Beer Belly

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theexternvoid

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I'm looking for homebrew tips on avoiding the beer belly. Obviously there are light beers. These sacrifice flavor, but if you have any really good light recipes then pleas share.

The other angle, though, is ingredients. Not all calories are equal. 100 calories from cake or cheese are more likely to beocme fat than 100 caleries from whole wheat bread. What are good homebrew ingredients to use and which are best avoided for making your beer have as many good calories as possible?
 
I know to eat less and work out. Putting that variable aside, what can be done with the brew itself to help? I know you can't solve the beer-gut by just changing your brew, but surely there are ways to make your beer better.
 
First of all cheat! Just balance what you drink to what you eat. So eat less to make up for what you drink,you still have those built up carbs to use from beer. Then you can drink what you want. But do exercise,maybe more often than normal,just to burn off calories and still reward yourself.
Calories are still calories,yes some you can burn off more easily,but the realitiy is if you dont eat then exercise then you are going to burn off fat faster.Just keep that in mind also. And you dont want to pig out after exerciseing either,drink a bunch of water and you shouldnt even really be hungry right after anyway. Over eating is a result of boredom generally. Try doing a shot or two of raw applecider vinegar a half hour before you eat,you may not end up eating as much,and you never want to stuff or fill yourself up ever anyway. I usually exclude that to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners though.
YOu can still make some mild or light ales or lagers though. Nothing wrong with that. If you like them.I would recommed some mild ale recipes,they are lighter but have good flavor still.
 
I know to eat less and work out. Putting that variable aside, what can be done with the brew itself to help? I know you can't solve the beer-gut by just changing your brew, but surely there are ways to make your beer better.

I'm not sure I understand what your saying. What do you mean by better? Do you mean lighter?
 
Drinking good full flavored bigger beers is worth more to some. I just exercise more and cut out other carbs or calories to make up for the difference. Its about balance/management really. If you feel like you need to do this, then maybe you should cut back on eating and calories. Also it depends how many you have. You can have like one or two big beers or3- 4 low abv ones and have the same calories. Thats how i choose to drink a few more,if I know they are lower abv then I have one or two more. If I have a big one I dont generally want much more so I dont drink myself silly often. You wont fool anybody but yourself if you make a low abv beer but still drink the crap out of it.
 
Exercise.
I can't reduce consumption since I love food and beer way too much, so I do cardio workouts (Insanity) that make up for my consumption.
Doing cardio makes me feel really great as well. It sucks while you're doing it, but after it's great.
The more muscle mass you have, the higher your BMR. Meaning more beers/day in addition to what your expenditure is with the exercise :)
 
Look into a primal lifestyle/diet. I try not to ingest grains unless they have been fermented. Trying to restrict my intake to veggies, meat, fruit and some dairy. (mainly avoiding processed foods)
I have personally doing it for about 6 months. I Feel great, have lost about 20 lbs. and dont feel guilty about imbibing on fermented beverages.
 
What about stouts that are lower on alc and calories but big on flavor? Im not the biggest stout fan in the world, but it can be very surprising how just because the flavor is powerful doesnt mean it has to be high in calories. I think Guinness is like 125 calories, which is practically a "light" beer, although you ask most people and they wouldnt think that at all.

Also make sure you dont compensate by consuming more of less- 2 beers at 150 cals a glass are less overall than three light beer at 110 cals a piece.

I know when I started brewing i gained 10 lbs in 2 months! Just brew with less malt and try to keep the alc% between 3-4%. May be a little light but its your choice, light flavor or treadmill...
 
One thing to keep in mind is that the majority of calories in beer come from alcohol (7 calories per gram), which is used as an immediate energy source by the body, so it doesn't get stored. The only thing contributing to the "beer belly" is the relatively minimal amount of carbs. Obviously, the fuller bodied beers are going to have more carbs, but in general an average gravity, medium bodied beer is going to have about 15 grams of carbs. If you have two a night that's 30 grams of carbs, which is nothing compared to a typical person's average daily carb intake. I personally focus on reducing carbs rather than total caloric intake to make up for the beer.
 
Ive had a few scottish 60 ales they are like 3.5% ABV. But they have a ton of flavor. I would brew a few lower alchohol beers.
 
A calorie is a measure of energy. 1 cal=1 cal, source is irrelevant.

Anyway, in addition to keeping your caloric intake in check, add some core strengthening exercises to keep all those organs where they belong.

The plank is all you really need.
 
Assuming you already eat healthy and exercise, I think your best bet is drink half pints! I usually end up drinking less. If you've got a smartphone try an app like 'alcodroid' to keep track.

Drink less tasty beer, rather than less-tasty beer :p

And speaking as a physiologist: the source of a calorie IS relevant. The idea that 1000 calories from fruit and veg is just a bad as 1000 calories of greasy meat is sadly a bit if a myth from health campaigns a few years back.
The human body doesn't count in exact calories, and is far more influenced by the nature of your diet than the exact quantity. Besides, a varied diet is great for staving off all sorts (not least, forms of cancer) even if its not for weight-loss.
 
Ive had a few scottish 60 ales they are like 3.5% ABV. But they have a ton of flavor. I would brew a few lower alchohol beers.

This for sure, and if you haven't yet, introduce yourself to the British Special and Ordinary Bitter. Absolutely killer 3.5-4% ABV session beers with IMO massive flavor.
 
Toccata said:
A calorie is a measure of energy. 1 cal=1 cal, source is irrelevant.

Anyway, in addition to keeping your caloric intake in check, add some core strengthening exercises to keep all those organs where they belong.

The plank is all you really need.

While you are correct in the equivalence of calories as being equal as a source of energy, thats only one side of the equation. It takes calories to digest food. It takes the body 27 calories to digest 100 cals from protein where as it takes only 4-7cals to digest carbs. So 100 calories from low fat beef, youre left with 73 calories, if it were from candy, youre left with 94-97. If youre body cant readily burn the energy it stores it as fat (which is why you can still gain weight from low fat high calorie diets, and the reason the Atkins diet was popular... for about 2 months, lol)

Source is by no means irrelevant.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that the majority of calories in beer come from alcohol (7 calories per gram), which is used as an immediate energy source by the body, so it doesn't get stored.

The alcohol doesn't get stored, but that also means your liver can't work on other stuff...so any glucose/fat gets stored until it's done with the alcohol.

Also, eat more fat and less carbs. Reduce the glucose load on your system. And +1 for full-flavored session beers.
 
I make diabetic friendly beers (search, it wont be hard to find the thread) these have fewer carbs than a non-DF counterpart.

I base all my meals on "up to" 30 carbs with 1 15 carb afternoon snack. Ideally 0 carbs is the goal. I do not count beer carbs/calories but I binge drink. I have none to few during the week and x2 more than I need on either Friday or Saturday. I also now drink Pepsi Max instead of regular soda.

This practice alone made my weight gain stop and slowly reverse direction but I need more. I needed to find a way to exercise that did not feel like exercise. I have done enough PT in the Army for a lifetime and I HATE EXERCISING. I mean I would rather hook electrodes up to my muscles and run electricity through my body before doing even 1 more pushup. This has been my largest hurdle to overcome.

In the last few months I have started playing Dagorhir. It is a medieval foam fighting game/group. Nerdy? Yeah but I flat out do not care. I do not wear tights or speak in a fake accent. (I do wear period garb however) There are no "spells" being cast, it is pure combat. If you have never tried to fight someone with forceful blows via hand held weapons, I can tell you it is one of the most exhausting things one can participate in. Hollywood does not portray these battles correctly. Keep in mind I am overweight and 40ish and have not actively exercised in about 20 years (give or take a few). I practice 1 time a week for 4 hours. But has it helped? Well, I have had to punch 5 new holes in my daily leather belt. I have no idea how much weight I have shed but I am guessing I have lost 5 inches, I am also stronger and faster now.

Even if you do not like the idea of a fighting game there is a way that you can find a way to exercise that is more fun that standard PT but YOU have to seek it out.

I wish you all the best. :mug:
 
I like to reduce my calorie intake from other sources--in other words, drink on an empty stomach. This has the following benefits:

A: Imbibing a given quantity of alcohol on an empty stomach will make you drunker than doing so on a full stomach--it's cost effective!
B: You can drink more, thinking of all the calories you're not spending on those buffalo wings and sweet potato pies
C: If you can encourage members of the opposite sex to engage in the same strategy, the chances of extracurricular aerobic activity increase markedly
D: Because of (C), you can drink even more, since you're burning even more calories. It's a virtuous cycle!
 
I've done diets where I've allowed myself to drink as much beer as I want and still lose weight 3-5 lbs/WK. You need to either count calories (if you don't know how many then don't eat it, stay under 2000/day, phone apps can help with this.) or another diet I have done is only eat once a day(as much as you want, aim for midday, you won't eat as much as you think).
 
I'm looking for homebrew tips on avoiding the beer belly. Obviously there are light beers. These sacrifice flavor, but if you have any really good light recipes then pleas share.

The other angle, though, is ingredients. Not all calories are equal. 100 calories from cake or cheese are more likely to beocme fat than 100 caleries from whole wheat bread. What are good homebrew ingredients to use and which are best avoided for making your beer have as many good calories as possible?

I am just going to put this here in case this hasn't been mentioned yet in regards to any difference in how you get calories.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

Wht this article and the prof. who ran the experiment concludes is that a calorie is a calorie regardless of how it gets into the system...now nutritional intake is another story of course.
 
Look up Gary Taubes and watch his videos on Youtube.

Keep your insulin under control

Don't eat grains (except in beer of course), corn, starches and sugars. Eat carbs from veggies and keep them down to somewhere between 50 and 100 grams per day.

You will lose weight and your cholesterol #s will come down
 
Thanks for the info on beer styles to target. That's all I really wanted since eating less and moving mroe is a given. :) I tend to brew high gravity imperial IPAs, which sounds like a bad choice of brew for keeping the weight down.

Side note, as for calorie sources it does matter due to psychology. You burn simple sugars from things like cake and potato chips faster than complex carbs like whole wheat bread. This makes you feel hungry sooner, increasing the odds that you will snack. I wasn't clear on that originally. A good carb is one that burns over time so that you don't get hunger cravings too soon. It's easier to not eat if you aren't hungry! I was wondering if things like avoiding rice filler or choosing wheat vs. barley might make a difference in the post-drink cravings based on how quickly the body burns them.

Also, if you want to know why it takes longer to burn a complex carb, I think your body actually "mashes" the carbs into sugars just like in the mashtun! Just like it takes a full hour to make the carbs into something yeats can eat, such carbs in your body are like getting a slow but steady stream of energy for an extended period. Easting refined sugar is putting yeast into pure sugar water that blows the top of the carboy and then feels starved for food the next day!
 
Anyone in here who thinks that certain calories make you more fat than others are 100% wrong.

Healthwise is a different story, but you will gain just as much weight eating 6000 calories a day of chicken breasts as you would Snickers bars.
 
In the last few months I have started playing Dagorhir. It is a medieval foam fighting game/group. Nerdy? Yeah but I flat out do not care. I do not wear tights or speak in a fake accent. (I do wear period garb however) There are no "spells" being cast, it is pure combat. If you have never tried to fight someone with forceful blows via hand held weapons, I can tell you it is one of the most exhausting things one can participate in.

Do you make period drink to consume?
 
Anyone in here who thinks that certain calories make you more fat than others are 100% wrong.

Healthwise is a different story, but you will gain just as much weight eating 6000 calories a day of chicken breasts as you would Snickers bars.

This isn't true as someone else pointed out. Your body will burn more calories breaking down protein than it will Twinkies.
 
Do you make period drink to consume?

Next year at the week long event I may attempt to disprove a theory that medieval people did not drink water and only drink small beer for the duration. But I do make ales and meads that are period but I would REALLY like to make a stien beer with period equipment. One day when my pocket contains more than lint I may attempt it...
 
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