Weekend booze

Question
Tim
My husband, 55, is frustrated with his ability to lose his big belly. He is actuasll 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 is mostly watching sports on TV with his buddies 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
Hi Susan, my apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

I think you solved your own problem, the drinking. On one hand your husband is right, a cheat meal is perfectly fine. In fact I just got off a 6 week strict workout with 6 days a week of training, and I'm taking today off, eating whatever.
A cheat meal once week is even fine depending on your goals.

Here is the issue though, the drinking. Beer and alcohol are no different that drinking a can or bottle of pop. Its a sugar bomb.
Then he is also drinking all this and being sedentary watching sports. Combine that with the junk food.
Look at it this way. Say he eats clean 5 days a week at 2000 calories a day. That's a good balance for him. But on the weekend he drinks beer and eats chips and maybe takes in 2400 calories just from the beer and another 500 or more from the chips.
Now I'm not a believer in counting calories. I preach calorie content. And the content of beer is sugar, and chips is unhealthy fat and more simple carbs. These simple carbs are empty calories that contribute to nothing but fat gain.

A better weekend might be one of two beers. I'm not a drinker but I can already hear his gripe on that.

In addition to his jogging does he get any type resistance training (weight lifting)
Everyone needs resistance training to maintain muscle tone, especially at his age.
Someone who is 60 and lifts weights and does cardio regularly with a clean diet can have the genetic body of a person who is 30. The body has no idea what your birthday is. You control how it ages. We don't slow down or get weak because we are 40,50,60+, its how you take care of your self.

Nobody says he should be a bodybuilder but light weight lifting or even body weight for 30 minutes 3-4 times a week will go a long way. Plus it is great for weight loss.
Think of it like this, resistance training uses more energy than cardio. Thus you burn more.
Possibly he can do 30 minutes resistance training then head out for his jog.

Just some stuff to consider.

Please feel free to write back. Hope this helps

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