Ep2: Alcohol and Bodybuilding
Ever wondered how that glass of red wine or weekend beer binge affects your muscle gain or fat loss? You're not alone! In this episode, we're breaking down the complex relationship between alcohol and performance. No, this isn't an anti-alcohol rant, but a real talk about what alcohol does to your gains.
What to Expect:
- The Alcohol Question: From a casual drink with dinner to weekend partying, we're exploring how alcohol impacts your bodybuilding journey.
- The Complexity of Alcohol: It's not just about "to drink or not to drink." We're diving into the nuances of timing, quantity, and the real effects on your body.
- The Facts and Myths: No scientific jargon here, just straightforward insights into how alcohol affects protein synthesis, testosterone levels, dehydration, vitamins, and fat storage.
Highlights:
- Protein Synthesis: Excessive drinking can hinder how your body absorbs and uses protein, slowing down your gains.
- Testosterone Levels: Alcohol can lower testosterone and increase estrogen, not what you want when building muscle.
- Dehydration: Alcohol can dehydrate you, affecting your strength and performance in the gym.
- Vitamins and Minerals: Excessive drinking can deplete essential vitamins and minerals, impacting overall health.
- Fat Storage: Alcohol's empty calories can lead to increased fat storage, especially if consumed excessively.
Personal Insights:
- Marc's Experience: I share my personal journey with alcohol, from daily red wine to cutting back, and how it affected my body.
- Real-Life Stories: Hear about a friend who dropped 20 pounds just by changing his drinking habits.
Conclusion:
Whether you're bulking, cutting, or just trying to stay fit, understanding how alcohol affects your performance is key. It's not about complete abstinence but finding the right balance for your goals. Track your diet, be mindful of your choices, and remember, moderation is key.
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I do hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast. Here's some helpful resources including any sites that were mentioned in this episode.
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Sites Mentioned in this Episode
- Which Alcoholic Drink is Best When You're Dieting? - Tom Venuto tackles the age old question of drinking alcohol when trying to get leaner
- Can Alcohol Impair Muscle Growth and Fitness Levels? - An MD reviewed sports nutrition article on the effects of alcohol on performance gains
- Drinking And Training: 5 Rules For Not Ruining Your Gains - How to take a principled, sustainable approach to drinking
- Alcohol and Muscle Growth: How it Affects Muscular Development - From the NASM journal on how alcohol can affect muscle
- All the ways alcohol affects muscle growth goals
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- Website: justaskmarc.com
- Email: marc@justaskmarc.com (Put "podcast" in the subject line)
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Transcript
Now, this particular question I've gotten several times
Marc:in many different formats, and guess what it's gonna be about?
Marc:It's gonna be about how does alcohol affect my performance,
Marc:specifically muscle gain or fat loss.
Marc:Now I know at least one person on this podcast.
Marc:Has thought about that, that how does this one drink, or how do these several drinks,
Marc:how is it gonna affect my performance?
Marc:Does it really matter?
Marc:Now, most people, if you ask 'em that, they do understand that it does matter.
Marc:But what they don't understand is to what degree does it matter?
Marc:Is it okay to have a glass of red wine with dinner?
Marc:Is it okay on the weekends if I.
Marc:Drink some beer and get drunk.
Marc:It's just a weekend.
Marc:I'm not working out.
Marc:I already did my workout Monday through Friday.
Marc:Does it matter if I drink before I work out?
Marc:Maybe doing something in the earlier evening?
Marc:Does it matter if I work out first and then drink later?
Marc:What you really have to understand is a lot of those things get very
Marc:complex and it starts to confuse you.
Marc:It would confuse me as well.
Marc:So what we're going to do in this particular podcast is just simply
Marc:talk about alcohol and how it affects your progress in general.
Marc:We're not gonna lay down any specifics of timetables and things like that.
Marc:Only because when you start getting into that, you really would need to have a
Marc:scientific study and you, that would obviously cost thousands of dollars
Marc:in order for you to determine times of day these that you might be able to
Marc:drink that wouldn't affect a workout.
Marc:Let's just talk in general about how alcohol affects your performance.
Marc:Now, I don't want this to come across as any sort of anti-alcohol
Marc:podcast, or you can never drink again.
Marc:But what I do want you to understand is the perspective
Marc:and the foundation of where this particular question is coming from.
Marc:I get a lot of questions in regards to alcohol from people
Marc:who wanna know, is it okay if they get drunk on such and such a day?
Marc:They wanna know if they can drink so much beer on a weekend.
Marc:Basically, they don't understand how it affects their performance.
Marc:Now, the next line they usually give me is, They understand that they shouldn't
Marc:drink at all, or they should drink in moderation, but you can obviously see
Marc:that they want some type of different answer, but the commonality there is they
Marc:don't under, they don't fully understand how alcohol can affect the performance.
Marc:Now I'm just gonna go over a few of these performance factors.
Marc:I'm sure there are many others, but these are some of the major ones.
Marc:And in the back of your mind, just think about it how often do you drink?
Marc:In what situations do you drink?
Marc:This isn't to look at you in perspective and say that anybody on this
Marc:particular podcast should drink less.
Marc:It's simply this is how alcohol can affect your performance.
Marc:So you need to make your own decisions based upon the facts you'll be given.
Marc:So number one, it affects protein synthesis basically.
Marc:A protein synthesis is the process where amino acids are
Marc:joined together to form proteins.
Marc:Now, if you start to have excessive alcohol consumption, it's gonna affect
Marc:how protein is getting absorbed and used in your body to build and repair muscle.
Marc:Now, some studies will show up to 20%.
Marc:This is probably more excessive alcohol consumption.
Marc:We're not talking a glass of red wine with dinner.
Marc:Or a beer in moderation, an occasional beer, something like that.
Marc:We're talking excessive consumption is definitely going to start interfering
Marc:with how your body deals with protein.
Marc:Now, as you should know, in the rules of performance nutrition, when you're
Marc:eating five to six times a day, you're getting a protein with every meal.
Marc:Your main goal is to keep, maintain, build muscle, and burn fat when you
Marc:start interfering with protein synthesis.
Marc:You start interfering with how your body can get to the
Marc:protein that it needs in order to maintain, repair, and build muscle.
Marc:So if you're drinking a lot, it can definitely slow down your gains.
Marc:Number two, it lowers testosterone levels and increases estrogen.
Marc:Obviously testosterone is extremely important in building muscle.
Marc:Now this might be a little bit more geared towards men.
Marc:But still, regardless, building muscle, the hormone that's gonna
Marc:help you out there is testosterone.
Marc:Even women have testosterone.
Marc:When you start having excessive alcohol, you are going to lower those
Marc:levels and increase your estrogen.
Marc:It's exactly what you don't want when you're trying to build
Marc:lean muscle mass and burn fat.
Marc:You can already see where this podcast is going, it's something that is definitely
Marc:not going to help you achieve your goals 'cause it's lowering your testosterone.
Marc:Now, I'm not gonna say how much it lowers it.
Marc:We can go into studies through that, but the fact is it does lower it.
Marc:And if you're trying to get the best gains that you possibly can in the
Marc:shortest amount of time, then you certainly don't want to lower your
Marc:testosterone levels and increase estrogen.
Marc:Number three, it causes dehydration.
Marc:That's just almost a given that most people know is that the more
Marc:alcohol that you consume, you're gonna have, the kidneys are gonna
Marc:have to filter that all out.
Marc:They're gonna use a large amount of water.
Marc:In order to do that, you're gonna cause dehydration.
Marc:You muscles are about an average of 70% water, so you don't wanna be dehydrated
Marc:if you're trying to build muscle.
Marc:Now, when you're eating five to six meals a day, You gotta have
Marc:a lot of water to flush things out to keep yourself hydrated.
Marc:They have even said that if you are dehydrated, it can affect your performance
Marc:in the gym up to 10% strength performance.
Marc:So your strength is affected if you're dehydrated.
Marc:So if you're drinking quite a lot and you're in a constant state of dehydration,
Marc:that's obviously gonna carry over into your gym workouts and your strength.
Marc:And performance and what else?
Marc:Whatever else you can do, it'll be much harder for you to get
Marc:the water that you need because you're using it for something else.
Marc:That also means when you're eating these five to six meals a day, you're
Marc:not getting the water that you need in order to flush everything out.
Marc:Keep yourself well regulated.
Marc:So dehydration isn't just a eh, don't worry about it.
Marc:It does make a big difference in your gains.
Marc:It will make a difference and it makes a difference in the gym as well.
Marc:That's something that you'll probably able to tell right away.
Marc:And then the other things you might not know, it's flowing testosterone,
Marc:it's affecting protein synthesis.
Marc:You may not know that, or it's affecting vitamins and mineral absorption.
Marc:Those are things you're not gonna necessarily feel right away.
Marc:Am I right about that?
Marc:But you will notice dehydration, especially when it comes to strength.
Marc:Number four, it depletes the body of vitamins and minerals.
Marc:If you're having excessive alcohol consumption, then you're gonna have a
Marc:whole bunch of these vitamin and minerals being taken away at a rapid rate.
Marc:It's gonna be harder for your body to absorb them.
Marc:You obviously need vitamins and minerals for proper functioning.
Marc:There's a lot of things that vitamin and minerals will do for you.
Marc:So it's gonna deplete the body of vitamins and minerals, and it's also going to
Marc:inhibit some of the absorption of them.
Marc:Now, again, to put a frame of reference on this is excessive alcohol consumption.
Marc:A lot of the questions that I get in regards to alcohol
Marc:are generally excessive.
Marc:What I would, let me put it in, and again, in a frame of reference, what I
Marc:would consider and most of my fitness peers would consider to be excessive.
Marc:That's really what I should be saying.
Marc:So I'm not, that's why when I started this podcast, I did not say a
Marc:certain number of drinks in a certain number of hours we're not the c H P,
Marc:we're not doing anything like that.
Marc:We're just simply talking about how alcohol in general
Marc:can affect your performance.
Marc:Number five, it increases fat storage.
Marc:Basically, there's a couple of things here.
Marc:Number one, you have seven calories, pergram of alcohol.
Marc:So alcohol can actually be.
Marc:Quite fattening.
Marc:Now, if you're drinking beer, you're looking at a whole bunch
Marc:of empty calories, you can easily add three to 400 calories in a
Marc:night of empty calories, worthless.
Marc:No nutrition of value whatsoever.
Marc:You can put on a lot of weight doing that easily.
Marc:It's the same as drinking.
Marc:Think about a diet soda.
Marc:You're looking at sugar, right?
Marc:Most people think, oh of course, drinking sugar.
Marc:Drinking diet sodas or sodas in general, I should say.
Marc:They know that they're gonna put on fat, but when you drink alcohol,
Marc:it can increase fat storage.
Marc:Now there's seven calories per gram.
Marc:It's actually, that's actually quite a lot.
Marc:Now let me just give you a little example.
Marc:In my own personal experience, my own unprofessional.
Marc:Personal experience drinking just infrequently, and I'll even give you
Marc:numbers on this one, but I would drink a glass of red wine, one to two glasses of
Marc:red wine, probably average every night.
Marc:Weekends, an occasional mixed drink.
Marc:Now, what I noticed was not dehydration so much because I was very good about
Marc:drinking my one gallon of water a day.
Marc:I ate five to six times a day.
Marc:None of nothing that I was doing I would consider to be in excess.
Marc:However, there were a couple of things that I did notice, and mainly it was
Marc:related to, number one, it increases fat storage and I wasn't drinking
Marc:what I considered to be an excess.
Marc:I wasn't drinking 10 beers on a weekend or a six pack a night.
Marc:I was just having an occasional, what I thought, an occasional drink.
Marc:What I noticed was fat storage.
Marc:Bottom line, I was bulking.
Marc:I still am bulking, meaning I'm trying to put on.
Marc:Healthy, lean weight.
Marc:Now, at this point, right now I'm sitting at around 188
Marc:pounds at about 13% body fat.
Marc:Now, this time last year I was nearly 200, but I was way higher in the body
Marc:fat percentage and that at Tribute, and I totally attribute that to.
Marc:Alcohol consumption.
Marc:It was a bunch of excess calories that I couldn't get away with.
Marc:Now, if you're looking for that lean, ripped bodybuilder look, of course
Marc:alcohol consumption is really gonna affect you more because you can't
Marc:have a whole bunch of excess calories.
Marc:In other words, you can't be on a cutting diet trying to burn as ma much
Marc:fat as possible, build as much muscle, or maintain it, I should say, and have.
Marc:Alcohol consumption.
Marc:When you really track your diet, when you fine tune your diet and track it, you
Marc:realize that even a glass of red wine or a beer or anything is gonna throw you over
Marc:your daily allotment for calories, and those are empty calories that you can't
Marc:have if you're truly trying to burn fat.
Marc:So if you're cutting, you really have a very, you have less
Marc:leeway than if you're bulking.
Marc:If you're bulking, eh, you're trying to, you're trying to put on some weight.
Marc:A beer or two is not gonna, you're not looking for that ultra lean ripped look.
Marc:You're just trying to be big and strong.
Marc:You have a lot more room to play within reason, but really it
Marc:does increase the fat storage.
Marc:Now, can you continue on with that story?
Marc:When I actually stopped drinking that, I toned it down a lot to
Marc:the point where I would only drink a glass of red wine on weekends.
Marc:No drinks during the week whatsoever.
Marc:I immediately noticed a two introduction in my waist and I could just visually
Marc:tell something was different.
Marc:I looked more defined.
Marc:I felt stronger, I felt better.
Marc:Now, I'm just saying in my own personal scenario, I did notice
Marc:the effects of alcohol consumption.
Marc:Now if I tone it down to maybe a glass of red wine a night, and that's it.
Marc:There are health benefits to having red wine, definitely health benefits.
Marc:Lots of studies that show that.
Marc:But again, everything in moderation.
Marc:Now, you'll have to look at your own personal scenario, your own personal
Marc:situation, and determine what that is.
Marc:Again, I'm not gonna throw out numbers and tell you what to do.
Marc:I'm just looking at myself and I looked at how many drinks I would have and
Marc:how it affected me, and then I would, and then I toned it down and I could
Marc:tell there were benefits to that.
Marc:There are obvious benefits to that, so you'll have to do the same thing.
Marc:You'll have to look at your own personal alcohol consumption, if
Marc:any, and determined what can you do to make it more moderation?
Marc:How can you tweak it?
Marc:How can you adjust it?
Marc:You see a lot of the questions that I get from people, again, coming from
Marc:alcohol, is all related to, they want to consume more of it without the side
Marc:effects, without some of these things that we've just talked about here.
Marc:But the bottom line is if you're serious about bodybuilding and you are serious
Marc:about building the most muscle you can and burning the most fat, if you're
Marc:serious about it 100%, then really.
Marc:Just no alcohol consumption.
Marc:That is the best advice.
Marc:Increase your water, have no alcohol consumption.
Marc:However, if you're a realist, which I like to consider myself a realist,
Marc:I 90% of the time eat healthy.
Marc:Sometimes I eat cookies or I have a soda.
Marc:I'm more of a realist I like.
Marc:I like to consider myself to be that way because I'm not completely ingrained
Marc:and hard, so hardcore that I can't make adjustments to my lifestyle.
Marc:Then you wanna drink alcohol in moderation, meaning just be aware of
Marc:these factors and what it can do to you.
Marc:Some of the things that alcohol, excessive alcohol consumption can do
Marc:and moderate your intake of alcohol, and again, moderate's an open word.
Marc:You can interpret it the way that you need to.
Marc:But if you are tracking your diet, which you should be, if you listen
Marc:to all these podcasts, tracking your diet is extremely important.
Marc:If you know how many calories a day you need and you are tracking your
Marc:diet, try putting in the beers that you have that night or that weekend or
Marc:whatever, put in the wine and see how it affects your calorie consumption.
Marc:Now, I can guarantee you, at least from my perspective, when I started putting
Marc:in the wine I was drinking and the mixed drinks and the occasional beer, It did it.
Marc:It pushed me over the number of calories I could have a day.
Marc:Definitely pushed me over about two or 300 calories a day.
Marc:So really, it's not a surprise.
Marc:I put on extra fat, like in number five.
Marc:It increases fat storage.
Marc:Yes, it did.
Marc:In me, it did.
Marc:I was bulking.
Marc:I had more leeway granted, but it was still an excess of
Marc:calories that was stored as fat.
Marc:That is a very important point when you need to track your diet
Marc:and when you're tracking your diet, just two to three days.
Marc:Whenever you have wine, whatever, just input it in there in Fit day.com.
Marc:It's free.
Marc:It's an easy site to use.
Marc:You can use whatever software you have, whatever programs, tracking
Marc:programs, it's perfectly fine.
Marc:If you don't have a tracking program, you can go to FIT Day,
Marc:F I T d a y.com, track your diet.
Marc:See how many calories a day that you need.
Marc:You should know how to calculate how many calories a day you
Marc:need for a particular goal.
Marc:And when you start adding in alcohol, you'll see how that affects you.
Marc:All of a sudden, you might be two to 300 calories over your allotment for the day.
Marc:If you're two to 300 excess per day, and you times that per week.
Marc:You can just start putting on a pound, easily a pound of fat, half a pound of
Marc:fat a week due to alcohol consumption.
Marc:Now, if you're trying to lean up and get and burn as much fat as possible,
Marc:you even have less room to play.
Marc:I remember there was a point, and I've gone on some cutting diets than
Marc:to burn the fat feed, the muscle program, and I was very strict.
Marc:I was checking my calories every single day.
Marc:I could barely get away with a glass of red wine.
Marc:Why?
Marc:Because it added I'm just going in generic what Fit Day had, but it
Marc:added 100 calories to my daily intake.
Marc:Those 100 calories, while it might not be a big deal to most people,
Marc:that's all I had to play with.
Marc:So it was the difference between having a glass of red wine at dinner or.
Marc:I could have half a cup of cottage cheese before I went to bed.
Marc:Now I was on a cutting diet, so I was stinking hungry
Marc:all the time, not starving.
Marc:Mind you, starving is bad.
Marc:Hungry is different.
Marc:I was hungry all the time.
Marc:I had a hundred calories to play with 100.
Marc:It was very difficult for me to have that glass of red wine and
Marc:then, Basically eat nothing for the rest of the night and go to sleep
Marc:on a very empty, growling stomach.
Marc:Those are the type of choices that I had to make.
Marc:So what did I end up doing?
Marc:Honestly, I ended up just not having the wine at dinner because I really wanted to
Marc:eat something else before I went to bed.
Marc:And yes, the fat burned off quicker than it would have if I had the
Marc:wine and the cottage cheese.
Marc:So my point is track your diet.
Marc:And see how alcohol affects you, then that's a better way to determine what
Marc:kind of moderation you might need.
Marc:If you're, maybe you're already in line with moderation, it's
Marc:not affecting you whatsoever.
Marc:Great.
Marc:And maybe you might put in, you might input your diet and what
Marc:alcohol consumption you're having currently, and you might be.
Marc:Unpleasantly surprised at the number of calories.
Marc:Now again, there's other factors here that are gonna determine your performance.
Marc:If you are truly serious about building the most muscle and burning the most fat,
Marc:then knock the alcohol out completely.
Marc:100%.
Marc:Don't drink.
Marc:But again, if you're realist, that's where I like to put myself in.
Marc:I just do moderation, meaning I don't drink during the weekdays.
Marc:'cause that's usually when I train Monday through Friday is the.
Marc:Is really when I'm training, so I just don't have time to do that.
Marc:I don't like the feeling, et cetera.
Marc:And so weekends, when I'm more relaxing and friends, that's when
Marc:I'll have, a glass of wine or a beard, a ball game, something like that.
Marc:So I, that really is for me, moderation because I'm not gonna abstain
Marc:from something that I enjoy again.
Marc:I'm not gonna drink a bottle of wine every night either.
Marc:So there is.
Marc:You do have to balance it out, determine how is it affecting your own personal
Marc:situation and can you make it better?
Marc:Or maybe it's the best that it can be.
Marc:There are some people that have already met that just they
Marc:don't drink alcohol at all.
Marc:Then this obviously is not going to apply to them.
Marc:However, I.
Marc:Other people just simply aren't aware of the negative effects.
Marc:They're aware of the negative effects.
Marc:It can make me fatter and I don't like being drunk.
Marc:The obvious negative effects.
Marc:But what about dehydration, protein synthesis vitamins and minerals that
Marc:are not getting absorbed in your body or being depleted at a more rapid rate?
Marc:Those are things that if you ask the average Joe or Jane on the street, They're
Marc:not gonna know about alcohol consumption, and those are the things that will
Marc:affect their performance in the gym and ultimately their gains, plus or minus.
Marc:Now I'll give you another little quick side story before I end this particular
Marc:podcast, but this is a 100% genuine story.
Marc:A friend I had would drink about four to five dark malt liquors a night.
Marc:No joke.
Marc:He was upwards of 230 pounds.
Marc:That's how many beers he would drink a night.
Marc:Now, obviously that's excessive.
Marc:However, when he stopped drinking like that one day, he just decided he wasn't
Marc:gonna do that anymore, and he wanted to change his lifestyle and get more fit.
Marc:The only thing he really changed was his drinking habits.
Marc:He quit drinking like that at night, and he dropped 20 pounds in about eight weeks.
Marc:That's pretty fast.
Marc:For, that's the only thing that you change.
Marc:So think about that in regards to alcohol.
Marc:It, that's obviously an extreme example, but the point is it can affect your
Marc:gains, your performance that much.
Marc:It really can.
Marc:It isn't just a, eh, you have, you have three or four beers
Marc:on a weekend, you're fine.
Marc:No big deal.
Marc:If you start doing that every weekend, yes, it is a big deal.
Marc:It will affect your gains, your overall gains, it will affect your performance.
Marc:That is the thing that you have to keep in the back of your mind.
Marc:It isn't without side effects, so either abstinence or in moderation.
Marc:And again, the best way to find in moderation for yourself is simply to
Marc:look at fit day and track your diet and figure out what can or can't you get away
Marc:with depending on your particular goals.
Marc:Now if you have any questions for this podcast or if you'd like any further
Marc:articles on alcohol consumption, there's a couple that I can definitely point you to.
:For more information, check the show notes under the
