What causes weight gain and beer belly?

Do you drink a lot of beer? Notice how your belly is getting bigger? Or are you getting fatter due to eating too much? Here is the explanation you were looking for.


Before we start discussing this topic, we must understand how fat is formed.

Adults need an average of 2000 calories (8,400,000 Joules) of energy per day. So what does this mean? It means that our body needs 8,400,000 Joules of energy every day in order to function properly. 

If we consume less food, our body is provided with less energy so it uses alternative means to obtain energy such as our fat (or muscles if seriously starved). This means that we get thinner (loss of fat or muscle) if adequate energy is not provided. However, if you eat too much then you provide your body with more energy than it requires thus converting this energy into fat for storage and future use (that's why we get fatter if we eat too much!).

                                                                    The alcohol story

Alcohol in your drink is actually a chemical called, ethanol, which has an alcohol group attached to it (-OH) in chemistry terms.

In order to digest something, our body needs to break it down into smaller fragments (think of it as our body's way of chewing the food up internally once the food is swallowed) so when we drink our alcoholic beverages, our body must decompose it.

Decomposition of alcohol occurs in the liver due to the presence of an enzyme (think of it as a small machine in your body which helps with digestion) called, alcohol-dehydrogenase.




When the enzyme breaks down 17 grams of alcohol in your liver:

• It releases 460,000 J of energy (100 grams of steak consists of about 648,000 J of energy). 
• 1 gram of fat consists of 37,700 J of energy 
• so taking 17 grams of alcohol is equal to producing roughly 12.2 grams of fat! 

Now if you eat normally, (which means providing your body with 2000 calories of energy per day) then drink, you might produce excess fat due to the excess energy the alcohol provides you with. Further more, beer makes our blood sugar level drop causing our body's metabolism to slow down therefore we burn less calories than we usually do so it makes the production of fat much easier. Over time, if this habit continues, you will grow side-ways and front-ways instead of the preferable up-wards!!

Beer belly story

This is the apple shaped body of a human being. Though the real reason behind this is not yet well known, research indicates that it is caused by consuming large amounts of alcohol at one go, not over a period of time. For example, it is more likely that a person will get his apple shaped nature if he drinks a whole bottle of whiskey at one go than to spread it throughout the day. It is also said that beer belly's are not purely caused by alcoholic beverages but rather its the persons diet and life style.

Did you know?

• Beer belly's can happen in people who drink wine or liquor NOT only beer.
• According to research, if you drink at least 80 grams at one time, everyday for 1 month then your waistline increases by 0.5 inch (1.25 cm). 
• Your waistline is not related to how much alcohol you consume per day but it is how much you consume at one time. 
• An average adult drinker has about 10% of their total daily energy intake from their alcoholic drinks.