Drinking Habits Secretly Increasing Your Abdominal Fat

Tired of attempting to lose that pesky belly fat? Assume you're watching your diet carefully, eating lots of whole foods while limiting bacon double cheeseburgers, chocolate milkshakes, and their sugary cousins, coffee drinks. How can you be gaining abdominal fat when you're avoiding all the obvious high-calorie foods that contribute to weight gain? It's possible that your drinking habits are to blame.

While drinks may appear to be harmless, they can be a hidden source of extra abdominal fat on your body. You're consuming far more calories than you realise because beverage calories tend to sneak in. They don't fill you up like food, and there's no chewing required. But that doesn't mean you should disregard them.

We polled nutrition experts to find out which common drinking habits are secretly increasing abdominal fat right under your nose. Then, for more drinking advice, check out the 5 Best Drinks for Belly Fat After 50, According to Dietitians.

1. Juice is a great way to start the day.

A juice made not only of apples, kiwis, mango puree, and pineapple, but also of broccoli, spinach, kale, wheatgrass, and garlic appears to be natural and healthy. And there are no added sugars! Sounds like a good habit, and a great way to start the day?

According to Silvia Carli, RD, CSCS, of 1AND1 LIFE, one problem with fruit juice, even 100 percent juice, is that it won't satisfy your belly growls because it lacks fibre. Green Machine, the "boosted smoothie" from Naked, is one commercial juice beverage that contains all of the natural ingredients listed above without added sugars.

"Naked juices are loaded with fruit, but they're in liquid form, so there's no fibre to feed the good bacteria in your gut and a lot of sugar," Carli says. "It may be natural sugar, but it is still sugar!"

How much is it? A 270-calorie bottle contains 53 grammes of total sugar, which is one gramme more than a 16-ounce bottle of Coke. Carli recommends drinking water and eating whole fruits instead.

2. Having a soda or sweet tea for lunch.

People may not realise that the drink that goes down so quickly and easily may contain more calories than the part of your meal that requires a fork.

"Sugar-sweetened beverages are very calorie-dense; they can contribute to elevated blood sugar and belly fat," says Susan Bowerman, RDN, Herbalife Nutrition's senior director of Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training.

Replace sugar-sweetened beverages with low- or zero-calorie beverages such as unsweetened tea and water.

"Studies show that increasing your water intake can help boost your metabolism, allowing your body to burn fat more efficiently," Bowerman explains.

3. Consuming low-calorie foods while drinking diet beverages.

Even if you choose a zero-calorie, artificially sweetened diet beverage, according to Bowerman, people tend to pair low-calorie drinks with high-calorie fast foods like burgers and fried chicken.

"If you eat French fries, which have a lot of saturated fat, that could have an effect on weight gain, but not the [diet soda] itself," she explains. Furthermore, some research suggests that drinking beverages containing artificial sweeteners may upset the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut, potentially leading to glucose intolerance.

4. I'm drinking way too many cocktails.

It's called a beer belly for a reason, but that doesn't excuse you if your poison is wine spritzers or tequila shots.
"Alcohol is a source of calories that your body simply does not recognise as satisfying hunger and fueling your body, which is why we call them 'empty calories,'" explains Zoe Schroeder, MS, RDN, CSCS, owner of ZoeSchroederNutrition.com. "So, these empty calories enter your body, and your body is basically like, OK, well, I have this extra energy, so I'll just store it in adipose tissue or fat."

When you drink mixed drinks like screwdrivers and margaritas, the extra energy calories can quickly add up.

"High-calorie mixers and sugary beverages that go into cocktails put people over their needed caloric intake without them even realising it," Schroeder says, explaining that the calories don't register as fuel. According to her, drinking alcohol causes less satiety and more hunger.

Read Here's What Happens to Your Body When You Drink Alcohol Every Day to learn more about how alcohol affects you and how it prevents your body from burning fat.