Does Alcohol Stop Fat Loss After 40?

Nikkiey: The feeling of falling asleep faster after a drink is so real. But the quality of your sleep that follows is not what you think. Sure, you have a glass of wine, you immediately fall asleep. But alcohol suppresses your REM sleep. It suppresses the deep sleep, the restorative sleep, the stage where growth hormone is released, where muscle repair happens, where memory consolidation occurs, and where cognitive function is restored. So you can fall asleep faster, sure, but you sleep worse. And so the next morning, you feel more tired than if you didn't have a drink.

What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show with your host, Nikkiey Stott. In today's episode, I want to bring back a topic that I haven't talked about in a while, mainly because we are coming up on the holiday season. We've got Thanksgiving, we've got Christmas, we've got New Year's. And this is typically a go-to thing that women, humans, indulge in around this time, or have occasionally around this time, or even more than they would throughout the rest of the year.

So I thought it was a good idea to resurface this topic to help you navigate the holiday season while also making sure that you are choosing intentionally to stay on pace with your goals. So that come January 1 and into the new year, you're not trying to change a hundred things at once and becoming overwhelmed. So I want to talk about alcohol in this episode with you guys. I'm not here to take it away from you. I'm not here to moralize it. I'm not here to tell you that you need to stop.

I'm here mainly to bring out some myths around it being quote unquote harmless and bring them to the surface. Why I want to do it is, as we age, as we get older, everything in our body is navigating changes hormonally. And so the cost of what these myths make feel okay, like that glass of wine, or quote unquote, it helps me sleep better, is actually higher than you think.

If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know me. I'm just direct, no BS. I'm going to give it to you when you need it. I don't think most women have ever had it just laid out clearly and honestly. So that's what I want to do today with you guys. I want to flip some myths. We're going to get right into the myths, because these are what most women are operating from when they pour that drink or that glass of wine. They're operating from this, and then they're justifying it with these myths.

So the first myth is that a glass of wine at night is good for your heart. I actually did some research on this. This one came from observational studies in the 1990s that noticed moderate drinkers had better cardiovascular outcomes than heavy drinkers. And so the conclusion that alcohol was protective was a significant overcorrection.

There's more recent research using randomized methodology, which can establish causation rather than just correlation. Meaning it was largely debunked that there was a cardiovascular benefit of moderate alcohol. And so the people in those earlier studies who appeared healthier were likely healthier for other reasons.

So the alcohol was not the protective factor here. The American Heart Association, the World Health Organization and major cancer research have all updated their guidelines in recent years to say that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption from a cancer or cardiovascular standpoint. And so that previous messaging, those studies that I was just speaking to a second ago, they were wrong.

And I think that's warranted to look at a little bit deeper for people using this as a justification, an excuse, the myth for what it is of, oh, well, a glass of wine is good for your heart. Yes, there were studies that said this, but there's been new and updated research that overrides what those studies were saying. And coming from me, I've recorded previous episodes on this: alcohol is a toxic poison to your body.

And I'm going to get to this in a second, why it felt okay when we were younger, and it's just drastically different now. Two drinks hit us differently as we get older. There is a reason. But to make this relatable, I come from the world of overconsuming alcohol. I don't know if I ever shared that in my story. Growing up, broken household, I come from a very addictive mentality on my father's side. And my father's side comes from a line of alcoholics.

And so in my later teens, early 20s, even leading up to right before fitness really saved me, I was going out every single weekend. When I started my journey, my friends and I would get blackout. I would lose myself. I would look forward to it on the weekends and go out with my friends. And there was a loss of sense of control. And fitness saved me. Fitness got me into the gym, moving my body, working out.

So I say all this because nowadays I will have maybe four drinks in one year. If I'm on vacation, I'll have a glass of wine, maybe once in the full week. Or if I'm with my girlfriends, I'll have a drink out. But that rarely happens nowadays because, I don't know, the chemicals or the things have changed in my body. So I say that just to say, I understand there are people who struggle with this. I've come from a family of it. But there's also another world where, when you align different behaviors, attitudes, motives and intentionality with your body, that stuff starts getting limited as you put more priority on other things.

Anyway, I went on a rant there. But myth number two is that one drink a day is not enough to affect my body. I'll say this because I know there are women out there. I watched a family member go through this where they were drinking a glass of wine every single night. And I know there are women who do the same. It's a relaxing mechanism. It's an unwind type of thing. But for someone in their 20s or early 20s, you have a fully functioning liver at that point. You have a robust sleep architecture.

And your estrogen is doing its protective work. The impact of one drink is relatively contained at that point. But for a woman who is over 35, over 40, in her 50s, navigating declining estrogen, navigating disrupted sleep, navigating elevated cortisol, navigating a metabolism already under so much pressure, that one drink hits differently. I know you guys feel me on that. And the liver processes alcohol way more slowly as you age. And the hormonal environment is so much more vulnerable to disruption.

And the downstream effects on sleep, on cortisol, on body composition are significantly more pronounced than they were 10 or 15 years ago. So the one drink did not change. What did is your body. And that matters. I hear this all the time: as you age, two drinks feel different than what eight did when you were in your 20s, right? And true testament, I can feel it after one drink nowadays.

So I think it's just being reminded that the drink didn't change. Your body has gone through so many hormonal changes as you age. And that's when we're vulnerable and susceptible to disruption as we get older. Okay, the third myth is, oh, well, having a glass of wine at night helps me sleep. And again, some of these are justifications for being able to drink the glass of wine. And this is often the one that I hear most.

And it's probably the most important myth to flip, because the feeling of falling asleep faster after a drink is so real. But the quality of your sleep that follows is not what you think. So, sure, you have a glass of wine, you immediately fall asleep. But alcohol suppresses your REM sleep. It suppresses the deep sleep, the restorative sleep, the stage where growth hormone is released, where muscle repair happens, where memory consolidation occurs, and where cognitive function is restored.

It fragments your sleep architecture. So you can fall asleep faster, sure, but you sleep worse. And so the next morning, you feel more tired than if you didn't have a drink, right? Even if you don't feel it acutely, you feel more tired. And this is why: because it's affecting the quality of your sleep. So this is where I believe it matters. The quality of your sleep is already being disrupted by all of the changes happening internally.

And again, I've said this in a couple of episodes, but just to say it here, because sometimes you women don't feel these internally. They're not tangible. You're not going to see them happening. But there are so many things happening internally as you age, hormonally, that you are not able to see. Will you be able to feel it? Yeah. But some of you just write it off. It's like, oh, well, this is just part of my body getting older. But that has a reason. That has a deeper why behind it. As you get older, this is what's happening.

And so adding alcohol to that picture is just compounding a problem that is already significant enough.

Hey guys, just a quick break to tell you about Cozy Earth. This is a brand that I have genuinely loved having in my home, and I'm just so excited to be working with them this season. There are two products, the bubble cuddle blanket and the bamboo sheet set. Both of them have become non-negotiables in my home. And I'll tell you this, the blanket lives on the couch. And I'm not exaggerating when I say multiple people who have come over and hung out have tried to claim it.

There's just something about the weight of it, the way that it drapes over you. The first time that I put it over me, I immediately understood why this is so popular and why people love it. And with the cooler nights and the cooler evenings, it's just going to get used consistently. And then the sheets have changed the game on how I sleep. They've been the only sheets on my bed for the last two years. I run warm and I always have. And I remember the first night that I put these on,

I slept through the whole night without having to kick off the blankets in the middle of the night or having both of my legs sticking out the side of the blankets. So that alone just sold me on it. If you're still trying to figure out holiday gifts for friends or family members, this is hands down the answer. These are the best gifts, and they're ones that people will be able to use every single day, not just ones that end up forgotten. And with a hundred-night trial and a 10-year warranty,

there is genuinely nothing to lose. So go to CozyEarth.com and use code TheWarriorBabeShow for up to 20% off home and sleepwear. That's CozyEarth.com, code TheWarriorBabeShow. And when they ask at checkout where you heard about them, let them know that you heard it right here on The WarriorBabe Show. All right, let's get back to the episode.

So let me also walk through the specific mechanisms of what it's actually doing to your body, because I think those details matter. This is happening in your body the night that you have that glass.

So what it does is it pauses the fat burning completely. Let's say you have a goal and you're working towards it. Well, alcohol is treated by your body as a toxin, as I said a couple of minutes ago, because technically that's what it is. It's poison to your body. And so the moment that alcohol enters your system, your liver shifts its entire focus to metabolizing and clearing it out.

Because your body's like, I don't want this in my body. It's a toxin. I need to do everything possible to clear this out of the human's body. And so fat oxidation, the process of burning stored body fat for fuel, is just completely paused until that alcohol gets cleared. And depending on how much you had and how well your liver can process it, fat burning can be suppressed for 6 to 12 hours after a drink. This is why people gain weight. And not to mention, as I've talked about in previous episodes,

you go into snack mode. So on top of the fat oxidation stopping, there are the calories you're eating, not burning.

Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing, and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

Your body is spending its time processing the alcohol, so everything that you're eating and continuing to drink is just getting stored, and that's why people get fat. I watched my parents. I'll add this here because I will celebrate and cheer my parents on in this regard. Like the story I just told you guys, that's what they did, right?

But a couple of years ago, they were like, we need to stop this. And collectively, the two of them lost 160 pounds by just stopping this, okay? And I say that to encourage you guys. Going back to what I was just talking about, fat burning is suppressed 6 to 12 hours after a drink, which means that overnight window, the hours when your body would otherwise be in fat-burning mode while you sleep,

becomes a fat storage or neutral period instead. So every night that happens is a night that the fat-burning process is interrupted. That's why, when you have that glass of wine at night because it helps you sleep, this is happening. And over time that could compound into why you aren't getting the results that you want. When my parents stopped this, they lost 160 pounds. They didn't focus on moving their body. They didn't focus on being 100% with their nutrition.

They were like, I'm going to start eating better. But this was the main thing that they did.

It also disrupts the hormonal environment that your muscle needs. And not even to talk about cortisol. We all know it's a physiological stressor, so I don't think we need to go into that. But mainly the hormonal environment that your muscle needs: building and preserving muscle requires your hormonal environment to be as supportive as possible, right? Growth hormone is released primarily during your deep sleep stage.

That is one of the most important signals for muscle repair and maintenance. And so what alcohol does is suppress your growth hormone release. So let's say you did a workout that day. The training that you did, the stimulus that you sent, gets a weaker repair response, because the sleep in which the repair happens is compromised by you having alcohol. So you worked out, you ate your protein, and then you had a drink.

And that blunted the recovery that was supposed to happen that night. You get what I'm saying, guys? It's not just, I'm only having one, it's not going to affect my body. You won't feel it, but this is what's happening internally. And as you compound that over time, this is why you aren't getting results as fast as you thought you would.

And the last thing I'll say about what's happening in your body is that it interacts with estrogen in ways that truly matter, especially as we get older. And this one is very largely unaddressed. Alcohol elevates circulating estrogen levels, because it inhibits the enzyme that breaks estrogen down. So for women in perimenopause who are already dealing with fluctuating estrogen, adding alcohol to that picture is going to create hormonal variability that can worsen symptoms, right?

Hot flashes, sleep disruption, mood shifts. All of these can be amplified by regular alcohol consumption in ways that are often attributed entirely to menopause, when alcohol is a significant contributing factor, all right?

So, ways to flip the myths I just talked about, because I wanted to give you the other side of this, not just what alcohol is costing you, but what reducing it will give you back. Your sleep is going to improve dramatically and quickly. This is the one that will usually surprise you the most. Within one or two weeks of

removing or significantly reducing it, your sleep quality is going to improve: more deep sleep, fewer nighttime wakings, more energy in the morning. Women who attribute poor sleep entirely to perimenopause often discover that a significant portion of their sleep disruption was actually alcohol-driven. The hormonal component is going to remain, but the compound effect of alcohol on top of it will be removed once you remove the alcohol, right?

And your body composition is going to respond. I think I've said this a couple of times already, but when fat oxidation is no longer blunted or paused every night, the overnight fat-burning window is restored. And so it's opening up your body to work with the actual environment it needs, increasing your fat loss ability, right? And you'll notice this too: as you reduce this, your night sweats are going

to reduce. So if you're somebody who's in perimenopause or menopause and you're like, I have the worst hot flashes, try reducing this if it's something that you do. People will report back a significant, meaningful reduction, because, as I've talked about, alcohol is elevating and destabilizing estrogen. And so reducing alcohol brings in more hormonal stability. That means you're going to feel less hot flash frequency and intensity when you reduce

alcohol. Just reduction. You don't have to completely eliminate it. Just reduce it. You're still going to go through the hormonal transition, but the alcohol amplification of it will be removed, or at least the intensification of the symptoms will be, right? So this is your body. This is your life. But I do believe in being informed and having intentionality behind this. And I think most women who have that nightly glass of wine have never been given

the full picture of what it's actually costing them in this specific body that they have right now, after 40, after 45, in this hormonal season of what you're going through, with body composition goals that you're working towards, right?

So the framework, the practical side I would offer, is this: if you are struggling with sleep and alcohol is part of your nightly routine, try removing it for two weeks and see what changes. Not forever, just two weeks. The data that you collect from that experiment is worth more than anything

that I can tell you in one episode. If you're not seeing body composition results after training and giving your body the nutrition that it needs, and you're drinking three to five nights per week, that is a variable that is worth examining, honestly. Again, just reducing it back, not eliminating it completely. Because creating some days of full hormonal recovery without that spike and the interrupted fat burning is

going to create more results. And if the nightly glass is genuinely the one thing that you are not willing to change, then I would just say make it consciously. Know what it is costing and adjust your expectations of the other variables accordingly. If you can't change that, then just be conscious with it, be honest with yourself, and know what you're doing and what that's going to take away from the results that you have.

Okay, so I didn't come here to say alcohol is evil. The glass of wine is not evil, but for the sake of being in reality and not in delusion, it is a toxin to your body. So I guess maybe that is evil. It's just thinking about the cost: your sleep, cortisol, fat burning, hormones, recovery. There is a real, specific reason why it may be triggering a lack of results, especially

higher than where it was 10 years ago. So you can decide what you do with the information I just talked about, but I just wanted to make sure that you had it.

And I don't know if you guys are aware, but on a weekly basis, Maggie and I do free trainings where we spend about two hours together and go through why you may be struggling, putting in all this effort and all this work but unsure why you're not getting the results that you want, when it comes to the mindset, the macros, the workouts and the muscle portion. The link is in the description below for you to register.

I would highly recommend you do. It's free, and you get to come hang out with us on a weekly basis. All right. I hope this was helpful. I wanted to bring this episode to you in anticipation of the holidays, just to remind you of the things that are happening in your body when you do choose to have this, and to bring more intentionality to this variable that may be costing you the results that you want. Okay. I love you guys and I'll see you in the next episode.

Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference, helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.