The common myth that beer leads one to have a beer belly is false according to this recent study.

While drinking excessive amounts of alcohol (or consuming excessive amounts of anything) will cause you to lose your svelte physique (not to mention a slew of other health problems), it does not necessarily guarantee you will get a gut.

If you decide to drink 10 beers every night, but you hit the gym like a maniac the next day, you probably won’t develop a beer belly. But if you drink and eat a lot without exercising, a belly is sure to result, but in this case, the beer may not be the biggest factor:

An eight-year study of more than 20,000 beer drinkers published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that heavy drinkers (more than 33 ounces a day) put on weight, but not necessarily around the belly.

When they looked into the hip-waist ratio as a means to see who developed a beer belly, the results were randomly scattered across the drinking groups irregardless of age, race and gender.

Scientists have concluded that the beer belly has nothing to do with BEER, but rather, with genetics.

Specifically, scientists have found the isolated gene responsible for belly shape and the one genetic variant known as DD is linked to developing the “beer belly.”

So beer lovers rejoice–hold your glasses, say “cheers” and hope you don’t have the genetic variant as you chug!