Alcohol and Fitness

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I have heard countless times when talking about fitness and nutrition with friends, family and acquaintances that “I need to stop drinking for this diet”. This post is to address the impacts of alcohol on your fitness goals. Small spoiler alert…it may not be as bad as you think if you do it right (I talk about optimizing many things in fitness and nutrition and this is one of those cases).

For those of you trying to lose weight or “cut”, alcohol is indeed empty calories. However, there is more to it than just the caloric content of alcohol and I’ve actually written a paper on this subject in my college biochemistry course (I’m a nerd that likes to have a drink and my professor talked about brewing beer all the time so it seemed right). First off, if you are drinking for the “taste” then this post isn’t really about that (i.e. “I love the taste of beer so I’m going to have one”). My paper was mostly about the most biochemically efficient way to get drunk (I can feel you rolling your eyes at me). Beer is going to be your enemy in this case. Its loaded with calories (even the light stuff) and carbs and has an intense bloating effect. I like to try different beers but when I drink I go straight to liquor and you will know why soon. A “normal” liquor has a rough average of 70 calories per shot and no sugar (the process of creating alcohol via yeast consumes this sugar). That being said there are plenty of liquors that add sugar back to the mix after this process is complete (such as Fireball whiskey). So once again, you have to pay attention to what you are putting in your mouth. Go ahead and look at the nutrition label of some of your favorite booze and learn something (I’d recommend doing this at home because you might get some looks if you’re in the booze isle at your local grocery store for that long haha). Mix your favorite “normal (aka non-sugary)” booze with diet soda or diet carbonated/flavored soda water. A study has shown that when mixing with diet soda you actually get more drunk faster than with mixing with normal, loaded with sugar, soda. The presumptive hypothesis is that the sugars in the soda compete for absorption of the alcohol. This study wasn’t around when I wrote my paper, but I came to the same conclusion; Mixing non-sugary liquor with diet soda is the most biochemically efficient (and calorically efficient) way to get your buzz on (or just take shots of that same liquor).

It also takes quite a few calories to digest and remove the metabolites of alcohol from your system so you burn a decent amount of those 70 calories just digesting the alcohol, but you will still end up in a net caloric surplus (especially if you get the munchies and start hitting up the bar food). So you have to realize that going out tonight is still going to add calories to your daily intake and these are empty calories (no nutritional content and not helping your body at all). However, there are a few beneficial “side effects” of getting your drink on. There is also a diuretic effect of alcohol (makes you pee a lot, which contributes to the dehydration that’s partially to blame for your hangover the next day) so you will notice that you are not holding as much water the next day which can make you look thinner or “more ripped”. However, the best hangover cure is fluids, salt (and other electrolytes) and greasy food to replace those bile acids and these will quickly put you back to where you started in regards to your appearance. Also note that having a high fat (greasy) meal PRIOR to drinking is going to delay the absorption of alcohol so it will help you if you get drunk/sloppy too fast/easily but it will require more alcohol to get you drunk which is more expensive and the calories still add up. That alcohol is still going to be absorbed at some point so it will eventually catch up to you.

What about all of you trying to put on muscle (mass building)? Well alcohol isn’t as friendly to you as you’d hoped. Alcohol consumption has been shown to lower your testosterone levels temporarily. You don’t need to be a fitness guru to know that’s not good for building muscle. Not to mention the catabolic effect of alcohol consumption related issues that can pop up like rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown), alcoholic ketoacidosis or dehydration. The good news is that these hormonal lowering effects are only temporary. If you plan your alcohol consumption around your rest days you will not notice the impact AS MUCH. Another key of mass building is drinking plenty of fluid and alcohol is a diuretic and dehydrates you.

So the take home is that alcohol consumption on rare occasions or moderation can be worked into your diet no matter what your goals are as long as it’s done as smart/efficient as possible. I personally try to avoid drinking unless I’m going out with friends or celebrating because it still comes down to empty calories, but I love to go out and live my life (thats why you are working on your fitness and nutrition anyway right?). So yeah, I drink on occasion and don’t use my diet as an excuse to live like a recluse.

To be VERY clear I am in no way condoning unsafe drinking practices, nor drinking in general. This post is intended for those who are of the legal age to drink alcohol and I am, in fact, advising anyone under the legal drinking age NOT to drink alcohol. I also do not condone drinking and driving AT ALL (I have had friends and family impacted by drunk drivers). If you choose to drink alcohol, please be safe and make sure you have a sober ride home. I also wouldn’t recommend getting so drunk that you become blackout and don’t know what’s happening. Alcohol addiction is a real and serious problem. It can lead to a plethora of medical problems and your untimely death. If you or your loved ones are worried you may be addicted to alcohol please seek professional help. Please be safe out there everyone, wether or not alcohol is involved. Now that we have all that out of the way, have a fun (and safe) weekend people!

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