Booze weekends?

Question
Kristina
My husband, 55, is frustrated with his ability to lose his big belly. He is actually a light eater and lately has been eating low glycemic, lots of fresh fruit, and he jogs for an hour faithfully Monday, Wed, and Friday.
He says he must have a slow metabolism, but all his tests have come back good-he has no thyroid or other major health issues at all.
I suspect it might be his booze intake. Almost every weekend he will drink at leat 12 beers or a 26 of hard liquor, often more. Its basicly binge drinking. This occurs after playing ball or golf with his buddies, followed by watching sports on TV, eating junk food (mostly chips). He says this is his 'reward' for working, dieting, and exercising all week and two bad days out of seven shouldnt make a difference.
I cant help but think it might be a contributor.
I have done a bit of research and binge drinking raises cortisol levels for days, stalling the metabolism. He hasnt had his levels checked (yet), but I think its a factor.
Or, maybe its  the compounding effects of a the weekly 'blowouts'?
Thanks for your thoughts!

Answer
I would first recommend your husband add a weight training program to his routine as just jogging will probably not help with the belly area.  However you are right that the alcohol can definitely be the problem.  Alcohol can add a lot of calories that many people don't seem to consider in their overall diet so while he might be exercising the alcohol can be contributing to taking in too many calories.  Here is an interesting article from webmd about beer bellies:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-truth-about-beer-and-your-belly
So while it is not the beer/alcohol per say contributing to the belly it is probably the amount of calories he is getting from the beer/alcohol.  I would again suggest that for any belly fat that he should be doing strength training as muscle helps build your metabolism but also watching overall calories and cutting back the amount of alcohol consumed.  Hope that helps and good luck!

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