Is Alcohol Hurting Your Fitness Goals?
As college students, looking good and partying are two of our most important and favorite things to do. Unfortunately the 2 don’t always go together. Partying most definitely includes drinking, heavy drinking that is and that really does nothing for your figure. Freshman 15 can easily become Freshman 30 and not just because of the delicious meal plan. alcohol. Check out these 4 ways that the 2 don’t go together.
1. Slower Recovery. Hard workouts drain the carbs stored in your liver and muscles and alcohol slows down your muscle tissue’s recovery process. High levels of alcohol displace the carbs and may leave your carb count 50 percent lower than normal eight hours later.
Tip: Sip or snack on a combo of muscle-repairing protein and carbs (think low-fat chocolate milk or peanut butter on whole-wheat crackers).
2. Packed-On Fat. When drinking, your body, besides having to deal with the surplus of calories, metabolizes the alcohol over burning fat and carbs. Alcohol also breaks down amino acids and stores them as fat. This process is most pronounced in the thighs and glutes, and further encourages fat storage in your midsection. So much for those abs.
3. Disrupted Sleep. Boozing also blows your muscle recovery and performance by sapping your sleep. In a study of 93 men and women, researchers found that alcohol decreased sleep duration and increased wakefulness (particularly in the second half of the night), especially in women, whose sleep time was decreased by more than 30 minutes over the night. “Disrupting the sleep cycle can reduce your human growth hormone output—which builds muscle—by as much as 70 percent,” says Piattoly.
4. Dehydration is detrimental to a workout. Alcohol irritates the stomach lining, which can reduce your capacity to absorb nutrients (the reason you have an upset stomach after a few too many). For every gram of ethanol you suck down, you pump out 10 milliliters of urine (that’s about 9.5 ounces for two beers). As little as 2 percent dehydration hurts endurance performance. And by the way, you can’t rehydrate with a dehydrating drink (e.g., beer).
