There is a very good reason why a large protruding stomach is called a "beer belly" because such a belly is most likely caused to a large degree by the regular consumption of beer. The alcohol contained in beer can have an adverse effect upon your weight loss efforts that you better understand and take into account if you are going to drink alcoholic beverages and still have success in losing weight. The worst part about drinking alcohol is that it interferes with your body’s own ability to burn fat which is exactly the opposite of what you want when you are trying to lose weight. One research study showed that people who drank alcohol actually burned 79% less fat than when they did not consume any alcohol.¹ When you consume alcohol your body will stop burning fat because it will first use the acetate contained in alcohol for fuel before it will use stored carbohydrates, protein or fat for fuel. Another problem with alcohol is that is contains a higher amount of calories, 7 per gram, than the 4 calories contained in protein or carbohydrates and an average 12 ounce glass of beer or 6 ounce glass of wine contains about 150 calories from just the alcohol. Does this mean that you have to quit drinking alcohol entirely to be able to lose weight? Of course not, but you should limit your intake of alcohol otherwise it will be much more difficult to achieve the weight loss success you desire. If you are going to drink regularly then try limiting your drinking of alcoholic beverages to a few times a week instead of every day and when you drink alcohol do it early enough in the day so that your body will have time to burn off the alcohol calories and get back to the important business of burning fat.