Moderation is always key, but the question is, what is moderation?
How Alcohol Can Ruin Your Health and Fitness Goals
We all like to go out with our friends and have a few drinks. We also heard that when we are trying to obtain different health goals that alcohol can hinder those goals. So, How Alcohol Can Ruin Your Health and Fitness Goals really needs to be something you understand.
Here is the deal, and we are going to be real. Not all drinks and beverages are bad for you. Yes many are filled with sugar or corn syrup, and yes these will not help you reach your health goals. There are also some drinks that won’t hurt your waistline or health and fitness goals quite as much, especially if consumed in real moderation. They can actually have some benefits. Again I want to remind you that this is moderation.
How Alcohol Can Ruin Your Health and Fitness Goals
How Alcohol Can Ruin Your Health and Fitness Goals comes mostly when you over indulge, meaning more than 1-3 drinks per week, and consume mixed drinks. Mixed drinks are among the worst alcohol beverages you can drink because of the juices, sodas, and other sugary substances that make a mixed drink just that, a mixed drink. Then if consuming more than 1-3 drinks per week this can pack on a lot of calories and calories that your body has a more difficult time processing. When your body struggles with processing calories, they become sugars and can be stored as fat.
Here are some side effects of those over indulgences and mixed drinks:
- Alcohol has more calories per gram than the macronutrients protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Therefore you are consuming less in quantity but far more calories.
- Decreases your Inhibitions which means your decision making is decreased and you are more likely to choose foods and other things that you would not normally choose.
- Alcohol can damage your liver, kidneys, and digestive system. All things we need running at their best to have a more balanced health.
- Alcohol lowers testosterone levels in both men and women. It is never good to have lowered hormone levels for any reason.
- Alcohol has been found to increase your appetite because it triggers the brain to send the signal that you are hungry. Again striking up the possibility for over indulgence of food.
It has been proven that the choice of alcohol and the amount drank will negate any efforts to lose body fat and will alter performance for the worst. The best advice would be to totally abstain to keep peak performance and hit your weight loss goals. Once your goals are obtained it would be highly recommended that you stick to the best choice which would be wine. Beer is okay, but if you consume more than 12 ounces 1-3 times per week it would be added to the How Alcohol Can Ruin Your Health and Fitness Goals list.
Here is the news that I know most of you want to hear…
You can see wine has not been mentioned as a better choice. Wine can still be on the How Alcohol Can Ruin Your Health and Fitness Goals if the consumption surpasses the 1-3 drinks per week rule, or you binge drink it, but if consumed appropriately it can have many health benefits.
If you have reached your goals, the wine could be something you add back into your life in moderation. Though it would still be recommended that if you are training for something specific, that you keep it to the bare minimum.
Red wine contains a chemical called Ellagic acid. This acid can actually slow the growth of fat cells and stop formation of new ones. It can also help burn more fatty acids in the liver cells. Now this doesn’t mean go drink a bunch of wine. We don’t want you to take this article to say that. When people do that, that is when we have a problem. Keep it in context, because creating too acidic of an environment in the body creates fat and water storage.
Even with this new research, you still need to keep it to 1-3 drinks per week and at the appropriate portion. Remember a glass of wine is really 4 ounces.
The other benefits of wine are it contains active antioxidants like quercetin which may kill cancer cells, it also may help lower risk of heart disease and stroke. Tannins in red wine that give it the red color, contain procyanidins, which have been known for protecting against heart disease. Resveratrol also found in wine can help to remove chemicals responsible for causing blood clots, help prevent cancer, aid in general heart health, lowering LDL cholesterol and increasing HDL cholesterol, and in the prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Clearly there are many benefits to drinking red wine. The thing to remember is the “How alcohol can ruin my health and fitness goals.” That list is the one to remember. If you keep that list in mind, choose wine over other alcohol, and maintain a higher level of moderation, you can have some alcohol without ruining your health and fitness goals.
Of course the biggest recommendation is to abstain and focus on your health and fitness goals through proper nutrition, high-quality dense nutritional supplements, portion control (not over indulging), and proper exercise and fitness.
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