Thursday, July 8, 2010

Alcohol & Body Composition


5 Reasons Why Alcohol Will Destroy Your Muscle Gains

I receive frequent questions from aspiring muscle-builders, and one of the most common questions I’m asked is “does drinking really affect the muscle growth process?” I’m sorry to say it, but yes, too much alcohol will almost definitely have a significant negative impact on your muscle-building results (no, we're not just talking large manly muscles, we're also talking the beautiful sculpted/defined look that we females desire - that's muscle, ladies!).

(top row "before"/bottom row "after")
Alcohol is far more harmful than most people think, and it’s very important that you understand how this is affecting your progress. This is not an anti-alcohol speech, but if you’re serious about achieving a truly impressive physique, you should definitely be aware of the 5 main ways that alcohol is slowing down/stalling your progress…

1) It negatively affects protein synthesis (say what?!)...
Protein synthesis is the process where amino acids are joined together to form complete proteins. Excessive alcohol consumption slows this process down by up to 20%, and since your muscles are made up of protein, you can see how this is a problem.

2) It lowers testosterone levels and increases estrogen.
Testosterone is the most important muscle-building hormone in your body. One of the limiting factors that determines how much muscle a person can gain is their level of free-flowing testosterone.

3) It causes dehydration (duh!).
The kidneys must filter very large amounts of water in order to break down the alcohol, and this can result in severe dehydration within the body. Water plays an absolutely crucial role in the muscle-building process, and being even slightly dehydrated is a recipe for disaster. The muscles alone are comprised of 70% water.

4) It depletes the body of vitamins and minerals.
Alcohol consumption causes vitamins A, C, the B's, calcium, zinc and phosphorus to all be drained at rapid rates. Vitamins and minerals keep every little process in your body functioning properly, and many of these processes involve muscle growth and maintenance.

5) It increases fat storage.
With 7 empty calories per gram, alcohol can actually be quite fattening. Alcohol also disrupts the Kreb’s Cycle, which plays an important role in fat burning (read about it!).

It’s important to have fun in life, but too much fun can lead to problems. If you’re serious about achieving significant muscle-building/muscle-defining results, you definitely need to monitor your intake of alcohol and make sure that you are consuming it in moderation. A few drinks here and there shouldn’t be a problem, but if you find yourself drinking every weekend you can almost certainly kiss your muscle/definition gains goodbye. The choice, of course, is entirely up to you, but realize that without those changes, your progress will most certainly stall.



If you do decide to go out and party, make sure to drink plenty of water and to properly nourish yourself with vitamins/minerals and a protein rich meal.
I don’t recommend revolving your entire life around your muscle-building program, so don’t be afraid to go out and have a good time once in a while. Just make sure to keep your drinking nights infrequent - once a month - and properly nourish yourself to lessen its effects. As long as you monitor what you’re doing you can achieve an impressive physique and have a social life at the same time.

resources:
by Sean Nalewanyj
photos courtesy of:
crossfitdeep
orangecountycrossfit
crossfitventura
photos represent Crossfit members that changed diet to zone/paleo and eliminated or significantly decreased alcohol consumption.

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