What harm does alcohol do to your fitness?

AS someone who enjoys a glass of wine, don’t expect me to give you a lecture about the evils of the drink.

But I will say that, if you’re trying to improve your health and fitness through exercise, alcohol consumption can really derail your progress.

First of all, let’s dispel the myth about ‘sweating out’ a hangover.

The flaw in this theory is that both exercise and drinking alcohol do the same thing - they cause dehydration due to increased fluid output (sweating from exercise, urine from alcohol). The result of both is dehydration.

So, while you may think you’re feeling better by sweating after a big night, all you’re doing is magnifying the effects.

There are three key areas essential to you achieving your health and fitness goals which are directly affected by alcohol consumption: your performance, metabolism, and recovery.

1. Alcohol affects your performance: regardless of your level of fitness, if you’re currently working out in pursuit of a health and fitness goal, you need to perform and make decisions. And alcohol can affect how well you do this.

Your Coordination

All exercise requires a degree of coordination. You will need to coordinate different limbs in a sequence to execute the movement you have in mind. Because alcohol is a diuretic, you’ll become dehydrated. Alcohol-induced dehydration can affect your motor skills, balance, and coordination.

Your Brain Functionality

In addition to physical capabilities, alcohol consumption can affect your ability to think clearly and make decisions. You may think this doesn’t matter much when working out, but think again. 

When you’re in the gym, you need to decide if a weight is too heavy, or if you need longer rest. If you decide unwisely, you can hurt yourself.

Your Aerobic Capacity

According to Dr Kelly Starrett, if you’re 1% dehydrated your aerobic capacity will decrease by 10-15%. So not only will you be unable to move as well or think quickly, your lungs will let you down too.

Your Energy Levels

When you drink alcohol, your liver reduces glucose production in favour of processing alcohol. Because your liver will prioritise processing alcohol over producing glucose, a needed energy source for exercise, your workout quality will be reduced because you lack sufficient energy to complete it.

Your motivation

Do you ever really feel like working out when you’re hungover? Alcohol creates an additional hurdle that limits your motivation and thus impacts your progress.

2. Alcohol affects your metabolism: a prime objective for exercising is to burn fat by increasing heart rate if your goal is fat loss.

Alcohol causes metabolic issues on two fronts when it comes to exercising.

a. It can interfere with your metabolism by increasing insulin secretion. Increased insulin secretion leads to low blood sugar. 

As you need sugar in your blood stream to provide energy to exercise, when alcohol is in your system you can expect to feel sluggish.

b. When you exercise, your body has a variety of energy sources available for fuel. The most desirable energy source is stored fat (the one everyone wants to burn more of). When your liver processes alcohol, your body will have ethanol in its system. As ethanol is toxic in large quantities, your body will prioritise burning that as a fuel source instead of stored fat.

3. Alcohol inhibits your recovery: to maintain a healthy lifestyle and achieve health and fitness goals, quality recovery is essential.

Alcohol consumption also reduces the time you spend in deep sleep, meaning you spend more time in REM and lighter sleep cycles. This is significant because it’s during deep sleep when your body produces hormones that facilitate lean muscle development.

Light alcohol consumption has been shown to increase strength losses and increase time necessary to recover after you’ve worked out. 

Heavy alcohol consumption has been shown to increase recovery time required from soft tissue injuries like sprains and strains.

So, if I’m trying to improve my health through exercise, does this mean I can never drink alcohol again?

Not at all. But if you make the decision to drink alcohol, you need to manage your expectations and your training schedule.

Here are three tips to help you enjoy drinking alcohol occasionally and still pursue your health and fitness goals.

1. As soon as alcohol enters the picture, you can expect the timeline you’ve set to achieve your goals will be longer than expected.

2. An important part of exercising with a health and fitness goal in mind is consistency. So, if you plan to drink, allow yourself 48-72 hours to fully process the alcohol before you hit the gym.

3. Try cutting out alcohol for a week, work out as you usually do, and see how you feel: sometimes the best way to turn over a new leaf is to sample the other side of the fence.

After that, proceed with your usual routine, then compare the two weeks. If you feel better by not drinking alcohol, then maybe you’re onto something.

Sometimes, you may think you can get away with drinking alcohol regularly and still maximise your fitness efforts. But you can’t have it all.

If you’re working out regularly and eating healthily to achieve a result, alcohol can be the liability that holds you back. Give it a miss or cut it back considerably - you’ll see better results faster.

James Staring is the founder and lead fitness coach at Fit to Last Personal Trainers, which offers a high-end, all-inclusive fitness solution for those who’ve tried everything in the past with little to no success or results.

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