I know alcohol is one of the worst things you can consume when training/ cutting, but does anyone have any suggestions for the “best” think to drink?
It is an individual thing I think. I know people who can drink, and drink and still see their abs. Decide what price you are willing to pay for your goals.
alcohol itself lowers testosterone. Thats a big no!!!
Unfortunatly, there is no such thing as a good alcoholic drink. It all lowers free testosterone levels, and gives you unwanted calories and carbs.
Like the other guy said, you have to decide how serious you are about reaching your goals.
Once I become Maltose-Free, I lose weight and gain muscle. Once I go back to throwing back a few beers, my metabolism comes to a grinding halt.
This is an area where I differ. I beleive having a glass of wine in the evening does not hurt the trainee (exceptions, around contest time) and as a matter of fact the health benefits of it alone can make it worth while. I’ve studied this with my clients for years. We did a great post workout beer study one time with great results. Not as good as surge but better results than most crap as a post workout supp.
If you are using gear, yeah avoid alcohol. If you are in contest prep, again avoid it.
Excessive drinking will lower test as will quite a few things. Moderation for someone who works out is different than a non active person.
Edit (moderation of an athlete is 1 beer or 1 glass of wine a night max! Not 6!)
Oh good. I had a PWO meal last night and unfortunately, 2 pints were accidentally consumed. I don’t feel so bad now. It was after a hockey game which pretty much destroys your entire body with an emphasis on your lower trunk and legs. Its nice to know the essence of all that barley and hops goodness has gone to improving my athletic performance.
Honestly, my diet is decent, but I can’t turn a drink down on a night off. When I get the weekend off, forget about it. Anyway, for some reason I never look worse for it, as a matter of fact I look better in the morning b/c the alcohol dehydrated me. Keep in mind I may be giving you terrible advice.
When I drink, I drink a lot. Mostly hard liquor. A good question would be, which is more calorically dense, a shot of liquor or a beer?
Being a once-a-week (sometimes more) drinker, I’m still making consistent gains in physique. Maybe because I’ve only been training 2 years.
Maybe you can relate to me: I’m not a comptetitive bodybuilder. I work out b/c I was 265lbs 2yrs ago (now 215), for the sheer love it but also to look sexy. I don’t have a ripped six pack, but I don’t have a gut and I’m consistently taking fat off with the occaisional night of drinking. Now on the other hand I have never gone more than two weeks without alcohol in years, and I may have been looking splendid by now if I would just quit, but It hasn’t stopped me from making progress.
John McCallum wrote in a Strength and Health article maybe 35 years ago that “will power” was a myth, the person will simply do what he is motivated most to do. If you want the fastest physique results in the least possible amount of time, you’ll stop drinking. If you like getting crunk more than you care about getting the six-pack (no pun intended) right away, you’ll get crunk.
As for me, well, oh Bartender…
There are honestly about 2 billion threads on this topic. Here is my post to a previous thread.
Essentially what happens when you drink (aside from lowering T-levels) is that the alcohol suppresses ADH, or anti-diuretic hormone. This is the hormone that causes you to retain water, and along with the water, your essential minerals and nutrients. So in a nutshell, you piss out all the “good stuff”. Hence the gatorade and 2 multivitamins. Good Luck.
J
OK, alcohol isn’t good for you but it also depends how much you drink!
I drink probably 3-4 evenings a week but only 2-3 beers max, no hard liqour. Maybe once a month, if that, I might drink a bit more.
Despite my beer consumtion I’m making great gains.
In a month or so I’ll go on a cycle, then I’ll stop drinking, of course.
Though I try to avoid drinking like a fish, but its hard to turn down free alcohol. But normally I try to avoid darker drinks (except for red wine, but that is definitly not a “binging” drink) and beer for the most part (light beer in my opinion tastes like carbonated piss to me, and as much as I love Guiness it bumps me up a weight class). So I usually stick to more “clear” hard liquers (vodka, whiskey, rum, gin, etc) on the rocks and usually go easy on that. I also budget how much I drink by taking less than $20 with me which after $5-$10 cover charges leaves me with little drinking money (but often end up getting free drinks here and there). I’ve retained and improved my gains and avoided looking bloated this way, and also avoided many hangovers.
I don’t remember the particulars, but Berardi had an article not too long ago covering several studies that had been done on resistance training, supplements, etc. He said it brought him great pain to report the study, but it basically said that drinking alcohol post-workout actually raised testosterone…at least in this one study.
I hate to tell you this too, but I was dieting for a show about three years ago. And every time I hit a plateau on fat-loss and went out for a night of drinking, I broke the plateau and began to lose fat again. It might have acted like a cheat meal. I don’t know.
Good post,
I learned a lot. I didn’t know alcohol lowered your T levels.
How about taking alpha male before a night of drinking on a carb cycling diet? That would be the best of both worlds: Get a buzz, get your carbs, maintain your T-Levels what a concept.
just kidding! 
I know alcohol decreases my T-levels, so why do I wake up with a big hard-on the morning after drinking? The day after drinking I feel like I have taken a double dose of Tribex.
I am the same, after a night of drinking I am horny as all hell the next day! That definitely seems counter intuitive, but I’m sure there is some reason for this…
I’m in total agreement with the previous two threads…regarding feeling like a sexually charged bull the day following a nights drinking - I know that training and drinking don’t mix - but please does anyone know why some/all of us get this apparent T-rush - and is it good or bad news?
The report on alcohol raising T levels states that on the test subjects (rats) had an increase in testosterone levels three times that of normal.
I would have to agree with this finding due to the fact that the same feelings associated with elevated T levels (agression, increased libido etc) are the same after being intoxicated.
The report did not say however, how long the increase lasts or if the T levels dropped dramatically afterward.
Other studies done on this do find that T levels tend to decrease over time due to excessive alcohol consumption.
hope this helps.
Okay, I just wrote a very long post regarding why we still fell horney when drinking, but t-mag forced my to re-login!
I’ll try to reiterate.
Alcohol lowers test. When testosterone is low the anterior pituitary (in the brain) releases Luteinizing hormone, which travels down the blood stream and initiates the production of testosterone by the interstitial cells of the testis.
Horniness isn’t always a direct relation to test levels, and I think this is the case for drinking. When we drink test is lowered, so the pituitary releases LH to get it back up, this in itself (or results in) causes horniness.
This accounts for when people drink a boat load they are still really randy (because of increased LH) but simply can’t get it up (very low test).
When I don’t drink often, I get really randy. But when I drink 2-3 times a week (I’m at Uni) I find I don’t even get horney when drinking. I’d attribute this to the progressive lowering of my baseline test levels because of frequent alcohol attacks. Whereas isolate drinking sessions have a higher baseline to start with.
Anyway, I posed this question to Biotest customer support earleir today. I wondered if damage controll could be acheived by taking Tribex on the weekend of drinking, but not in the week. I’m not sure if it would even have an effect with such short dosage times. Also it works via the LH release, so it may not really help.
Would Alpha Male work better?
Any feedback would be excellent.
Fuck Testosterone levels! Ethanol ingestion directly inhibits muscle protein synthesis.