Alcohol-Ick

Alcohol has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years… and probably even longer. However, from the health and fitness standards, it falls somewhere as detrimental to your gains as not getting enough daily protein or not taking that gym selfie. So what’s the deal with it… some say a drink here and there is fine, and others say none at all.

I’m not here to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. I enjoy a drink at social events and when I’m hanging out with my buddies. The big takeaway is knowing what the risks are, and deciding from there.

As with everything in biology, there are nuances to this question. I’ll give you the easy answer before we dive into the effects from alcohol consumption:
If your goal is to maximize your benefits from nutrition, sleep, and exercise, do not drink alcohol. It disrupts and hinders many processes in the body, puts strain on multiple organs, and has no real physical benefit. If you are to drink, moderation is key and for the right reasons. Alcohol is typically a social beverage and therefore can have its place in a healthy lifestyle. However, that is strictly from a mental and emotional aspect; this does not mitigate physical damage, nor does it mean to indulge in drinking every day or in high amounts.

Alcohol is a toxin. Your body treats it like one, which means it gets prioritized over everything else… including repairing your muscle fibers you just broke down earlier today. This is because protein synthesis, the actual process that builds/recovers muscle, gets severely suppressed.

Two or three drinks can drop your testosterone and spike your cortisol for up to 36 hours. That's a full day and a half of sub-optimal recovery. On top of that, alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it flushes out magnesium, potassium, and calcium; basically all the electrolytes your nerves and muscles need to work correctly.

Alcohol might knock you out faster, but that’s the deceiving part. It affects your deep sleep waves. And this is when human growth hormone (HGH) gets released, doing it’s major repairing/rebuilding. Alcohol hinders this stage by shortening, and even preventing you from going into it altogether.

It also messes with your nervous system directly. Causing slower reaction time, worsening your balance, and messing with heart rate and blood pressure. Pretty much your coordination and your cardiovascular system take a massive hit during and following alcohol consumption.

The research is consistent on this: there's no safe amount of alcohol when it comes to long-term health. The notion of drinking a little bit of wine or beer has benefits has been debunked. This may have been true back in the day when alcohol was more “natural” and not industrialized… who knows.

Then you have the calories… Alcohol is 7 calories per gram, and holding zero nutritional value. I’m not a huge fan of the term, but this is one of those exceptions, it is straight empty calories. It has shown to effect how we store fat and process calories as well. So if you’re on a fat loss journey, keeping alcohol consumption low is your best bet.
Heavy, long-term use is linked to over 200 health conditions, including high blood pressure, liver disease, and several cancers.

If you're going to drink, the CDC's guidance is two drinks a day max for men, one for women. This recommendation resets daily. Not drinking all week and saving them for Saturday isn’t what they mean by these guidelines.

Again, understand the risks, and if you choose to not drink, or drink sometimes, that’s great. If you choose to drink, setup systems to maintain hydration (e.g., drink an electrolyte/water drink before bed), regulate what you will eat that day and while drinking, train a small muscle group or do lighter activity that day, and just do what you can to keep yourself pushing towards your goals.

Just like caffeine, drinking alcohol as far away from bedtime is the best approach. Or if it is at night, moderation with adequate hydration.