How alcohol affects your training and weight loss:
You go to the gym, train very hard, sweat, eat healthy and drink your protein shakes. You are feeling great and go out for with your friends to celebrate. Unfortunately in the local restaurant, bar, night club, or house party awaits for you a tempting yet destructive force called ALCOHOL…
Why is it so bad for your strength and weight-loss program?
Protein synthesis: Amino acids are joined together to form complete protein – alcohol can slow down the process by 20% . Proteins are the building blocks of your muscles, therefore preventing protein synthesis will prevent muscle recovery. Did you know – consuming alcohol after a workout can cancel every gain from that activity? Also, even short-term alcohol intake can affect muscle growth.
Sleep: Alcohol can affect your sleep. Sleep is essential in helping muscles recover. Because of the effect it has on sleep, your body is producing less HGH- Human growth hormone. HGH is the hormone that “tells” your muscles to grow and develop and alcohol can decrease it by 70%.
Testosterone: Alcohol triggers your liver to produce chemicals that are toxic to testosterone, which is responsible for the building and recovering of injured and sore muscles.
Toxins: Alcohol is a toxin. When toxins run through your blood stream they can reach and affect every organ in your body. Toxins slow your body’s ability to heal itself and can suppress various immune responses.
ATP: your energy is produced from the breakdown of this complex chemical in the muscle cells. Only from the energy released by this breakdown can the muscle cell work. Alcohol absorbed in the muscle cell affects the balance of water molecules and the production of ATP.
Dehydration: the kidneys must filter large amounts of water in order to break down the alcohol. Dehydration makes it harder for your body to work efficiently. It results in a lack of stamina, strength and effectiveness. It is also responsible for headaches and hangovers the following day.
Nutrients: alcohol is known to rapidly deplete your body of vitamins and minerals such as : A, Bs, C, Calcium, zinc and phosphorous.
Fat: alcohol affects the process responsible for fat burning. The release of insulin increases the metabolism of glycogen, thereby sparing fat and making fat loss more difficult. It is also high in empty carbs and holds no nutritional value.
If you are serious about your weight loss, no way around it you gotta take it completely out of your diet. If you cannot stop, take it in moderation. Plan ahead of time how much you are going to have. Plan to say no thank you to free drinks and drink a lot of water in between.
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Cheers,
Orion
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