First, let me tell you my personal view of alcohol (in case you care LOL!). I don’t think I’ve had a single drink of alcohol since starting P90X over a year ago. It’s not because I think taking a sip of alcohol is a sin (Jesus drank wine after all. But He did warn us not to get drunk — another topic for another day…..).
I’m just not the type of person who enjoys drinking. I don’t like the taste. I don’t have a desire to get drunk (been there, done that in college and I have no desire to revisit the fool I made of myself!). The fact that I have no desire for it makes my decision to basically avoid alcohol easy.
I might at some point have a glass of wine with dinner with my wife. I’m not ruling that out. It’s just not something that flies on my radar screen very often. Thus, I’ve never blogged about it before. But I get asked by you guys about drinking, so I figured why not talk about it for a bit, from the P90X / Insanity nutrition perspective.
I know that for many of you, alcohol does come across your radar screen quite often. Either having a couple drinks on the weekend is your “usual” routine, or you run with a crowd that usually ends up doing some social drinking when eating out. What should your approach be in these situations?
First, let’s look at alcohol from a nutritional point of view. Every gram of alcohol has 7 calories. This is more than carbs (4cals), but not quite as much as fat (9cals). So nutritionally, alcohol adds quite a bit of empty calories to your diet. These alcohol calories have no nutritional value to you. It won’t fuel muscle growth. It won’t speed fat loss. In fact, alcohol is a sedative and the calories are very easily stored as fat (they don’t call it a “beer belly” for nothing LOL!). So can alcohol hurt your progress? Sure, just like Twinkies can hurt your progress!
How much will an occasional drink hurt your progress though? Well, perhaps as much as an occasional Twinkie. And if you like a 12 pack on the weekends, you might as well eat a case of Twinkies too! LOL! But am I saying you can never ever have a drink? No, I’m not saying that. What I am saying, though, is that it can add up in a hurry if you aren’t careful.
Another thing to consider is that usually alcohol’s empty calories are consumed at the absolute WORST time of day — late evening when those calories are most likely to be stored as fat while you sleep.
So, do I recommend avoiding alcohol as much as possible? Sure, especially if you are trying to drop body fat quickly. If you are in a maintenance mode and the occasional influx of empty calories won’t hurt you too bad, then go ahead, but it’s wise to account for it in your daily calorie budget so that you don’t just add it on top of your daily calorie budget. If you know you will have a beer, or a glass of wine, then make sure you compensate earlier in the day by lowering your carbs and fat intake to accommodate it into your daily nutrition budget.
Coach Wayne, the buzz-kill! Literally! LOL! But I call them like I see them.
“But Coach Wayne, what about wine being good for your heart?” Ah yes, wine has antioxidants and resveratrol from the red grapes, which are good for your health. There is no denying that. But news flash, you can get those same things in fresh fruit. You don’t have to drink wine to get them! Burying a spinach leaf in your Twinkie doesn’t justify eating Twinkies! There are still side effects of the Twinkie you can’t deny, no matter how much you want to elaborate on the benefits of that spinach leaf buried in there.
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
