Alcohol

The bodybuilding life of a college student is probably much different from that of the average bodybuilder and also different from the average college student.   Don’t be fooled, us college bodybuilders still have lots of fun.  We are hard workers and very dedicated to achieving our goals.   Lots of eating, sleeping and training.   Can’t count the times I have been made fun of for taking a lunch box somewhere on campus or to a friends dorm.  Also, have turned down parties to sleep! Yep, that definitely has happened after many a hard leg workouts!  Well college life you ask, what about the alcohol?  Yeah, that pretty much out of the picture too.  (Yes, I am underage so of course it should be out of the picture but you get the idea).  So here are my reasons for forgoing alcohol…

First of all I hate the feeling of being hungover.  I can’t workout the next day and if I do it is sub par and well sub par is unacceptable for me when it comes to training.  I like to stay focused on my diet and training and drinking throws a wrench into the mix.  Drinking not only adds unwanted, empty, useless calories to my diet but flat out makes me feel like crap, and who wants that for themselves.  One third of all college students are qualified as binge drinkers.  Binge drinkers being those who multiple drinks (4 or more) in a short period of time.  But first of all, before we go classifying anyone or anything we need to learn some things.  Alcohol, in terms of chemistry, is type of chemical compound.  Ethanol is the alcohol that is present in alcoholic beverages.  Alcohol has adverse effects on the body because of the fact that it acts as a lipid solvent.  That being said, all living cells contain a lipid membrane and alcohol can easily penetrate this membrane and once in the cell can lead to the denaturing of the cell.  Not good things happen.  The ethanol in the alcoholic beverages we drink is not quite as strong to cause sever detrimental effects but is more so about how much you drink and what you are drinking.

While most people know about the effects of alcohol on the brain and liver I would like to address the more uncommon facts about alcohols effects on the metabolism.  Yes that’s right, metabolism.  Alcohol slows the metabolism.  For us bodybuilders this is basically the end all be all of training and nutrition.  By training hard in the gym we are able to boost this metabolism and also by eating certain foods we boost it as well.  With a slowed metabolism we cannot do what we do and be successful.  So, no more “shots, shots, shots” ladies, and fellas.  More like squats, squats, squats.  But anyways back to the adverse effects on metabolism.  As you know, 1g of protein and carbohydrate is equal to 4 calories and 1g of fat is 9 calories.  One gram of alcohol is equal to 7 calories.  This is almost twice the calories of carbs and protein and nearly as much as fat.  Wowzers! . Metabolic interactions occur with fat and alcohol and should essentially be considered as fat in the diet.  Alcohol has also been seen to promote fat storage in the abdominal region or commonly known as the “beer belly”.  Not something you want to take on stage with you if you ask me. 

Alcohol also suppresses the production of ADH (antidiruetic hormone) in the brain causes mild to severe dehydration if water is not consumed in conjunction with.  Most of the time the dehydration is not a huge concern however, with many athletes and bodybuilders the mere thought of lack of water can make you cringe.  Lack of water puts strain on the joints and pretty much every system in the body.