How to Drink Without Affecting Your Fitness Goals

You may be aware that excessive drinking of alcohol is not healthy and will negatively affect your fitness goals. The best advice would be to stop drinking beer or any alcoholic beverage altogether. However, for many, occasional drinking is part of your lifestyle. The question, therefore, is: Can you still drink moderately while working for your fitness and health?

Before I answer that question, you must understand the relationship between fitness and alcohol. Alcohol and fitness do not go together in general. Taking care of your health and fitness can be negatively affected if you drink alcohol. However, engaging in activities that make you fit can be an avenue for you to avoid alcohol if you are working on cutting down your consumption.

Alcohol and weight-loss goals

If you are working on losing weight, it is not ideal to consume too much alcohol as it contains empty calories or calories with very little, if not without, nutritional value. These alcoholic beverages have varying caloric content. The sugary liquid you often drink with your alcohol to amplify its taste also stops the fat-burning process, which voids your effort to work out.

Alcohol and exercise

As you know, exercising will make you sweat a lot, which leaves you dehydrated. Alcohol is also a factor in dehydration. Doing both can result in exhaustion and fatigue, making your hangover worse than ever. Moreover, alcohol interferes with our body’s process of creating energy because our liver is less able to produce glucose as it is busy breaking down alcohol. It makes us prone to fatigue.

Besides dehydration, drinking the night before working out obstructs your sleep leading to a groggy morning that might make you skip the gym.

Also, alcohol is a depressant; thus, you may lose the positive mental effects of exercise, like improved mood and reduced stress. All these effects will hamper you from doing your routine exercise the next day. So if you plan on working out the next day, avoiding drinking or drinking moderately is best.

Conversely, drinking after exercise may be tempting as you see it as a reward after a hard session. However, rewarding yourself with alcohol may be detrimental to your fitness goals. As mentioned earlier, alcohol can be high in calories and stimulates your appetite, making it counterproductive.

Research shows that the muscles are in repair mode in the first hour or two after working out. Because alcohol can interfere with muscle repair, drinking post-workout will increase the risk that your muscles will be injured or will take longer to recuperate.

Grabbing your favorite glass of wine after a workout can also strip your body of glycogen. Glycogen helps your body to exercise at high intensities, and drinking slows down this hormone causing you to get tired faster the next time you work out.

How can you prevent drinking from ruining your workout routine?

You don’t need to ditch alcohol to keep your body fit and healthy. You need to plan so that a night out with your friends will not negatively impact your fitness goals and allow you to enjoy your time at a party because you are not anxious about its impact on your goals.

If you think you can keep your alcohol consumption in check while trying to be fit, these tips can be helpful for you.

1. Plan your party and workout.

Because alcohol can negatively affect your sleep if you drink the night before your workout, it is crucial to plan the schedule of your partying. You need to allow for recovery time and sessions that won’t be too tiring for your body. You do not need to be stagnant for a long time after having to party with friends or workmates. While you regain the energy you lost by drinking, you can go for a walk, participate in a healthy yoga session, and prepare healthy meals.

However, you must remember that these party nights should also be limited. It will be difficult for you to gain those fitness goals you set if you keep going to parties or if you keep consuming alcoholic beverages.

2. Set some limits.

It will be helpful if you keep yourself aware of the calories you take and stay within the limit. Plan the number of drinks you can have based on these calories before partying or drinking. It is great to start by following the light to moderate drinking standard according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is roughly 14 drinks per week for men and 7 drinks per week for women.

Choose lean alternative mixers such as seltzer or diet cola to minimize calories.

3. Select some alcohol-free substitutes.

Numerous non-alcoholic options can still taste and smell similar to alcoholic beverages. We can take these great substitutes without feeling guilty or worrying about the adverse effects of drinking. Unfortunately, you will still need to count your calories as these non-alcoholic drinks are not necessarily calorie-free. As mentioned in the earlier part of this article, calories can hurt your weight-loss goal, so you have to make sure you choose drinks that have lesser of it.

Another good thing about using alcohol-free substitutes is you won’t have to worry about hangovers. Going to a bar with more non-alcoholic drinks will be best, so you have many options.

Cheers to your fitness!

Alcohol consumption and fitness may not have to be total opposites. You can still reach your cup of wine or other alcoholic beverages and still accomplish your fitness goals. You just need to follow the tips above to indulge still, but with discipline, and reach your health and fitness goal simultaneously.