{"id":49545,"date":"2016-05-05T07:15:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T11:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=49545"},"modified":"2021-05-18T03:38:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T07:38:03","slug":"sleep-wine-lose-weight-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/sleep-wine-lose-weight-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Wine Before Bed Help You Lose Weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Can
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past year, our social media feeds have blown up on more than one occasion over claims<\/a> that drinking wine<\/a> at bedtime could help you drop a few pounds. In fact, this \u201cnews\u201d generated so much buzz that urban-legend buster Snopes decided to investigate. Turns out, the majority of coverage was referencing a Daily Mail story<\/a> that hinged on anecdotal accounts of women claiming that their \u201cnighttime tipple\u201d helped them slim down. But sadly, there was no new groundbreaking report showing that a glass of red before bed was the secret new weight loss<\/a> weapon we\u2019ve all been dreaming of. So what gives?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been told over and over that alcohol has no place in a weight loss program. Not only does it provide empty calories<\/a>, studies<\/a> confirm that \u201chaving a few\u201d tends to zap your inhibition and make you order midnight cheese fries \u2014 a phenomenon known as the \u201cdrunchies.\u201d Alas, it makes sense to file away the \u201cbedtime wine\u201d idea in the \u201ctoo good to be true\u201d health research morgue that also houses this seductive headline<\/a>: \u201cA glass of red wine is the equivalent to an hour at the gym.\u201d Remember that one?<\/p>\n

Yet research shows that moderate amounts of Malbec won\u2019t totally derail your weight loss efforts. Here\u2019s what you need to know about your vino habit.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>How Bad Is Alcohol, Really? 6 Crazy Facts<\/a><\/p>\n

The Case for Pre-Snooze Booze<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve all read that red wine is a healthy part of the Mediterranean Diet<\/a> \u2014 the one that helps you live longer and maintain an enviable BMI<\/a>. Even lifestyle guru Tim Ferris claims<\/a> that two glasses of wine before bed each night helped him achieve his ripped physique. And recent research<\/a> in mice showed that resveratrol, an antioxidant in red wine, can help turn regular white fat into energy-burning beige fat, which can contribute to weight loss and prevent obesity (just in case you didn\u2019t know that fat came in different colors).<\/p>\n

\u201cHeavy drinking can disturb sleep, but a moderate amount has a sedative effect.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While you can also get resveratrol in fruits, such as blueberries, lead author Min Du, PhD, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Washington State University, explains that the fermentation process of wine makes the antioxidant compounds easier to absorb, which can help accelerate the fat-burning process. Although Du didn\u2019t specifically test the effect of giving resveratrol to the mice at night, he concedes that there might be a metabolic advantage<\/a> of consuming wine in the wee hours.<\/p>\n

When you drink wine with food \u2014 whether at lunch, dinner or with a late-night snack \u2014 the antioxidant compounds interact with protein in a way that prevents the body from metabolizing them for weight loss. When you consume resveratrol on its own, however, the body is able to absorb the compounds more readily, and thus maximize the burning of beige fat. That said, he stops short of endorsing an unaccompanied glass of bedtime wine as a diet strategy<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t have the data to support it,\u201d he says. \u201cWine is beneficial to your health, but never use it to control your body weight. It still has calories.\u201d Ahem, 110 to 130 calories per glass, on average<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>Here’s How Many Calories Are in Your Cocktail<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s another way wine might help with weight control. Just the right amount can help people fall asleep more easily, and according to recent studies<\/a>, adequate slumber is key to keeping off the pounds. \u201cHeavy drinking can disturb sleep<\/a>, but a moderate amount has a sedative effect,\u201d explains Greg Traversy, a researcher at the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group in Ottawa, Canada who wrote a review paper<\/a> on research involving alcohol and obesity. \u201cIf it\u2019s helping you sleep, then maybe you\u2019re getting the weight management benefits downstream by having more energy to be active and not having the snack munchies<\/a> the next day,\u201d Traversy says.<\/p>\n

Alcohol and Weight Loss: When Wine Backfires<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like it has a special VIP pass to go ahead of other fuels.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, much to the disappointment of weight-conscious wine lovers everywhere, Traversy didn\u2019t find any studies showing that imbibing will help you shed pounds. Yet he was surprised to find evidence that moderate drinking wasn\u2019t necessarily linked with weight gain. Take this famous Harvard study<\/a>, for example. The research, which was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine<\/em> in 2010, found that women who drank in moderation (defined as one to two glasses daily) had a lower risk of becoming overweight over 13 years than women who didn\u2019t drink at all. \u201cIt\u2019s not clear why,\u201d he says. \u201cIt might be because they\u2019re exhibiting moderate behaviors in all areas of life, including weight maintenance.\u201d The study authors pointed out that the moderate drinkers exercised more and ate less food to make room for their alcohol calories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>How Bad Is Your Happy Hour? This Alcohol Calculator Tells You<\/a><\/p>\n

The bad news is that if you drink too much, alcohol interferes with your body\u2019s ability to burn fat. \u201cAlcohol blocks the burning of everything else,\u201d says Marc Hellerstein, MD, PhD, professor of human nutrition at the University of California at Berkeley. \u201cIt\u2019s like it has a special VIP pass to go ahead of other fuels.\u201d In other words, if your body is overwhelmed with burning alcohol, your food will be more likely to get stored as fat.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this was the secret of late-night wine. By drinking it a few hours after dinner, you give your body a chance to digest it when it won\u2019t have to compete with food. \u201cI\u2019m not convinced,\u201d says Hellerstein. \u201cYou\u2019ll burn the alcohol, but not fat.\u201d The bottom line: Pick your wine or weight loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science or myth: Will a glass of wine before bed derail your diet or help you lose weight? Here\u2019s the skinny on whether your cabernet is killing your weight loss goals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7,18],"tags":[28,44,280,341,352,285],"class_list":["post-49545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-nutrition","category-health","category-weight-loss","tag-alcohol","tag-drinks","tag-sleep","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2weight-loss","tag-weight-loss"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}