cardiac disease and stroke. But overusing of carbohydrates or beer without proper exercise may cause beer belly for it contains high glycemic index of 110.