Alcohol and slowing metabolism

Let me start with...I am not an alcoholic..haha, in fact I barely drink. I gave up ALL drinking of alcohol until my wedding 3/29 and I've already dropped a few lbs.

I read a study on alcohol and its effects on slowing your metabolism...something crazy like..."one night of 3 or more drinks literally STOPS your metabolism for 24-46 hours"...this sounds crazy to me but feedback? Thoughts? Insight?

The study made some sense...stating that your liver doesnt know what to do with an alcohol molecule...etc...and you in turn "store" the food you put in over next day and half!

oops "....24-36 hours"

who wrote that study? Its cute. HA! If your metabolism actually stopped, you die. One's metabolism is quite literally a measure of how many kcals your body needs at any given point. When you stop using energy, you die.  So that study would be accurate if you drank yourself to death. ;)

Alcohol is processed by the liver and its kcals are sugars...so its counts as a CHO. Oh, and I promise you that your liver know precisely what to do with alcohol. Thats a riot though...post up a link so we can proceed to either laugh at or make fun of who wrote it.

haha, ok. I have to find it. Didnt think it could possibly be true but didnt know if there is any "truth" to it.

whoever said it 'stops' metabolism is full of it.  In fact the studies I have seen with alcohol have shown that acutely alcohol increases basal metabolism.  That said, it also is metabolized to acetate and can be primarily stored around the liver (nothing like a nice padding of visceral fat to mess with your insulin sensitivity). 

Now all that being said, people need to chill on drinking one way or the other.  One or two drinks is not going to affect your body composition negatively as long as you account for the calories in them, in fact alcohol has been shown to have glucose disposal properties when used in small quantities and it has been shown to have some health benefits as well.  Unfortunately most people are all or nothing and when they drink, they have 4, 5, 6 , 7 etc drinks and when you get to that level where you are getting buzzed or drunk then you are definitely starting to impair various metabolic processes including protein synthesis, testosterone levels, growth hormone levels, and also increasing the deposition of fat.  When you drink quite a bit, what you must realize is your body must throw it's focus into metabolizing all that alcohol before anything else so this means that carbohydrate & fat oxidation are severely blunted, which is probably why whomever ignoramous wrote that article you read said it 'stops your metabolism'.  Metabolic rate refers to the rate at which you use energy, not substrate choice, so as aformentioned alcohol definitely does not stop your metabolic rate... it actually speeds it up so that the body can dispose of all the alcohol, the problem is that even though it speeds it up, you still have blunted carb & fat oxidation so you are having more storage during that time.

Long story short, if you drink, do it in moderation and you will be fine.  If you overindulge, you won't.  Very simple actually.   

I hate to be a stickler, but you read an article... a bad one at that... NOT a study.   

Layne- you are NO fun. LOL

I'm calling you Layne "WetBlanket" Norton. 

I have read that it is bad for someone who is lifting due to the stopping protein synthesis and etc, but how much do you have to drink to achieve this? I am just curious, I have read that one drink does this, and I have read that it takes several.

 Oh well I am just curious, I am in college after all, and I just joined a Fraternity. I have refrained from alcohol so far, but I was just wondering.

In a frat or not, the alcohol is just as available and tempting at this school. But like I said, I have little trouble refraining. I was just curious.....