Yep, that’s right. Alcohol is one of the major factors that can deteriorate your wonderful physique and muscles that you’ve been watching over for years. Alcohol is one of the major causes of a muscle to lose its features. Despite of what health professionals are saying about the negative consequences of alcohol, there are still plenty of people out there drinking it. Drinking alcohol will definitely lead to the ruin of your muscles.
Alcohol is one of the most influential beverages ever created. Not only does it have a funny taste, but this drink could probably fit into the category of a drug due to its addictive effects that can affect areas in your life such as your family, friends, and work. If you truly want to keep your six packs (abs, not beer) and your muscle mass, then you need to be conscious about alcohol intake because it will destroy your years of hard work.
What are some of the effects that alcohol can do to your body?
1. Increases estrogen and decreases testosterone levels.
To increase your muscles, you need to maintain or increase your levels of testosterone within your body because that is the key hormone to build your muscles. It’ll be a huge loss, as men, if you let the amount of estrogen in your body overcome your levels of testosterone because that can lead to the gain of some secondary female characteristics.
2. Affects your protein synthesis – big time!
You probably know that protein is one of the most crucial nutrients that your body requires to build additional muscle mass. When you slow down your protein synthesis because of too much alcohol, you also hinder your body from distributing protein all throughout your body. Your protein synthesis will slow down by about 20% of its normal speed.
3. Strips away minerals and vitamins from your body
Alcohol has a diuretic effect, which causes you to excrete more minerals and vitamins from your body than usual. When you drink too much alcohol, it’ll cause your body to get rid of important elements such as Vitamin A, B complex, C, calcium, phosphorus and zinc. These elements are usually drained from your body quickly, so it could cause an imbalance within your body. In order to build muscles properly, you need to maintain a proper amount of minerals and vitamins inside your body.
4. Causes dehydration
You’ve probably noticed that whenever you drink alcohol, you’ll usually drink a lot of cold water or soda just to get rid of your thirst. The reason is because, as I said before, alcohol serves as a rapid diuretic that will cause your body to dispose of water. So every time you’re going to the toilet, your minerals and vitamins are vanishing with your urine. If this continues to occur, the water in your body isn’t able to sustain the necessity because of the increased excretion and muscle demand… and muscles consist of approximately 60-70% of water!
5. Increases storage of fat
Heavy drinkers usually have large beer bellies. This is due to the fact that alcohol can cause a deposition of fats within your body. Alcohol has approximately 7 calories every gram, which is the primary reason why alcohol can make people fat in unnatural ways.
You need to take care of how much you are drinking, especially if you want to have an ideal body weight and size. A few drinks once in a while isn’t going to hurt you, as long as you can handle the side effects. Otherwise, your muscle growth goals will be changed in a very negative way.
