Alcohol & Bodybuilding

This post is not about how bad alcohol is for you. Its aimed at how bad alcohol is for your "gains" whether you are aiming to lose fat or build muscle the last thing you want is to be working hard throughout the week then wasting it every weekend. The main thing stopping people from reaching their goals or slowing them down from reaching their goals is alcohol (especially in the UK it seems like all we do is drink).

Before we go any further into this post I want to put an end to right now. That is

"I will drink vodka and diet coke it has no calories"

This is one worst things I have ever heard

Vodka like ALL other alcohol contains CALORIES!!!!

Here is a quick example run through of calories contained within alcohol:

Calories in a shot (25ml/Single measure) of Vodka: 55 kcal 
Calories in a glass (120ml) of white wine: 89 kcal
Calories in a can (550ml) of lager: 247.5 kcal
Calories in a pint of Guinness: 170 kcal

A pint is 568ml so basically the same as a can stated above.

Maybe now you are thinking "well it fits into my calorie counting/macros so its fine"

The problem is the calories in alcohol are "empty calories" they are calories your body cannot use. To every gram of alcohol you get 7 empty calories.

An empty calorie is a calorie which has no nutritional benefit. Your body cannot burn this off. Fat calories are useful for various body process but empty calories are just dead calories and turn to fat cells (ever hear of a lil thing called a beer belly????)

Another problem with alcohol is the fact it is a poison. This means the body will attempt to rid its self of this "poison" before it does anything else. So all your other processes fat breakdown, protein breakdown, energy processing etc are put on hold. This in turn slows down your metabolism and results in further fat gain

Several studies have shown that alcohol is a mega player in increasing appetite. How many times on a night out have you stopped at a "dirty burger bar" or got kebab or pizza on the way home ? Now you can't tell me 12 pints and a 10 inch stuffed crust chicken pizza with garlic fits in your macros !

The last effect I will talk about is motivation. Alcohol totally kills your drive to workout. I'm as guilty as the next for a night out on Friday, wake up Saturday FAR too hung over to workout and state I will do it Sunday. I then chill all day and when Sunday comes around I'm far too "couch potatoed" to care. Then it all starts again of "Getting back on it on Monday"....until Friday comes around

Steroid/Prohormone users I STRONGLY recommend not drinking while on cycle as alcohol puts a lot of stress on the liver as does AAS/PH's (This is why you use liver support while on cycle...well I hope you do)

I'm not trying to make you all T-Total (trust me I did it for a year and it zapped my social life) Just drink in moderation. I am simply trying to show how alcohol has been played down in society so its not even something we think about when we think about our diet/working out lifestyles. I lose count on how many people will say to me "I eat healthy and work out quiet a bit but cant lose the fat" when asked how much they drink the answer is always a sheepish "loads".