How Long Does Alcohol Stop Fat Burning? The Truth You May Not Know 2024

You may have heard the recent trend that alcohol stops fat burning for 36 hours after drinking. This is clearly bad news if you’re trying to lose weight or if you manage your weight through exercise. Does alcohol really stop fat burning? 

Yes, too much alcohol can mess with your metabolism, stop you from burning fat, and lead to weight gain (we all know about the dreaded beer belly). But how much is too much – and is one drink OK? Read on to know more.

Does Alcohol Stop You From Burning Fat?

Let’s get one important bit of science out of the way. Yes, alcohol can stop you from burning fat.

Your body sees alcohol as a toxin to get rid of as soon as possible. When you have an alcoholic drink, the alcohol is usually completely out of your system by 12 hours^[2] maximum. 

So, whatever the effects are 36 hours later, it’s not due to the alcohol itself – rather, it’s due to the after-effects of alcohol consumption.

Alcohol Suppresses Fat Oxidation

Some foods and drinks increase fat burning, while others inhibit fat burning. The way fat gets “burned” is via a process called fat oxidation in the liver. 

Let’s look at how alcohol inhibits fat oxidation and keeps you from burning fat.

Alcohol, Fats And The Liver

Your liver breaks down the fats^[3] from your diet and in your body for fuel. So, a well-functioning liver is crucial for optimal fat-burning capabilities. 

You’ve probably seen many beer bellies (maybe you even have one yourself), so you already know that drinking alcohol too often increases your risk of weight gain^[4] – especially around the middle. This is because your liver isn’t working as it should. 

Regularly drinking alcohol damages the liver, which suppresses fat burning and makes fat accumulate around your liver and in your body. 

What Happens When You Drink Alcohol With Food

We can see this effect in action when we compare eating a meal with vs. without alcohol. Alcohol consumption with your meal leads to higher levels of fats^[5] floating around your bloodstream, suggesting they’re not being metabolized properly. 

That’s already bad news, and that’s with only one alcoholic drink. But how long do the effects last?

How Long Does Alcohol Stop Fat Burning?

Does alcohol stop fat burning for 36 hours? That depends on how often you drink alcohol. 

Regularly taking alcohol damages your mitochondria^[1] – the “organ” in your cells responsible for producing energy from burning fat. This damage leads to unmetabolized fat building up around the liver and internal organs – even on days you’re not drinking alcohol.

So, one alcoholic drink can stop you from burning fat while the alcohol is in your body, but daily alcohol consumption can affect your ability to burn fat all the time, for 36 hours after every drink.

Yet it’s not just the damage to your liver that stops you from burning fat. There’s more: alcohol also negatively impacts your exercise.

Alcohol Reduces Exercise Performance

You might notice from your exercise tracking application (app) that alcohol can have a detrimental effect on your exercise performance^[6]. You probably burn less fat when exercising directly after drinking, simply because you’re not pushing as hard as you would normally. 

Alcohol Replaces Glucose As Fuel

Alcohol also affects your body’s choice of fuel for energy. When you have a drink, your body chooses to burn alcohol first before anything else. 

So, by lowering the availability of circulating glucose^[7], alcohol interferes with the metabolism of carbohydrates during and after exercise.

But who drinks alcohol directly before exercising? Exactly – no one. So what about when you’ve had a drink (or two) the day before exercising?

Morning-After Alcohol Performance

You guessed it; even having a drink the day before significantly reduces intense exercise performance^[8] the morning after. The more intensely you train, the more fat you burn. 

So, if you do high-intensity exercise (such as sprinting or interval training), alcohol intake the night before will likely slow you down and reduce fat burning.

In a study on football players, the scientists theorized that alcohol affects the football players’ performance many hours after being drunk because their bodies were using the alcohol as energy instead of digesting the carbohydrates^[9] from their diet. 

This is a problem because your body needs to digest carbohydrates to restore glycogen stores – your muscles’ quick source of energy for high-intensity, anaerobic exercise.

But having a drink the day before a low-intensity exercise, such as hiking, might not be such a big deal. 

One study found that walkers reported feeling more exhausted walking when hungover^[10], but, in reality, they actually performed the same as the clear-headed walkers.

But these studies didn’t include another important variable when assessing alcohol’s effects on fat burning…

Alcohol And Sleep Deprivation

Something which usually goes hand-in-hand with alcohol intake is not getting enough sleep.

Studies found that consuming alcoholic drinks plus sleep deprivation led to significantly reduced muscle activation^[11] and higher perceived fatigue^[12]. This means you might not train as hard, leading to reduced fat burning.

So now we know that alcohol slows down fat burning by affecting the liver and reducing sports performance, but does alcohol make you lose weight or gain weight in the end?

How Does Alcohol Affect Weight Loss?

As you can imagine, alcohol tends to make you gain weight rather than lose it. Here are the main ways alcohol affects weight loss.

Alcohol Is High In Calories

Yup, alcohol itself (i.e., ethanol) contains calories (kcal) – a lot of them. In fact, ethanol provides 7 kcal/gram^[13] (g), which is almost twice the calories of protein or carbohydrates (4 kcal/g). Nutritionists call them ’empty calories’ because alcoholic beverages provide calories without any other nutrients.

The extra few calories from light drinking aren’t much of a problem; that 70 kcal gin and tonic on a Saturday evening won’t go straight to your belly. But excessive drinking is linked to weight gain^[13] – and the type of alcohol you drink matters.

Beer and spirits can make you gain weight^[14]. Compare that to the occasional glass of wine, which scientists have found can actually protect you from weight gain.

Too many alcoholic beverages can make you gain weight though, because of another well-known effect of alcohol…

Alcohol Worsens Food Choices

You’ll already know that the bowl of crisps on the table becomes increasingly tempting with every drink. Alcohol intake lowers your inhibitions and leads to eating more food^[15] – especially unhealthy foods.

Alcohol Messes With Your Metabolism

Regularly consuming alcoholic drinks over 10 years – even in small amounts – is linked to metabolic disruption, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease^[16]. 

Alcohol promotes fat accumulation in the liver^[1] – which is why it’s not uncommon for alcoholics to suffer from liver failure. This increases the risk of metabolic syndrome^[17], insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes.

Alcohol Impacts Gut Health

Alcohol also messes with your gut, triggering changes in the delicate balance of gut microbes^[18] and damaging gut lining integrity. 

Healthy gut microbiota is crucial for weight loss, which explains why gut microbiome imbalance (also called dysbiosis) is linked to insulin resistance and weight gain^[19].

Prevents The Positive Impact Of Weight Loss

We know losing weight is the best way to improve our health, but drinking alcohol may mitigate the beneficial effects of weight loss^[20]. 

In one study^[21], male drinkers lost as much weight as non-drinkers when doing the same exercise. But one thing exercise didn’t do was burn the liver fat the drinkers had accumulated, suggesting that continuing to drink alcohol prevents some of the health benefits of exercise – even if you do initially lose weight. 

Best Low-Calorie Alcoholic Drinks For Weight Loss

We all want an alcoholic drink sometimes, so here are the best low-calorie tipples we recommend for weight loss.

Lite Beer

One can contain:

• 104 kcal
• 14 mg sodium
• 5.9 g carbohydrate
• 0.9 g protein
• 14 mg calcium
• 76 mg potassium

Champagne

One small glass (100 milliliters) contains:

• 87 kcal
• 5 mg sodium
• 2.8 g carbohydrate
• 8 mg calcium
• 102 mg potassium

Gin (40% Alcohol)

One serving (40 milliliters) contains:

• 110 kcal (from alcohol content)
• 1 mg potassium

Whiskey (40% Alcohol)

One serving (40 milliliters) contains:

• 105 kcal
• 1 mg potassium

Rum Or Vodka (40% Alcohol)

One serving (40 milliliters) contains:

• 97 kcal
• 1 mg potassium

The Bottom Line

So, does alcohol stop fat burning? The answer is yes – and the more often you drink, the more alcohol affects your metabolism and promotes weight gain.

It’s OK to have the occasional alcoholic drink but avoid binge-drinking episodes if possible. We recommend opting for wine over beer as studies find wine drinking may be protective of weight gain.

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