Can a wine nightcap help you lose weight?
Great news! A glass of wine could help you to trim down and prevent you piling on the pounds when you reach your ideal weight. Studies have shown that good old vino is the perfect bedtime snack for dieters who don’t want to give up all their treats.
How can wine help you battle the bulge?
Losing weight is more about calorie management than deprivation, and so a little treat won’t prevent you from reaching your goal. Actually, a glass of vino before bed could help curb your appetite for junk food like biscuits, chocolate and cake. The recommended calorie intake is 2000 per day for the average woman and 2500 for the average man. To lose weight you need to eat less, exercise more to burn calories off, or both. Junk food like biscuits and sweets are not filling, and so you need to eat more to be satisfied. However, they are loaded with calories and might hinder your weight loss! Wine, on the other hand, is quite low in calories, but filling enough to supress the appetite. In his book, ‘The 4 hour body: An uncommon Guide to Rapid Weight Loss’, author Tim Ferris recommends drinking a glass of red wine in the evening. The idea is that it makes you feel like you have had a treat without binging.
How much wine can you have before bed?
This really depends on the wine you choose for your nightcap. If you opt for a low-calorie vino like prosecco you can have more. However, to help eliminate fat, choose red. A 2015 study by the Washington State University showed that Red wine can be a fantastic weight-loss aid, thanks to a substance it contains called resveratrol. This helps convert white fat, which can be difficult to burn off, into beige fat, which is easier to shed. But, as the saying goes, everything in moderation!