On Nov 12, 4:39 am, "Tom Thumb" wrote:
But most diet programs say calories from booze are counted as part of your
daily 'allowance'.

So lets say we've got 3 identical people. The values given are all daily:

All have the same activity level, they use 2000 calories.

All three consume an additional 1000 calories from the same alcoholic
beverage. Besides the alcohol they only drink water.

They all weigh the same at the start.

Person A: Consumes 1500 calories in food.

Person B: Consumes 2000 calories in food.

Person C: Consumes 2500 calories in food.

According to the figures person (a) consumes 500 calories more per-day then
they expend. Therefore they would gain weight. Is this correct?

If the statement above is true, are slender alcoholics so because of more
complicated reasons other than calorie intake vs calories burnt?

It's an easy way to understand it, but not totally correct. The body's
metabolism is very complicated.

Alcohol is a poison, it's just a low-level one. The inebriating effect
of it, is the result of the alcohol poisoning
your brain.

So right away, alcohol and food should NOT be classified together.
Alcohol has nothing your body
can use except energy (sugar) - there are no vitamins or usable
proteins in alcohol.

I suspect that alcoholics tend to become leaner for these reasons:
1) They spend their $$$ on alcohol (which can be quite expensive),
rather than food.

2) The alcohol dulls their senses in general - including their feeling
of
being hungry.

You could wind up in the severe cases of an alcoholic starving to
death, not from lack
of calories, but from lack of nutrition. Continued lack of nutrition
will also dull the senses
somewhat.

So if alcohol is taken in moderation with food, it's calories are
equal to food's calories.
When the calories are immoderately balanced toward alcohol, that
equality changes
somewhat due to the effects of the alcohol, and the lack of proper
nutrition.