The Unexpected Consequences of Consuming Alcohol on your fitness journey

I have come to understand that many people, including my friends, are unaware of the effects of consuming alcohol on their fitness journey. To enlighten them, I like to share that just one or two alcoholic drinks can decrease your metabolism for up to 72 hours.

There is a common misconception that moderate alcohol consumption can have positive health benefits. However, the truth is that consuming alcohol can have a significant and detrimental impact on fitness and metabolism. This blog post will explore the various cons of consuming alcohol when it comes to fitness, weight loss and metabolism.

Alcohol is high in calories and low in nutrients, which means it can quickly lead to weight gain. Research has shown that regular drinking can lead to increased calorie intake and slower digestion, leading to more fat being stored in the body as opposed to being used for energy. This is especially true if non-alcoholic calories are not cut back significantly when increasing alcohol intake.

Alcohol also affects the body’s ability to process carbohydrates, causing them to be stored as fat more easily than normal. As a result, the body releases more insulin in response, which further increases fat storage rather than allowing for healthy muscle growth or weight loss. In addition, regular drinking decreases your ability to metabolize fat effectively due to liver damage from excessive alcohol intake, meaning it takes longer for calories from food consumed at later meals to be broken down into energy instead of being stored as fat.

Finally, studies show that consuming alcohol inhibits good health habits related to fitness such as exercise and sleep patterns, leading to decreased levels of overall physical activity and decreased metabolic rate with time (and eventually obesity). Lack of sleep also causes an increase in cortisol hormone production which signals higher levels of hunger hormones (ghrelin) resulting in higher calorie consumption throughout the day – again preventing effective weight loss or maintenance efforts.

In conclusion, while moderate drinking may seem appealing on occasion due to its social nature – long term consistent consumption is extremely unhealthy when it comes to fitness goals like weight loss or muscle building thanks primarily due its far reaching impacts on digestion speed, its caloric content (as opposed to nutritional content), carbohydrate processing ability and finally reduction in healthy activities such as exercise or adequate sleep required for good metabolism/weight loss needs!

- Ravonn G

Previous
Previous

How Does Weight Loss Work & What Steps Should You Take?

Next
Next

Breaking Through Weight Loss Plateaus: Strategies for Resuming Progress