Alcohol intake can affect workout for more than a day

Pete Campion

Published Monday, April 2, 2007

Question: I have been working out consistently with a group of ladies for about 8 weeks now. I have lost around 15 pounds thus far. Everything was going really well until I went out for St. Patty’s day and had way too much to drink.

I am not a big time drinker. I maybe go out with my girl friends once every couple of months, but after going out and having a good time I still feel sluggish and some what lazy at the gym. I just have not been in the mood to work out.

I guess my question for you is how long will I feel like this and how much will that one night of parting hurt my training?

Answer: Alcohol is a depressant that affects the Central Nervous System which you are using every time you workout. Drinking a lot can affect many parts of nutrition included how your body uses vitamins, such as Thiamin (vitamin B1), Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, and Zinc.

It also affects how your body conducts protein synthesis. Alcohol calories are not converted to glycogen, and each drink contains approximately 100-150 empty calories.

Our bodies treat alcohol as fat by converting alcohol sugars into fatty acids. Alcohol prevents muscle recovery, decreases the secretion of HGH, depletes your energy source, disrupts the water balance in muscle cells, brings on dehydration, and slows the ability to heal.

Consider this, consuming 5+ alcoholic beverages in one night can affect brain and body activities for up to three days. Two consecutive nights of drinking 5+ alcoholic beverages can affect brain and body for up to five days.

The more a person drinks the higher their Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) will be. As a person’s BAC rises basic motor functions are hindered and as drinking continues the person will continue to show increased impairment.

Men and Women will have different BAC. Alcohol is absorbed in water and women tend to have a higher percent of body fat and lower percent of water than men.

Women don’t produce as much of the ADH enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the liver therefore causing them to become more impaired than men.

Other BAC factors include weight and body mass, rate of consumption, shots vs. sipping, drinking games vs. drinking, food consumed, strength and size of the drink, mood, and medication. When alcohol is consumed faster than it can be removed a person’s BAC rises. The ADH enzyme in the liver metabolizes alcohol. As alcohol passes through the liver, the body rapidly eliminates about 10 percent of it through the kidneys, sweat glands, lungs, urine, feces, and saliva.

Alcohol is oxidized at a consistent rate of .015 percent an hour. Time is the only thing that can sober a person up. Example, you went out on St. Patty’s day and drank until your BAC was .20 and decided to quit drinking at 2 am so you could workout the next morning.

Let’s follow your progression through the next 14 hours. At 2 a.m. you go to bed with a .20. At 4 a.m. you are very restless and can’t sleep with a .170. At 7 a.m. you get up and take a shower but don’t eat breakfast because you are not hungry with a .125.

At 8 a.m. you drive to the gym and workout with a .110. Even at 10 a.m. after your workout your judgment is still impaired with .080.

At noon you should eat but are not hungry from the cottonmouth with a .050. Not until 2 p.m. does your head start clearing up with a .020, and finally at 4 p.m. you are sober at last with a .000.

As you can see going out and getting wasted is not good for your mind, body and your training.

You are most likely going to have a terrible workout the next day, and can have bad workouts for up to five days depending on how much you have drank.

Pete Campion is an exercise science graduate student at NDSU. Send questions to CoachPeteCampion@Hotmail.com