How to Drink Alcohol and Lose Fat

When you consume alcohol, it’s converted to acetate in the liver.

Acetate is a ‘toxin’ to the body, so it stops metabolising the other macronutrients – protein, carb, and fat – and gives immediate priority to acetate.

Unfortunately, this means fat burning is suppressed. 1 De novo lipogenesis, lipid kinetics, and whole-body lipid balance in humans after acute alcohol consumption, Scott Q Siler et al, 1999

Alcohol can also inhibit dietary restraint and this can result in eating more food – especially of the high calorie kind.

Despite all this.

Alcohol calories aren’t immune to the first law. As researchers point out 2 Effect of alcohol on postmeal fat storage, BJ Sonko et al,1994

Like any food that contains calories, you can factor your alcohol intake into your macros.

Do this – divide the total calorie count of the drink by 9. So if a drink contains 200 calories:

Why?

Ok, this is where your typical fitness professional might say something like: “if you’re constantly engaging in really heavy drinking: a) don’t, b) If you ignored the above: keep the heavy drinking to a minimum and maybe cut it out if you’re trying to lose fat – at least until the diet is over.”
But, seeing that I’m neither your typical fitness professional nor your dad: do whatever the fuck you want.

How to Get Rap Star Wasted and Not Die (a.k.a. Aadam, Tracking Alcohol Sucks and We All Know I’m Not Gonna Do It)

So let’s assume you decide to do whatever the fuck you want, and that fuck just happens to be a night of heavy drinking – which I totally don’t recommend or encourage but let’s say you ignore this second warning and are still wanting to get inebriated beyond belief. If that’s the case, follow these steps so that you don’t die…or, ruin your progress. 

1. Avoid calorific mixers

2. Stay hydrated

3. Keep carbs and fats low during the day, with a focus on protein and veggies

4. Remove temptation

What about Alcohol and Testosterone?

It’s commonly claimed that drinking can impact testosterone levels. So, can it?
One study done in resistance-trained men gave the participants moderate doses of alcohol at 0.83 g/kg in the post workout period, noting no difference in testosterone levels. 3 Effect of acute postexercise ethanol intoxication on the neuroendocrine response to resistance exercise

In another study, participants were given 1.5 g/kg of alcohol and there was a 23% reduction in testosterone levels. 4 The pulsatile secretion of gonadotropins and growth hormone, and the biological activity of luteinizing hormone in men acutely intoxicated with ethanol, Välimäki M et al, 1990
However: that’s a lot of alcohol.


So, unless you’re planning on becoming an alcoholic you don’t have to worry about the occasional drink emasculating you.

Alcohol and Muscle Gain

Now, this is where things get a bit tricky. Alcohol does impact muscle protein synthesis.

In one study from 2014, eight physically active males completed three experimental trials 5 Alcohol Ingestion Impairs Maximal Post-Exercise Rates of Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis following a Single Bout of Concurrent Training, Evelyn B. Parr et al, 2014 .

But. A few things to bear in mind.

• The participants in the study were given 1.5 g/kg of alcohol and as I showed you earlier this is an insanely large amount and way more than you’ll be drinking in a day – I hope, anyway.
• The training protocol was a ‘concurrent’  programme: the participants did strength training, then steady state cardio, then intervals one after the other with minimal rest 6 quoting from the paper: “The specific protocol involved a standardized warm-up (5 repetitions at 50% and 5 repetitions at 60% 1RM) on a leg extension machine before the resistance exercise protocol was commenced. Resistance exercise consisted of eight sets of five repetitions at ∼80% of 1RM. Each set was separated by a 3-min recovery period during which the subject remained seated. After completion of the final set, subjects rested for 5 min before commencing 30 min of continuous cycling at ∼63% PPO (∼70% VO_2peak). Upon completion, subjects rested on the bike for 2 min before undertaking 10×30 s high-intensity intervals at ∼110% of PPO, with 30 s active recovery (∼50% PPO) between each work bout.” and this could have also, potentially, played a role in impacting MPS. 7 While you won’t lose your gains if you do cardio and most of these claims are grossly exaggerated, it can interfere with muscle gain if you’re not programming intelligently – which, clearly, these researchers weren’t.

Again, as long as you’re not being completely stupid with your drinking you’ll be fine.

Take Home Points

• Don’t be afraid to have a few drinks a week – it’s not going to cause you any harm, on the contrary, moderate consumption of alcohol can be quite healthy 8 Cardioprotective effects of light-moderate consumption of alcohol: a review of putative mechanisms 9 Moderate alcohol consumption lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis of prospective observational studies
• If you’re going out and getting completely wasted every night, I dunno, maybe you need to reconsider your life choices?
• If you’re working towards a goal – like fat loss – and you know drinking will interfere – then cut down and/or stop until after you’ve achieved the goal.
• Try to make the day after your drinking a rest day. Depending on how hungover you are, it’s best to not go in and train after a heavy night out. But, as always: I’m not your dad, so do whatever the fuck you want.

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