Are there any reasons why an athlete should give up a daily glass or two of wine or daily beer in order to improve training? Or would the benefits be nonexistent or not significant?
Are there any reasons why an athlete should give up a daily glass or two of wine or daily beer in order to improve training? Or would the benefits be nonexistent or not significant?
If you are looking to lose weight, cutting the daily beer can take out those extra calories. What I personally do is stay sober all week, and then drink all the beers I would have drank on a Friday or Saturday night. If you drink enough, your liver will resort to alternate energy pathways to metabolize the alcohol, creating lots of heat. This will burn 9 calories per gram of alcohol consumed. Alcohol is 7 calories per gram. If you drink enough you can actually lose weight drinking alcohol. It may take a while for your liver to adapt.
If it's truly just 1 or 2 then you're not going to notice any difference.
Yes.
This Is like asking “what if I only took a small dose of steroids? Would I still derive any benefit?”
The impact may be small and not noticeable in the short term but that will add up over time. 2 beers a night is a fair amount of drinking
Once a Week wrote:
If you are looking to lose weight, cutting the daily beer can take out those extra calories. What I personally do is stay sober all week, and then drink all the beers I would have drank on a Friday or Saturday night. If you drink enough, your liver will resort to alternate energy pathways to metabolize the alcohol, creating lots of heat. This will burn 9 calories per gram of alcohol consumed. Alcohol is 7 calories per gram. If you drink enough you can actually lose weight drinking alcohol. It may take a while for your liver to adapt.
Drink booze, no sugary mixers, and not beer, and you'll lose weight as described above. You can basically become an oven, burning alcohol plus whatever else.
That said, you know the videos where they pour Coca Cola over something, then watch it disintegrate? Alcohol is a solvent, too. Your body is fairly pliable. Think about it.
Case by case basis, but cutting out daily beers (1-3) made a huge difference for me.
If you have to ask, you don't want success bad enough anyways. No reason to stop at this point.
Drinking didn't hurt Steve Jones. Just run more miles if you want to be faster.
Meat Tornado wrote:
Case by case basis, but cutting out daily beers (1-3) made a huge difference for me.
Be specific please.
Assuming weight and calories aren’t an issue, quitting alcohol entirely is a good choice if you are aiming for OPTIMAL recovery, so it will allow you to train just that little bit harder but if all you are having is 3 glasses on wine a week or something, those benefits are going to be quite minimum BUT there will still be benefits. If you are drinkng 5 beers a night then the results will be drastic. Alcohol has a mild to severe impact on electrolyte balance depending on how much you drink.
Save money
If you're drinking daily there's nothing "moderate" about it.
I've lost 10 pounds and tend to sleep much better. A lot of folks, including the author of the Racing Weight series, argue that one or two drinks per days isn't bad, but those empty calories add up.
This!!
W.C. Field Events wrote:
If you're drinking daily there's nothing "moderate" about it.
This!!
Teetotaler wrote:
Are there any reasons why an athlete should give up a daily glass or two of wine or daily beer in order to improve training? Or would the benefits be nonexistent or not significant?
Yes it will improve your health (physical and mental) more than you think.
You will not only be cutting out those extra daily calories, but you will also have your body (liver, gut health, metabolism) working more consistently without getting pounded by alcohol on a daily/weekly basis. You will definitely lose some pounds, you will sleep better, and your body will generally feel more healthy.
I cut out all alcohol this past year. I never drank during the week, but would have 5-10 beers over the course of Friday, Saturday, and Sundays. The first few months sucked, but somewhere around May I realized: holy sh*t, I've lost 25 lbs, almost have a six pack which I haven't had since college (I'm 42), and my paces have dropped significantly without me noticing any increase in effort.
I'll never drink alcohol again.
Truestory wrote:
W.C. Field Events wrote:
If you're drinking daily there's nothing "moderate" about it.
This!!
That!!
I've been all over the alcohol consumption spectrum, with periods where I was drinking 2-3 cocktails (not shots, but at least 2 shots per cocktail) per night Mad Men style to a couple of beers a night to total abstinence. Other than weight I did not notice too many effects on my training. Actually, there were times where I felt that the extra carbs I was getting from the alcohol were actually a benefit (to a degree of course).
Drinking can be wonderful in terms of relaxation, letting lose, hanging out with friends, etc. I wouldn't give it up for the alleged training benefits. Give it up for other reasons, if you like.
I think you've got it backwards. If you are serious about recognizing your potential in any sport, including running, shouldn't you be asking:
"How does ethyl alcohol intake help performance?"
If the answer is it does not (best answer IMO), you don't drink or drink only in moderation. If the answer is it does help, you use it to your benefit, legally of course. And if the answer is it neither hurts or helps - cheers.
Coming from a guy who drank pretty heavily in college during season, my vote would be for abstinence or moderation (which most college kids are not capable of).
No noticeable difference. I guess it just depends on what you are used to. I tend to down two quick beers after my run. I usually just have a few beers with dinner and maybe one or two later on. That's about 5-8 on a typical weekday night. Weekends I tend to have a few more because......well, it's the weekend. If I am doing a race the next day then I do reduce the number of drinks. Whatever works for ya!