I am Bill , the guy behind Fitness Tips for Life. I hope that you find everything that you are looking for on my site to lead you to your own health and fitness greatness.
If you have any questions at all please email me at bill @ fitnesstipsforlife.com
Is it possible for a dieter to drink beer without getting a beer belly?
Good news: Yes (with the right low calorie beers)!
Bad news: No you cannot accompany that beer with nachos, pizza and peanuts.
Calories make us fat – whether they come from beer or chips and dip. Of course not all beers are the same. A light beer can be as low as 55 calories per serving whereas other beers can be as high as 185 calories.
Thus a single light beer without a side of BBQ wings will not make you fat. A six-pack of high calorie beers with an entire pizza will definitely not help a diet effort.
Why do some people get protruding beer bellies while others put on weight everywhere else? The storage of excess pounds is determined by age and sex. Hormonal levels in men also matter – allowing those pounds (whether from beer or too much pasta) to become an unsightly paunch.
The beer villain – carbohydrates…
Carbohydrates (carbs) make glucose, which gives you energy. When it comes to beer (or any alcohol), the body processes the alcohol before the carbs. As a result, drinking slows down the burning of fat.
Testosterone Decrease – Depressant Effect of Alcohol
Calories are not the only problem with alcohol. One big problem with alcohol is that it will affect your body’s testosterone production, actually it will decrease it by 23%.
After your first couple of drinks, your brain also starts to increase its usage of GABA, This brain hormone will is what helps people sleep and will slow down your body and it’s metabolism.
What’s a dieting beer drinker to do?
If you drink one beer a week, there’s no need to do anything but enjoy. If you have a beer (or two or three) every night after work – or you enjoy a weekly beer party (a la Animal House) with buddies, it may be time to change your choice of beers to something lighter.
Of course not all beers are the same and finding an alternative to a high calorie favorite can be challenging. Below is a list of beers by calories. It’s up to you, the beer drinker, to decide the one that tastes best to you. Have fun!
Non-Alcohol Beer
If you like beer, but want to avoid the alcohol while being with your friends consider O’Doul’s (70 calories; 0.4% alcohol).
Also remember that alcohol takes a real toll on your body in other ways, not the beer here or there but more in the way that it damages the liver and causes dehydration.
These tips should help you in the reducing calories and still been able to hang out with friends while not “blowing your diet”. Really though social interaction is one of the most important parts of getting a real lifestyle change to stick as well as building in support from your friends
It’s easy to write a list of 12 reasons to hate dieting. There isn’t an overweight person who couldn’t easily make it a list of 100++ things to hate about their diet.
Coming up with twelve things to LOVE about dieting can be as challenging as the diet itself. Yet that’s a list that might inspire.
You should love dieting because 
1. You no longer have to use a safety pin to hold the waist of your slacks together.
2. When cleaning under your car seat, there are no candy wrappers, take out boxes or any other embarrassing evidence of nutritional indiscretions.
3. When you wake in the middle of the night, you don’t have to silently scream at yourself for stupid food choices the previous day.
4. You make it through a restaurant meal and DO NOT pick at the breadbasket (inhaling the aroma doesn’t count – right?).
5. Someone says “Have you lost weight?” and you can honestly smile and say, “Yes, thanks for noticing.”
6. You’re at the grocery store checkout counter and resist buying two (yes, 2!) candy bars to “tide you over” on the ride home.
7. You happily walk to the mailbox, instead of sending one of the kids (even though the mailbox is only 100 feet away).
8. When you want to sit on the ground to plant some flowers, you can actually get down – and back up again (without looking like a beached whale).
9.You make all the right restaurant food choices and those with you do not
10. You now make the effort to get off your duff and move – from running the vacuum to weeding the yard.
11. When you are in a clothing store, you can look at the next size down rack.
12. You feel good about yourself because – for so many years – you did not.
Now consider this:
Weight loss can yield long-term heart and vascular benefits. Even a modest weight loss, such as 5 to 10 percent of your total body weight, is likely to produce health benefits, such as improvements in blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugars. Less weight lowers the risk of high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure (two major risk factors for heart disease).
Overweight people are also at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. Losing just 10 percent of body weight improve your body’s ability to use the insulin it makes. For those who already have Type 2 Diabetes, they can decrease their symptoms and prevent future complications.
And – with less weight, you feel great both mentally and physically.
Think about it: when you lose 5, 10, 100+ pounds, you will have an even longer list of reasons why you love dieting.