Can I Drink and Still Be Fit?
Alcohol is a huge part of American culture. You can’t go to a sporting event, a concert, or even watch TV without seeing alcohol advertisements. It’s everywhere and all the cool kids are drinking it!
I saw a video from Marc Lobliner the other day that made me think about the fitness community’s influence on people in general, specifically concerning the use of alcohol. There are a lot of influencers who talk about “getting hammered” or partying fairly regularly. This inevitably leads people to believe that if they party and drink, they’ll also be able to attain the physique that they’re longing for. This is nonsense, to say the least.
Today, we’re going to answer the question “Can I drink and still be fit?”
The Negative Effects of Alcohol on the Body
Alcohol does a lot of things to the human body. Some of these effects are desirable like alcohol being a social lubricant that lets us relax a little bit in social situations, some are undesirable like leaving us with a hangover the next morning/day, and some are a double-edged sword like the inhibition that comes from drinking alcohol. As a recovering alcoholic, I’m not here to convince you of the horrors that alcohol can lead you to, I’m merely here to help you understand the effects alcohol will have when it comes to your body composition.
When it comes to our fitness, here are some of the effects alcohol can and will have on your physiology:
Inhibition of vasopressin (antidiuretic hormone or ADH)
It’s a central nervous system depressant
It disrupts your sleep
This leads to a decrease in luteinizing hormone and human growth hormone
It can decrease your testosterone levels
It can increase your estrogen levels
It negatively affects glucose and fatty acid utilization
It increases cortisol and other stress hormones
Decreases glycogen storage in the liver
I’m going to break down each one of these effects in good detail in this article, but before I do we’re going to talk about what alcohol is, and some of the health benefits of alcohol.
What is Alcohol?
Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that is banned throughout some parts of the world. Here in America, it was banned during prohibition from 1920 until 1933 when the government realized taxing alcohol would be a boom for depressed revenues during the Great Depression (hint: it was never about your health). It’s now both a legal, and culturally acceptable drug.
The name alcohol is just the accepted name that we have given ethanol. In chemistry, the word alcohol is a collective term for any organic compound that contains one or more hydroxyl groups attached to a carbon molecule. The alcohol we drink is really just ethanol (the same stuff we were trying to put into cars 15 years ago).
Ethanol is an organic compound with the chemical formula of CH3CH2OH, sometimes written as C2H5OH, C2H6O, or EtOH. Ethanol is created by fermenting sugars, which is why wine comes from grapes, beer comes from wheat and vodka often comes from potatoes.
Believe it or not, this ethanol has calories! Alcohol is the second most calorically dense macronutrient that we consume with roughly 7.1 kcal per gram (or mL). This puts it just behind fat which carries roughly 9 kcal per gram.
Alcohol can be found in beer, wine, and various spirits but the most common form of alcohol consumption comes from beer. Beer is the third most consumed drink on the planet, behind water and tea. Here’s a little info on beer for you guys:
Ultra-light beers are scam city! The vast majority of calories in beer come from the alcohol with the rest typically coming from carbohydrates. If you’re trying to get the caloric content down for a beer product you either have to come down in carbohydrates, or alcohol content. Below is a list of various beers, along with their carbohydrate and alcohol contents.
Molson Canadian
144 kcal / 13g carb / 5.1% alcohol
Bud Light Platinum
137 kcal / 4.4g carb / 6% alcohol
Miller Lite
96 kcal / 3.1g carb / 4.2% alcohol
Bud Select
55 kcal / 1.9g carb / 2.4% alcohol
As you can see, getting a beer with a relatively normal amount of alcohol is going to mean having roughly 100 calories. Miller Lite has 3g of carbs which means 12 kcal from carbohydrates. For a beer to remain around the 4% ABV mark, then it’s going to have to have at least 85 kcal and anything less means they’re taking out alcohol to bring the calorie content down. Now if you’re drinking for flavor then you’ll be more than ok with a lower alcohol content. However, if you’re drinking to get drunk (the vast majority of people in my experiences of which I have MANY), then all you’re doing is increasing the amount of their product that you’re going to have to consume. If you’re out to get drunk/party, reach for the Miller Lite and not the Bud Select.
Many Americans drink alcohol regularly and whether or not you believe it, that’s not a good thing. Alcohol is addictive, and many Americans use it as an escape from the hellscape of an economy we’re currently living through. “Regular” alcohol consumption can turn into constant alcohol consumption before you know it. Before we get into the detrimental parts of drinking, we’re going to talk about the health benefits of
Health Benefits of Alcohol Consumption
While alcohol can be incredibly damaging (alcohol is the fourth leading preventable cause of death in America), there are also some documented health benefits. A lot of these studies and statistics were funded by the alcohol lobby though so take all of this with a grain of salt.
The Mayo Clinic has created Guidelines for Moderate Alcohol Consumption due to some of their findings when it comes to alcohol. Here are some of the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption:
Reduction in risk of heart disease
Reduction in risk of stroke
Reduction in risk of gallstones
Reduction in risk of developing diabetes
The above all sounds really good, right? Well, it’s really a double-edged sword because too much consumption of alcohol increases the risk of all the above. Some other health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are:
Lowered mortality rate compared to non-drinkers
Survivability rate of heart attacks is higher in moderate drinkers (32% reduction in mortality rate)
Increased coronary blood flow
Reduced blood pressure
Reduced blood insulin levels
Increases in estrogen levels (good or bad depending on your sex)
Increases HDL while decreasing LDL and improving cholesterol size
A study of 12,000 men and women showed moderate drinking to be more beneficial to heart health compared to exercising alone. There was a 50% reduction in mortality for moderate drinkers compared to non-drinkers. That being said, moderate drinkers who also exercise have the best outcomes.
When it comes to diabetes, a meta-analysis of 15 studies which included 369,862 people over a 12-year period concluded that moderate alcohol consumption produced a 30% lowered chance of developing type II diabetes. The ADA was also able to conclude that those with type II diabetes who drank light to moderate amounts of alcohol saw an overall decreased risk of heart disease.
I guess with all of this information, we should probably define what “moderate” drinking is. Here are a few ways that various health organizations define moderate alcohol consumption:
One alcoholic beverage daily
No more than 3-4 drinks per episode
9 per week for women
10-12 per week for men
Keeping your BAC below 0.055 while drinking (0.08 is the legal limit)
Believe it or not, binge drinking is defined as any more than 3 drinks in one sitting. So, if you’re drinking 4-5 beers per night after work then you’re medically defined as a binge drinker. Most of the health benefits in these studies have been noted in those drinking anywhere from 0.5-4 drinks per day. So, if you’re drinking the better part of a 6 pack per day, you’ve probably got a problem as far as the medical community is concerned.
Reasons Drinking Will Destroy Your Fitness
At the beginning of this article, I mentioned the negative effects of alcohol, and now we’re going to expand on that. Now, obviously we’re not talking about drinking while exercising (hopefully you’re not that far gone) because that would involve a host of other negatives, but we are going to talk about the recovery process as far as alcohol is concerned.
Inhibition of Vasopressin/ADH
Antidiuretic hormone is produced in the hypothalamus and secreted by the pituitary gland. ADH is responsible for regulating the amount of water in the body, and when it is released it signals the kidneys to hold on to more water. This ensures a good electrolyte balance which is important not only to performance and recovery but to sustaining life itself.
This is important in keeping us alive, but it’s also important for maintaining hydration. If you’ve ever had a big night of drinking then you’ve more than likely seen how frequently you’ll have to urinate when having a few drinks. Many people are under the impression that this is just your body expelling all of the fluids you’ve just drunk (which is kind of part of it), but it’s actually your body flushing out much of the water it typically holds onto.
Hydration is important for many things dealing with performance. A study showed that being dehydrated by as little as 3% can affect your performance on the field and in the gym. Another study showed that our power production is limited when we’re as little as 5% dehydrated. And yet another study showed that when we’re as little as 2% dehydrated, our body will shut off anabolism (this means we will be put into a catabolic state and stop “building” muscle).
You’ve probably heard it before, but you should do your best to stay hydrated when you’re trying to recover from either games or training sessions. Drinking a glass of water for every drink you have is an exercise in futility since your body is being signaled to release a ton of water. You’re better off abstaining if the goal is increasing your fitness.
Central Nervous System Depressant
Our central nervous system consists of our brain and spinal cord. The consumption of alcohol can inhibit the pathways the CNS uses to communicate with the rest of the body. You’ve probably noticed that your reaction time is increased when you’ve had a few drinks, and this is why.
Alcohol also disrupts the pathways within the brain that lead to decision-making. You ever woke up after a long night of drinking and thought “What the hell did I do last night? Why would I say that?” It’s really not all that uncommon to make poor decisions when you’ve had a few drinks.
Now how does this fit into recovery and performance? Maybe you decided you were going to eat an entire pizza while you had a few drinks and now that entire week’s deficit is erased. Maybe you had planned to get a good night’s sleep so you could train in the morning and now you’ve decided to go out to the bar until 2 am with your friends. These decisions will absolutely impact your recovery and performance.
Sleep Disruptions
It’s not incredibly well known by drinkers but when you drink you’re really not sleeping. You might feel like you slept through the night, but alcohol inhibits REM and deep sleep which is when our CNS recovers.
As a recovering alcoholic, I can tell you that when you’re a fairly regular drinker you ALWAYS feel like shit. And you always feel that way because you never get through any restorative sleep. You more often than not won’t even dream when you’ve had too many drinks and passed out.
These REM and deep sleep cycles are where our body (and most importantly our brain) restore themselves. Growth Hormone is released, neurons are repaired, memories are solidified, etc. Without getting proper sleep there is no shot that you’re going to be able to really recover.
Furthermore, when you drink your body’s main goal is to expel the poison you’ve just ingested. All other processes get put on the back burner so you’ll even often find that you’re more sore after a long night of drinking.
I sat through a presentation with USADA back when I was working with the national team and we got to hear a 3-hour presentation on sleep and its benefits. The presenter said, “If you could bottle the positive effects of sleep and sell it, then WADA/USADA would ban it”. Not getting enough restorative sleep will put your gains in jeopardy.
Decrease in Testosterone Levels
Alcohol has horrible effects when it comes to both testosterone levels and reproduction in men. Alcohol adversely affects the Leydig cells which are responsible for testosterone production and secretion. Studies have shown that heavy alcohol consumption reduces testosterone levels in the blood, and even affects the testicular Sertoli which plays an important role in sperm maturation.
Alcohol consumption impairs the function of the pituitary gland where luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone are produced and secreted, leading to lowered fertility rates and testosterone production. Alcohol consumption also impairs the function of the hypothalamus. This is important because the hypothalamus releases gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which signals the pituitary gland to secrete luteinizing hormone.
Testosterone is important for many aspects of your fitness. Leanness, muscle mass, strength, aggression, etc are all, in many respects, controlled by testosterone. Walking around with lowered testosterone levels means leaving a ton of potential gains on the table.
Increase in Estrogen Levels
Alcohol doesn’t actually increase estrogen production in men, however, it does increase what’s called aromatization. Aromatization is the process in which the body converts testosterone into estrogen. This increased aromatization leads to an imbalance in your T to E ratio (testosterone to estrogen), leading to many unwanted side effects.
These unwanted side effects can be erectile dysfunction, decreased sperm motility, decreased anabolism, and increased fat depositing. The worst part of this process is that it not only increases estrogen levels, but it decreases testosterone levels much more rapidly than without alcohol consumption.
Negatively Impacts Glucose and Fatty Acid Utilization
I mentioned earlier in this article that alcohol has calories. The weird part is that these calories can’t really be used for energy in the same way we tend to think calories yield energy. It’s a myth that alcohol converts to sugar in the body. Although alcohol still does cause a dramatic insulin response due to increased blood sugar levels during the beginning of your alcohol consumption. This spike in blood sugar drops dramatically as your body begins to metabolize the alcohol.
Since we know alcohol doesn’t turn into sugar within the body, what does it break down into? The answer to that is acetaldehyde, which is then further broken down into acetate. This acetate is then broken down into carbon and water, which is eliminated from the body.
A “serving” of alcohol is roughly 14g. These 14 grams take the body roughly one hour to metabolize and eliminate from the body. During that time, your body’s focus shifts to eliminating the poison (alcohol is literal poison), and not to utilizing the fatty acids and glucose already available. In essence, alcohol doesn’t make you fat but it prohibits your body from utilizing the calories you’re ingesting. If you have 6 drinks in an evening, then your body is going to prefer to break down that alcohol over the next 6 hours instead of breaking down stored fats, glycogen, and the foods you’re eating during that time.
The takeaway here is that for however many drinks you consume in an evening (or day if you’re day drinking), your body is not going to be burning fat for those amount of hours. This makes it incredibly hard to maintain a physique since even 6 drinks would mean you lose ballpark 25% of your body’s calorie-burning potential. This can erase an entire week’s deficit and leave you wondering why you’re not losing weight.
Increases in Cortisol and Other Stress Hormones
Alcohol can relieve anxiety for some people, that’s not even a debate as it’s a documented fact. However, heavy alcohol consumption can increase the release of glucocorticoids, cortisol specifically.
This is why many people who find themselves addicted to substances of any kind find themselves anxious when they’re not using. You may be using alcohol to quell your anxiety in the beginning, but the sad fact is that eventually your use will be causing your anxiety. It’s a vicious cycle.
These stress hormones make it difficult to train with any real intent, and it also has effects on your metabolism. While cortisol is essential in the recovery process, too much of it is a bad thing. Cortisol releases fatty acids and glycogen into the bloodstream which can be great for both recovery and training, however it also signals an increase in appetite to the body. This can cause overeating, which when coupled with heavy drinking is a recipe for disaster for your physique.
Decreases in Glycogen Storage in the Liver
This is one of the lesser known effects of heavy drinking but it’s incredibly important when it comes to your recovery. Alcohol consumption decreases the liver’s ability to store glycogen, which after heavy training should be relatively depleted. Picture this scenario:
You’re a 23-year-old college senior and on Fridays, you go to the gym with your gym bros and then hit the bar scene because, college. There’s a bar right down the street from the gym where all the kids go to let off steam from the week which is perfect because you won’t even have to head home after your training. You can just shower and head over still sporting the pump you picked up at the gym. It’s time for liquor pitchers and bad decisions.
The above scenario is pretty typical of college-aged males. It’s also pretty common in college athletes following competition. Playing junior hockey and then in college, it wasn’t all that uncommon to have a party right after a game. The problem is that in your training or game, you’ve more than likely depleted your glycogen stores (the body’s stored sugar for energy) and all that alcohol you’re drinking is keeping your liver from replenishing this energy. The liver is too busy processing the poison you’ve just drunk. This lowers your ability to recover and lowers your ability to be ready to train or play the next day.
Alcohol really puts you behind the 8-ball when it comes to recovery from hard training sessions and games.
Putting It All Together
If you’ve made it this far then you’ve seen how alcohol can have some benefits when it comes to your health, and you’ve also seen how it can destroy the progress you’re trying to make in the gym. From recovery to performance, alcohol affects it all. If you want to play at the top of your game, or just look a little bit better naked, then you should think twice about getting tangled up in a night of drinking. Sure, there are some genetic freaks out there who can get away with it, but do the math and please understand that those guys/girls are the 1%. You’re probably not built the same as them.
So next time your buddies ask you to go out for a night of drinking, or you’re sitting there on a Friday night bored looking at that 12 pack, remember what your goals are and how much that booze is going to take away from that progress!
