It’s annoying but true – if you are trying to lose as much body fat as possible, cut out the booze. It has a very high calorific value and releases sugar into the bloodstream quicker than glucose, neither of which is a good thing!

It also increases appetite, which isn’t going to help you resist that late night visit to the refrigerator, and what’s more leaves you feeling tired and run down, which will hardly motivate you to get out and go to the gym or for that matter to undertake any strenuous activity.

All alcoholic drinks are high in calories:

Wine or champagne = 100 calories per glass (220 ml)
Single whiskey = 110 calories
Single gin & tonic = 180 calories.

And when you consider that the average pint contains around 200 calories (the same as a 35g chocolate bar), it’s hardly surprising that you put on weight if you down 20 pints over a weekend. And with no nutritional value whatsoever, beer really doesn’t do you any good.

Mind you, it is nice! Let’s make that ‘very nice!’ – after all that is what this site is all about. And like fatty, sugary food, alcohol is something that is fine in moderation; although alcohol is a depressant, many people would find abstaining altogether fairly depressing in itself.

A good option is to drink sensibly though, and try not to binge on weekends . The liver can only handle so much and can be damaged by continual excessive alcohol consumption. Wine is also a better option than beer. Some studies suggest that a glass of red wine every day helps to prevent heart disease and lower cholesterol, although there are non-alcoholic foodstuffs which do this as well (you could try green tea but then we’ll have to open up greentea.com).

And watch out for mixing drinks; the different types of alcohol confuse your stomach and make it more difficult for your body to separate and metabolise them properly. They sit there, churning around until……well, you know the rest!