Do you count alcohol calories towads a calorie surplus diet?

Blacktie.

Firstly I know alcohol is not a good choice when bulking for obvious reasons! I nearly always have a proper diet wit lots of fruit, veg and lean meat. I was just wondering about the days when you do go out on the p*** do you count alcohol towards your caloires consumed for that day or do you disregard them since they're wasted calories and can't really be used for anything?

Thanks for your replys

BossArky

They count.

simon333

And not only do they count, from what I understand, alcohol hinders your body's ability to burn fat.

celestial

When you consume alcohol you suppress fat oxidation - i.e. your body cannot burn fat. The food you consume while drinking mainly turns to fat because your body is too busy processing the booze to be able to deal with it. A pint is also around 200 calories. If all that wasn't bad enough alcohol makes you crave the kind of filling, stodgy greasy food that piles on the calories. The final nail in the alcohol and diet coffin is that alcohol interrupts and reduces the quality of sleep (how good do you feel after a night's sleep after a session and have you ever woken up and not been able to get back to sleep after a night on the beer?!). Less sleep means a decrease and increase respectively in two key hormones - leptin and ghrelin. These are appetite regulating hormones - alcohol messes around with them with the result that you feel hungrier - making you eat more.

rubadub

Blacktie. wrote: »

do you disregard them since they're wasted calories and can't really be used for anything?

I do not see how they are wasted? they ARE used- to get you drunk and fat. Would you happily eat doughnuts and chocolate all day long and just say "haha- these are useless calories so I can eat all I want of them and they do not count".

I drink like a fish myself and realise that you do get energy from alcohol, I do not really get hungry while drinking since I get energy from it, but many do end up overeating. The majority of beer bellies should really be called takeaway bellies, since most fat is put on after the pub closes.

The_Hustler

I mainly manage to avoid eating after/while drinking but the cravings are definitely stronger. I'll hopefully be able to fight them even more after reading this info. However, I always get more sleep than usual after drinking. I thought most people do unless they've been on the red bull.