The Effects Alcohol has on Muscle Gains and Weight Loss

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy going out and tossing a few back with your friends on the weekends. I’ve always been curious on how a night of drinking effects muscle growth and potential weight loss goals. We all understand that binge drinking isn’t healthy, however, my goal was to find out how our body breaks down alcohol and if it’s hindering muscle gains and weight loss.

Our body treats alcohol as poison, when consumed, its number one focus is to get rid of it as quickly as possible. When alcohol is consumed, it is immediately absorbed into the blood stream and makes its way to the liver where it’s metabolized. Through the process of metabolizing alcohol, the body puts every other source of calories you have consumed on the back burner. What you eat prior to and during drinking has a better chance of being stored as body fat than if you weren’t drinking. There has been a common misconception that alcohol makes you fat. The body cannot store alcohol because it has no nutritional value. Instead it will hold onto the calories consumed from the food you eat.

If you are looking to lose weight without giving up the occasional booze, you’re in luck. I’ve spoken about this in previous articles, losing weight is simply burning more calories than you consume. It doesn’t matter if your calories come from alcohol or food as long as you are in a caloric deficit. If you are planning on drinking that night, there are a few things you can do to make sure you are staying on track with your weight loss goals. The first thing is to compensate for the calories you plan on consuming later that evening. Make sure you eat less calories throughout the day so you stay under your caloric restriction. On average your standard hard alcohol contains 100 calories per 1.5 fluid ounces. That doesn’t consider the sugary beverage you mix it with. This brings me into my 2nd recommendation, and that’s to choose hard liquor such as whiskey, gin, vodka or tequila. Your best bet is to either drink it on the rocks, with water or with diet soda. Mixing alcohol with regular soda or juice can double the calories and sugar content in the drink. My 3rd recommendation is to stay away from food while you’re drinking. I touched on earlier that there is a far greater chance that your body will store the calories you eat while drinking as body fat. If you must eat, choose something with lower fat content and higher protein for example, a grilled chicken sandwich.

There are consequences to binge drinking when it comes to building muscle and your performance in the gym, but how bad is it? A study done by Lang and colleagues found that alcohol slightly slows down muscle protein synthesis, which can hinder recovery time as well as muscle growth. Alcohol consumption can also influence testosterone levels. Consuming 2-3 drinks in one sitting has been shown to increase testosterone by 17%. While consuming up to 8 drinks may reduce testosterone levels by 23%. An acute 23% decrease in testosterone won’t have much of an effect on muscle gains, because testosterone levels return to normal around 36 hours after drinking. It’s also important to consider that poor diet and lack of sleep can have a similar effect. I think the biggest issue with drinking and trying to build muscle is its diuretic effect, meaning it dehydrates you, drawing water out of the muscle and kidneys. This can lead to poor recovery and performance the next day and that brutal hangover we all dread.

I have been training hard 5-6 days a week for quite some time now and my experience with alcohol and muscle gains is a love hate relationship. While I enjoy going out and drinking, I also understand that it negatively affects my performance in the gym the following day. I mindfully schedule my off days on Saturday or Sunday depending on when I plan on drinking. If I drank both nights and can’t afford to take 2-3 days off, I nurse myself back to health with Pedialyte and plenty of water before hitting the weights.

Letting loose and enjoying a few drinks may be the stress relief you need after a long week. I’m not promoting getting smashed. However, if drinking socially is a part of your lifestyle you don’t need to eliminate it completely to achieve your fitness goals. Simply be mindful prior to during and after a night of drinking to stay on track.

Sources

Lang, C. H., Pruznak, A. M., Nystrom, G. J., & Vary, T. C. (2009, January 20). Alcohol-induced decrease in muscle protein synthesis associated with increased binding of mTOR and raptor: Comparable effects in young and mature rats. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19154606

Liver and alcohol breakdown. (2019, April 18). Retrieved from https://www.mydr.com.au/gastrointestinal-health/liver-and-alcohol-breakdown

Sierksma, A., Sarkola, T., Eriksson, C. J., Van der Gaag, M. S., Grobbee, D. E., & Hendriks, H. F. (2004, May). Effect of moderate alcohol consumption on plasma

dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, testosterone, and estradiol levels in middle-aged men and postmenopausal women: A diet-controlled intervention study. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15166654