How does alcohol effect your fitness goals, and how to get fit and still have a social life at the same
time?
This is not an article about abstinence. We ourselves here at Fat Loss Made Easy enjoyes us the
occasional Ale or two.
We are simply are presenting the facts about what regularly drinking alcoholic beverages will do to
your fitness goals. As you can expect, they aren’t pretty.
There has been a major recent study done on the direct effects of alcohol on the human body
published in the journal “The Lancet”, ranging from very tiny amounts, all the way to full hibernation,
face plant mode.
This study examined data from hundreds of studies and other sources (including sales of alcohol,
home-brewed alcoholic beverage consumption, and even estimates of tourist consumption) in 195
locations. Meaning thousands and thousands of participants spread out across the globe. It analyzed
the overall health impact related to alcohol consumption, including death and disability due to
automobile accidents, infectious diseases, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.The
conclusion? That the best option for overall health was not drinking at all.
The details:
Alcohol use was the seventh leading cause of death and disability worldwide in 2016; about 2% of
female deaths and 7% of male deaths (2.8 million deaths in total) were considered alcohol-related.
For those ages 15 to 49, alcohol was the leading risk factor for death and disability worldwide. Alcohol
kills are youth faster and more viciously than anything else out there.
Tuberculosis, road injuries, and self-harm were the top causes (the risk of each of these conditions is
higher if you drink enough). Hard enough to make gains in the gym with out putting your body in
constant peril.
For older adults, cancers related to alcohol use were the top causes of death. Its official, the regular
consumption of alcohol severely increases your chance of getting cancer.
Now that we got those grim statistics out of the way, let us dive deeper into what alcohol does to our
body, and how it directly impacts our fitness gains.
We as a species abuse alcohol, but this is no secret. We all know the negative effects of the stuff on
our bodies and our minds, but regardless, time after time, we all reach for that sweet elixir at the end
of a particularly tough day, game, or workout. You might think that beer is doing your muscles and
body good, but here comes the cold water.
Drinking alcohol negates the positive results of a hard workout . Alcohol impairs the body’s ability to
process ATP, the primary energy resource for muscles. It impairs restorative sleep, decreasing the
body’s level of human growth hormone (HGH). HGH helps the body build bigger, stronger muscles.
You might think drinking is helping you sleep better, but in fact, all you are doing is swapping the
restorative time of REM and Deep sleep for lower quality Light Stage sleep. Nothing will ruin your
fitness journey quicker than not getting enough quality shut eye. As discussed in many podcasts
before, you NEED this deep sleep to not only properly build that muscle you work so hard in the gym
for, but also to prepare for the next day’s battle. The goal in training is to get faster or to get stronger,
meaning pushing yourself harder as you go on. How are you going to do that when your eyelids weigh
more than the dumb bells?
If that isn’t bad enough, alcoholic beverages are usually high in calories and sugar; both contribute to
FAT gain. In 80-proof alcohols, there are about 100 calories in a 1.5 ounce drink — an average size
shot. So much for “light” drinking. That is a cookie a shot!
One beer every night adds more than 1,000 calories per week to your diet, resulting in an additional
15 pounds of belly fat per year . Two? 30 additional pounds of fat a year. Five? 5,000 calories a
week and 65 pounds of fat. You can see where this is going…
These “empty” calories have no nutritional value. Worse still, alcohol slows down the body’s ability to
burn calories while exercising, which can in turn result in packing on the pounds. It is a poison that
the body has to work really hard to get rid of. So, the body prioritizing your health over your desire to
look thinner, will temporarily shut down fat burning until the poison has been taken care of.
Alcohol diminishes the physical abilities needed to perform and get better. It impacts coordination,
cognitive precision, strength, reaction times, speed, balance, and hand-eye coordination. It slows
respiratory function and ability, affecting body temperature regulation, increasing the risk of
dehydration. The result is a significant decrease in rapid response, both physically and mentally,
which is critical in athletic activities like sports and lifting weights.
Drinking alcohol prior to any workout or competition will negatively affect the end result. Drinking
five or more alcoholic beverages in one night can decrease cognitive and muscular function for up to
3 days. Meaning, that one night a week of binge drinking, just 5 drinks (5 shots, 5 beers, 3 glasses of
wine), will make you slower and weaker for HALF OF THE WEEK. Imagine not being able to push as
hard as you can until Thursday of every week?! It is like trying to run a marathon with Nikes made of
actual concrete. I don’t doubt you, but I wouldn’t bet on you getting very far.
It’s a personal choice to drink. Weigh the benefits vice the consequences. Consider whether having
that drink is really worth it. Do you want to forfeit so much of your hard work?
It makes it harder to grow muscle. Makes it harder to power workouts. Adds an absurd amount of
extra, worthless calories to the common man’s diet (up to 35% in some Countries, the worldwide
average is 22%!). Worsens your breathing, increases your chance of getting Cancer, ruins your sleep, X
Y Z.
So yes, you can drink alcohol and try to lose fat and get in shape. But realistically, you won’t be
successful. The evidence is clear as day, any amount of alcohol is bad for the body. One beer a day
adds 15 lbs to your mid drift a year. The entirety of the “Freshman 15”, every year, non stop.
Put it this way, far more valuable than hiring a personal trainer, buying a peloton, or joining a gym,
would simply be to keep the drinking to a minimal. Water and calorie less liquids will always be the
better option. Save your beer money for protein shakes, and watch your belly disappear, your skin
glow, your body odor disappear, and your muscles bulge. You deserve it.
Save the drinking for the BIG celebrations, the trophy nights. Because if you get in great shape, I can
promise you this, those nights will be a regular occurrence in your life.