By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

Fat Burning Tips "Live" Weekly eLert

In This issue:
* "What's the worst alcoholic drink when you're dieting?"

Today, I'm continuing to catch up on all the reader
mail and questions that have backed up on me a bit
over the past couple of months.

One of the questions that I seem to keep getting
over and over and over again is about alcohol and
fat loss. They never seem stop!

In this case, a subscriber had read all my other
articles about the effect of alcohol and fat loss
and yet he STILL wanted to know what to
drink (alcoholic) while dieting.

The best I can figure is that some people are just
going to keep on drinking no matter what I tell them
but I think I answered this about as fairly and
objectively as I could without going on one of my
soapbox rants.

If you have any thoughts on this subject feel
welcome to post them on the blog after you read this.

Train hard and expect success!

Tom Venuto,
Fat Loss Coach
Burn The Fat

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BURN THE FAT Q & A
WITH TOM VENUTO, Fat Loss Coach
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QUESTION: Tom, if you are going to go out and have a drink or two with
friends, which drink is the best when you're on a fat loss program
like BFFM? Would it be wine or a vodka mixed with soda? Is champagne
better or worse than the other two? Thanks, Eric

ANSWER: The first thing I would suggest is that you ask a better
question! The answers you get are only as good as the quality
of questions you ask. "Which alcohol is best?" is not a very
good question when your goal is to get leaner.

"Which alcohol is best" contains the presupposition that:
 
(A) that you ARE going to drink and
(B) a best choice exists.

If you asked, "How much damage would I do to my body and how
much would I slow down my results if I drank drinking during
my fat burning program?" you might get a different feeling
towards alcohol. This type of question presupposes that there
 WILL be a down side, it's only a question of how bad it will be.

If you think about the consequences of drinking, instead of how
you can best "get away with it," it may change your emotional
outlook towards alcohol.

I get asked about alcohol and fat loss a lot. Almost every time,
I have a sneaking suspicion that the person asking the question
is really just looking for me to give them "permission" to drink.

I'm not going to do that. Well, not exactly. But I do have 4 major
guidelines I'd suggest you consider if you're thinking about drinking:

[1] On fat loss programs, I don't recommend drinking alcohol at
all because alcohol suppresses fat oxidation and adds unnecessary
calories to your diet, which either displaces nutritious calories or
erases your caloric deficit.

[2] For lifelong maintenance, I recommend that if you choose to
drink, that's fine, but only if you do so in moderation (1-2 drinks
 a day is considered moderation according to most health authorities)

[3] I do not recommend daily drinking as part of a fitness lifestyle,
 because daily drinking can become habit forming. My recommendation
is limit drinking to weekends, holidays and or special occasions.

[4] I recommend ALWAYS being cognizant of the calories that are
added to your diet through alcohol and above all else know how
many calories are in your drinks.

If someone really MUST know which alcohol is worst on a fat burning
program, then it would be the one with the most calories. Conversely,
the lesser of evils would be the drinks with fewer calories.

For example, that would mean choosing light beers over regular beers.
Bass ale and Sam Adams lager both contain 160 calories per bottle.
Guinness extra Stout packs 176 calories per bottle.

By comparison, Amstel light contains only 99 calories, Michelob Ultra
has 95 calories and Beck's Premier Light has 64 calories (Beck's
pulled off that feat simply by lowering the alcohol content... I've
never tried it, but yes, I bet it tastes pretty watered down)

On a tangent, I think it's a sin that light beers are marketed as
low carb and advertised with fitness images... but that will have
to be a rant for another day...

Champagne has about 96 calories per 4 oz glass. White wine such
as chardonnay has about the same caloric content as champagne.

Any pure distilled liquor will contain about 65 calories per
fluid ounce at 80 proof. When mixed with other calorie containing
 liquids, the calorie count goes up. A 6 ounce screwdriver will
 give you about 130 calories. A whiskey sour about 169 calories.

Naturally, mixed drinks may contain even more calories due to the
sugar in the drink mixes. A margarita is one of the worst, with
an 8-ouncer packing about 500 calories and a huge dollop of sugar!

A couple of those with your cheese Nachos and enchiladas, refried
beans, sour cream and guacaomole, and you've just knocked back
about two days worth of calories in one meal. calorie bomb city!

Fat loss is first and foremost a matter of calories in vs calories
out, so the calorie counts are what you look at first.

If you wanted other criteria to judge the "best" alcoholic drink,
you could also look at whether there is any health value, as in
red wine, or whether there are any nutrients in the drink, such
as what you might find in the vegetable juice of a bloody mary
or the Orange juice in a screwdriver.

However, I think that's a pretty moot point when you consider the
far superior way to get those same nutrients: eat whole vegetables
and oranges.

The fact is, you can certainly get leaner while drinking, as long
as you stay in a caloric deficit, but that doesn't mean it's the
smartest thing to do for your body and your health.

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat Loss Coach

If you're interested in the healthy, sensible way to take off the fat, while keeping all your muscle and actually increasing your metabolism in the process, then my Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program can teach you how. No gimmicks or false promises. Just the truth - you have to work at it and you have to be patient. For more information visit: Burn The Fat

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men's Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: Burn The Fat