Rapid Fat Loss Diets

Monday, June 29, 2009

Alcohol Should Be Avoided While Building Muscle

By Ricardo d Argence

Believe it or not, there are those who wonder if alcohol has an effect on their muscle building activities. The answer is a resounding yes alcohol will adversely affect your work out.

Most serious body builders will reach for a protein drink before anything else. There is a very good reason for this. Protein is critical to effective muscle building and protein synthesis should not be interfered with. Alcohol will definitely impair protein synthesis.

Protein synthesis is the process where amino acids in the system join together for the purpose of creating complete proteins. It has been shown that consuming alcohol can slow this process down by 20%.

Another key factor in muscle building is the body's testosterone level. You have probably noticed that women are not able to build as much muscles mass as men; this is because they have 15-20 times less testosterone than men have. It is easy to see that testosterone levels are important to muscle building.

But what does testosterone have to do with alcohol consumption? Alcohol is known to decrease the testosterone levels while increasing the estrogen levels.

Hydration. When you drink alcohol, the kidneys must use massive amounts of water to process the toxin. Yes, the body recognizes alcohol as a toxin. When this happens, the body can quickly become dehydrated.

Nerves control muscles and nerves produce the stimuli to contract muscles from electrolyte minerals dissolved in water. Further more water lubricates the joints and protects them from injury during workouts.

Alcohol will rob the body of key vitamins such as vitamins A, B, and C. It will also deplete the body's supply of phosphorous and calcium. When you realize that the vitamins that are most important to muscle building are B and C, it makes sense not to drink alcohol while trying to build muscle.

When you are body building, the idea is to deplete the stores of fat while increasing your muscle mass. Nutritionists agree that alcohol contains no nutritional value at all; it is nothing more than empty calories. Additionally, it contains twice the carbs and calories than protein does.

While we are on the subject of calorie it is important to note that the calories taken in while drinking are the first ones burnt. This means that all other fat stores will remain and not be used for energy until alcohol calories are all burned. Not a good combination for a person wanting to build muscle mass and lose fat.

We have examined most of the major points on alcohol and bodybuilding; however, you have to consider the other affects of alcohol on the body. Prolonged use can lead to liver damage, diabetes and a host of other medically related problems. It will be increasingly difficult to build muscle if you suffer any one of these. At the end of the day, is it really worth the cost? - 17273

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