A few months ago I changed my diet. I should have consulted a dietician (as I just have) because it turns out that I am coming at least 500 calories short per day – and that’s without exercising. The nutritionist told me to add stuff that’s high in calories & low in fat to my diet, like beans and nuts. Would alcohol work too? Alcohol will help you gain weight. Mostly in the form of FAT! Alcohol contains 7 KCAL per gram. Fat has 9 KCAL per gram. Good carbs have 4 KCAL per gram.
Alcohol also is absorbed first in the system before anything of any nutritional value. So it promotes fat storage. But if all your looking for is scale weight than whats the difference. But if you want muscle weight, then alcohol should not be the staple of calories. The body needs enough protein to fulfill its needs for the essential amino acids (those that the body can’t make by itself). Excess protein is burned as fuel or stored, mostly as fat.
You do need fuel to power your workouts, but carbs are a much better source than protein. Big excesses of protein can also damage the kidneys because of all the urea that must be eliminated. (Urea is the way that the body gets rid of excess Alcohol is not a carb. Not even close. It enters intermediary metabolism as acetyl-CoA, which is pretty much the same way that fatty acids enter. (Fat is mostly composed of fatty acids.) Alcohol, like fatty acids, can not be used by the body to make proteins or carbohydrates.
