First you quit smoking, then think about what you eat and how much you sleep, even after buy a beautiful jars of various sports supplements. All this you do in order to make your body attractive. For the beauty you have to change your lifestyles but from cake are easy to give up, then what about alcohol?
Birthdays, parties … Sometimes you just can not resist and not refuse, and of course, hurts the question – how it affect the results of training? Will it fall endurance or appear fat? How much alcohol can you drink without serious consequences for the organism? To answer these and other questions let us try to understand what alcohol is and how it acts on the body.
Alcohol (ethanol) – does not contain proteins, carbohydrates, fats, but has an energy value of 7 calories / g. According to its properties, it is more like carbohydrates, but unlike them, can not be converted into glycogen in the muscles and delayed for later use. For our body alcohol is toxic and at the first ingestion begins to be processed at a speed of about 10 grams / hour. For example, if you drink 200 grams of vodka, then only 8 hours the body gets rid of excess alcohol. During this time, in the body can occur interesting changes, which can not be avoided, but you can try to compensate. You can easily find a lot of information about the dangers of alcohol, but we are more interested in its effects on an athlete.
To say that this influence is negative, then do not say anything!
Alcohol slows down the anabolic processes in the body. This is a consequence of the fact that the gastrointestinal tract absorbs much less nutrients. In the blood appears deficit of amino acids, so necessary for the muscles. Is observed lack of protein and also decreased glycogen reserves. It reflects badly on your endurance, strength and speed.
In one study, 8 men drank two glasses of vodka with an interval of 30 minutes. A few hours after the “experiment”, the level of fat metabolism decreased by an average of 73%! The reason of this effect is the way how our body is processing the alcohol. Through the bowel alcohol quickly enters the bloodstream and then into the liver, where begins the first stage of processing. An enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase converts into acetaldehyde, which is a highly toxic substance. Because of this substance in the morning we feel discomfort … Other enzymes convert the acetaldehyde into acetic acid and then had to carbon dioxide, water and energy. Thus, taking alcohol, you simply make the body to push into the background oxidation of fat. The same thing happens when using a large number of fast carbohydrates (cakes, candy, etc.) As a result of slower metabolism of fats leads to their deposition.
Under the influence of alcohol your body loses a significant amount of fluid. Dehydrated muscles lose elasticity. Is inhibited the transfer of useful and harmful substances. In this state of intensive physical activity will provoke only harm and loss of muscle mass.
Alcohol contributes to the transformation of androgens into estrogens. In one study, after taking alcohol, testosterone dropped by 25%. When the concentration of alcohol in the blood was at maximal level, the level of the main male hormone was minimal. That’s why avid beer drinkers often suffer from gynecomastia, and obesity. If you’re on a course of steroids, about the drink better forget. Otherwise the risk of getting gynecomastia increases significantly.
What regard to insulin and growth hormone, its level is also reduced and almost 2 times.
How can you compensate the influence of alcohol and preserve your athletic achievement?
To avoid dehydration, try to drink after alcohol fluid (water, juice, etc.). Before going to bed drink 1 liter of water or even more if you like.
Also, before going to bed should eat something with high protein content. It may be cheese, chicken breast or a protein shake.
In the morning for about 30 minutes before breakfast, take multivitamins and 10 grams of glutamine, drinking plenty of water.
Have good breakfast, preferring foods high in protein, calcium, phosphorus and iron.
Written by: Golden Muscles
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