Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of 12 fitness bestsellers. She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider.

Before I start this post I just want to say: I do not condone excessive drinking. I am not recommending drinking as a health strategy. And I am certainly not telling you to use drinking as a weight loss strategy. I mention the body of research below just to demonstrate, once again, what a complex issue obesity really is.

Some recent studies have been finding some interesting associations between alcohol consumption and body weight. For example, researchers at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that Body Mass Index (BMI) was associated with the number of drinks individuals consumed on the days they drank. In the study, men and women who drank the smallest quantity of alcohol -- one drink per drinking day -- with the greatest frequency -- three to seven days per week -- had the lowest BMI's, while those who infrequently consumed the greatest quantity had the highest BMIs. The authors suggested several possible reasons for the observed associations of both quantity and frequency of alcohol use with BMI.

In another study, investigators at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota say those who down one or two adult beverages a day are 54 percent less likely than teetotalers to be obese. In a study of 8,200 people, light to moderate drinking was not linked with being overweight The findings suggest that if a person goes on the wagon entirely, he or she might actually gain weight, though researchers aren't sure why. One theory they put forth is that most people who have a glass of wine or beer each day do so with the evening meal. Perhaps they eat fewer servings or perhaps a drink replaces a high-calorie evening snack.

You might infer from this information that a habit of knocking back a few beers won't affect your weight loss efforts -- which is why studies like these make such good headlines. But alcohol is a significant source of calories, and drinking may stimulate eating, particularly in social settings. There is also some evidence to suggest that the calories in liquids may fail to trigger the physiologic mechanism that produces the feeling of fullness, leading drinkers to binge eat; even infrequent alcohol-related overeating could lead to weight gain over time. And, if you cross the line from moderate to heavier drinking -- more than two drinks per day on average -- the weight protection effect found in some studies goes away: In the Mayo Clinic report for example, those who knocked back four or more drinks per day were 46 percent more likely to be obese than non-drinkers.

What does this all mean? My biggest take away is that everything can work in your diet so long as you practice moderation. We don't yet understand all of the mechanisms that cause us to cling to or shed body fat so the best you can do is watch what you eat without going crazy and make it a point of getting plenty of calorie-burning movement every day.

I'd love to hear your opinion about this. Have you been able to have a drink or two and still lose or maintain your weight? Or is abstinence the only thing that works for you?