Getting buzzed while getting buff: How to drink without ruining your progress
June 11, 2009 by admin
Over the past few years I have noticed something profound – most people like to drink. (Well, it is profound to me since I think alcohol tastes like cat pee. I was very young when I got my first cat.) Even when people have hired me to help them drop a ton of body fat quickly they still really want to be able to drink.
skinny girl margarita
Since I pride myself on being able to help normal people (vs. bodybuilders) get results in the real world I decided to figure this one out. (By figure it out, I mean steal ideas from my clients.)
After observing client behavior and measuring client results over the past few years I’ve come up with these 3 simple rules that make everyone happy:
#1. Beer makes you fat: Beer and fruity drinks like margaritas and daiquiris kill all progress, and can often reverse a week of hard work in the gym and kitchen. The short explanation is that your body fat is fundamentally regulated by the hormone insulin. And your insulin levels are fundamentally regulated by the quantity and quality of carbs in your diet.
In fruity drinks and beer the quantity is huge and the quality is horrible. Drinking beer seems to be like drinking bread – it can actually help you gain fat while losing muscle. The worst of both worlds.
Solution: read tip #2, switch to light beer or something like Michelob Ultra, or use a sugar-free mixer like Crystal Light, seltzer or diet soda.
#2. Hard liquor and wine are fine: Within reason (around 6 drinks per week) hard liquor and wine don’t seem to slow people down very much at all. It seems like it’s the carbs in the drinks (tip #1), not the alcohol itself that is the big villain.
#3. Get buzzed, not hammered: This should be common sense right? If you get really drunk on a regular basis your progress will suffer if not disappear. This is always worse if done with beer or fruity drinks.
Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.
YAY! Thank you for this article, Josef!
good news! yes, we like to drink.
Whew!! This is good news. Now, I would like the recipe for the skinny girl margarita, please. Is it guaranteed to make me skinny?? LOL
Glad you all liked it.
Here’s the link for the Skinny Girl margarita:
http://www.bethenny.com/skinny_margarita.htm
Great advice Josef and I will definitely implement this in my diet!
For some healthy cocktails try baja bob’s sugar free drink mixes. I haven’t had one that wasn’t delicious. http://www6.netrition.com/cgi/prices.cgi?manu_id=177
One quick word of caution to drinkers out there: When mixing alcohol with diet or sugar free mixers, you may become intoxicated more rapidly. When consumed with a low-cal mixer, alcohol passes through the stomach and hits the bloodstream faster.
Alcohol consumption doesn’t cause you to STORE fat; this is a common misconception. What is does do is cause your body to postpone the burning of other fuels (fats, carbs) supplemented by the foods you eat. For example, if you consume a meal at lunch time without alcohol, your body will burn the fat carbs and fat for energy (duh). But if you consume that meal and have 6 beers to go along with it, the beers will be burned for energy FIRST due to the chemical makeup of ethyl alcohol. As a result the fat from the meal may possibly be absorbed into the body rather than being utilized for energy. This all depends on your metabolism and energy needs which varies from person to person. The problem with alcohol consumption is that it tends to increase the appetite as well as dehydrate the body (organs, muscle tissue). Given the fact that approx. 80% of muscle tissue is composed of water, this could adversely interfere with potential muscle mass gains if alcohol is abused. Now I’m not a doctor – just a 21 year old college student – but I do my research.
Forgot to mention.. Alcohol also affects the release of insulin and lowers the production of testosterone when abused.