How Alcohol Really Impacts Your Results

00:00One intentional night of drinking done with the strategies that we just covered and talked through is not going to significantly impact your body composition. Your body is very resilient. Now what matters, what actually moves the needle and body composition outcomes is the frequency and the pattern of this. Drinking three to four nights a week, even if individual nights seem moderate, that still creates a chronic environment of interrupted fat burning multiple days a week, reoccurring sleep disruption, frequent cortisol elevation, and constant calorie surplus from both the drinks and the food that accompanies them.

00:33Even if you're like, I'm not a foodie after I drink, still the other three things are happening, so don't try to justify your way out of it. That pattern over time absolutely will impact your results. What's going on, everyone? Hey, you guys, welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show with your host, Nikki Stott. And on these episodes, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident.

01:07Today, y'all, I'm just going to ask you guys, can I talk about this topic? I want to specifically talk about social drinking. You guys ready for that? And how to like actually navigate it when you're when you're tracking your macros, when you're working towards like a body composition goal. And also just being a real human who wants to enjoy summer because the reality is, it's about to be rooftop season. It's patio season. It's pool parties, weddings, barbecues, girls trips, happy hours, right?

01:41And if you're in the fitness community and you drink even occasionally, you probably felt the tension between wanting to enjoy those moments and the guilt that comes with knowing alcohol is not exactly on the approved list. Am I right? Now, I'm not saying like I know I recorded an episode before about alcohol. And basically, I still stand in my opinion that it's like poison to the body. However, being realistic, we have drinks occasionally just because I say that doesn't mean that I don't have a drink occasionally. I do.

02:11I just am teaching you guys, you know, what actually the chemical processes are going on inside of our body that I believe that everyone should be aware of when you're choosing to maybe drink a little bit more than you probably should on a weekly basis. All right. So this episode, I really just want to kind of lean in to being a little bit being realistic with summertime coming up and all the things that, you know, we're going to be involved with and being we're human, we're going to have a drink or two. And I don't want you to feel like you're this in the in between of like someone telling you just don't drink it.

02:46It's not worth it. Or on the other side, it's fine. Just make sure like to fit it within your macros. Because neither of those is like a full honest answer. Like I want to teach you guys to have no judgment, have no shame, just like providing real information, a real strategy that will help you navigate the summertime and things that are coming up. Right. How to have like a social life and enjoy summer without it completely derailing your progress. So before we can talk like strategy, do you want to understand what's actually happening when you drink?

03:16I just need to put this in this episode because I think most women either maybe haven't listened to the episode that I have. This is and also the alcohol episode is one of the top episodes that I have. So maybe you didn't listen to that episode or maybe you are just wanting you're avoiding, you know, knowing. But knowledge is power and it gives you the ability to make real choices. Okay. So alcohol is a macro, kind of. Alcohol contains seven calories per gram. That puts it between the carbohydrates at four calories per gram and the fat at nine calories per gram.

03:50But here's what makes it different from the other three macros. Your body cannot store alcohol as energy. It can't be converted into glycogen like carbs or stored in fat cells like dietary fat can be. It is treated as a toxin. Okay. I just said that. It's like it's like poison to the body. And your body's number one priority the moment alcohol enters your system is to get rid of it.

04:20Your body hits like pause on fat burning when you drink alcohol. And this is one of the big, this is a big one because most people don't fully grasp that understanding. When you drink, your liver shifts the entire focus to metabolizing the alcohol. So fat oxidation, which is the process of burning stored body fat for fuel. That gets put on hold.

04:50It's not slowed down. It's literally paused. Your body won't return to burning fat until the alcohol is fully processed and cleared from your system. So depending on how much you've had, that process can take anywhere from a few hours to a better part of the whole next day. This is why we feel like shit. This is why a hangover, you know, in a more scientifically stated way of what the body is trying to do. This is a part of your hangover, which means hours around and after drinking, your body is not doing the fat burning work that you've been setting it up to do all week.

05:28Right. So and so and not to mention, you know, if you're having a drink more occasionally during the week and not just like, oh, I'm just a kind of a social drinker like here and there. Like I will just have a drink here and there like it's a it's like every like let me full moon or every other full moon. Right. Where there's I know there's a lot more occasional drinkers where they'll have a couple a week, a couple on the weekend. So just know that this is happening. And then then not to mention the food choices that come with drinking.

06:01Alcohol lowers your inhibitions. So meaning that includes your food inhibitions. It impairs the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that's responsible for decision making and impulse control, which is exactly why a night out that started with great intentions ends with like, you know, finding yourself at a pizza shop or a Wawa if you have Wawa on the East Coast. Like 1 a.m. order of fries or, you know, full rate of whatever is in the kitchen when you get home.

06:34And that that's just neuroscience. That's not you being weak. That's not you being drunk. That's just literally neuroscience. Alcohol chemically reduces your ability to make the food decisions that you would make sober. And those late night post drinking food choices are often where the real like caloric damage of a night of a night out happens. Not necessarily the drinks themselves. And then, you know, then you got the next day effect, which alcohol disrupts your sleep, your ability to have good sleep.

07:07Specifically, your your deep sleep and your REM sleep. Even if it helps you fall asleep faster, which a lot of people say, yeah, well, I just like drink glass of wine and I could fall asleep so easily. It's yes, it does do that. But it's the later on during the night, if you ever wake up in the middle of night and you're sweating and you're hot and you're uncomfortable and you're tossing and turning. And the effectiveness of your sleep and the efficiency of your sleep is damaged. And when you have poor sleep, you know, we talked about this before. This elevates your cortisol, tanks your hunger hormones in the wrong direction, and it will increase cravings for high calorie food the next day.

07:44And it's going to impair your workout performance the next day. So, I know drinking can affect your body for like 24 to 48 hours throughout this whole what I'm what I'm mentioning is sleep, the recovery, you know, separate from the calories and the drinks alone and the things that that's doing in the fat burning process. And then you have the cortisol connection. So, alcohol rises your cortisol, which is your stress hormone. And as we know, chronically elevated cortisol promotes fat storage, particularly it's going to be in your midsection.

08:18And it breaks down muscle tissue. So, one night of drinking doesn't just doesn't create the cortisol problem, but regular drinking over and over multiple times a week does. And that hormonal environment will quiet, it quietly works against you getting to the goals that you want to and changing your body composition in a way that's hard. You know, to really accomplish and get to if it's happening repeatedly more often than just rarely occasionally having a drink.

08:51This is what I just wanted to like paint that picture for you guys, what it's actually doing in your body and like the honest version of it. Before we get into like living in balance and trying to have the social drinks without feeling like you're going to set yourself up for failure and you're, you know, going to spiral all of your progress. Now, let's first talk about the most macro tracking reason what gets wrong about alcohol. It treats the problem as purely a calorie issue.

09:22Just log the drinks, you know, stay within your macros and you're fine. I've done this when I was coaching clients. I know that our coaches do this with their clients. It's like, ah, just log it. Just log it. But it's not just about the calories and I want you to understand that. And while tracking your drinks is absolutely a part of the strategy, which we'll get into, the calorie count in the drinks is actually the smallest part of why alcohol impacts fat loss. The bigger issues are the ones that we just covered. One, the pause on fat oxidation, the impaired food decisions that follow, the sleep disruption, the cortisol elevation.

09:59None of that shows up in your tracking app. None of those are solved by logging vodka soda accurately. That is a part of the strategy. But this is why two women can drink the same number of calories and alcohol and have very different outcomes, depending on what they ate alongside and after the drinks, how their sleep was affected, how their training the next day was, and how frequently it happens. I want you to understand this, not to make you feel hopeless about it, but because it means that the strategy for managing alcohol isn't just about counting.

10:31And it's not just about, you know, oh, if it fits inside of your macros and it's okay. Like that's, you know, there's one side of it where don't do it. It's not worth it. And that, as I was saying earlier, and there's the other side of it that's like, oh, well, you know, who cares? Just track it. And if it fits in your macros, it's okay. There's so much more that happens when you're drinking the alcohol outside of you just being accountable for tracking it. And those are the chemical processes that are happening inside your body that can slow down. Mainly what I want to point out, just slow down the ability to burn fat when you consume alcohol.

11:08So just take that into account. Okay. That's the main thing that I want you to take away from that. Hey, Mother's Day is coming up. And I need to tell you about the most thoughtful gift that you can give to your mom, to your sister, to your aunt, to a relative, to a friend, or maybe even to yourself. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets and pajama set, they are an absolute game changer for any woman that is dealing with night sweats or just has bad sleep in general.

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12:11Let's get back to the episode. Now, the practical framework. This is what actually, you know, works because I've seen it hand in hand. It's worked for women who drink occasionally and still make consistent progress. Number one is I want you guys to decide in advance, like bringing, I feel like the last couple of episodes have been like intentional. You're bringing intentional drinking into play here. So the single most, like, impactful thing that you can do is eliminate reactive drinking. Reactive drinking is the glass of wine that appears in your hand at work at a work event because everyone else has one.

12:46Or that second or third round that happens when you didn't think about whether you wanted it or not. Like somebody just grabs you another drink and you, you know, you feel like you need to drink it. Or a friend is like, oh, do you want another one? You're like, yeah. It's reactive. The drink just happens because you're out and that's what you do. And, you know, that's, it's, you're, you're immersed in the environment of it. Intentional drinking is choosing in advance that you're going to drink on a specific occasion and decide roughly how much you're going to have and showing up to the occasion with that plan.

13:21Right. So like there's many times I've gone out with my friends and my friends will order a drink and I'm like, you know, I'm just having like a Diet Coke or Coke Zero. There have been more times than not that that happens. And I'll make my plan being like, okay, like this past weekend, family's coming for Easter. I'll have a drink or two with family. So choosing that and choosing how much I'm going to have. It sounds almost too simple when I say it out loud, like decide in advance what you're going to drink, you know, how much are you going to have?

13:52But the difference between intentional and reactive drinking in terms of your weekly calorie intake and overall consistency is enormous. Before you go out, make sure that you just ask yourself, am I actually choosing to drink tonight or am I just defaulting because that is the environment that you're immersed in? So I mean by it sounds almost too simple. When you are in the environment, it's sometimes hard to remember what you intentionally said you would do with a plan that you had.

14:23So when you're out, ask yourself, am I drinking tonight or am I just defaulting because everybody else is drinking? If you're choosing, great. That's awesome. If you're defaulting, then it's worth noticing why you're defaulting. Is it uncomfortable or is it because you feel like you're not going to have fun? If you're the only one not drinking, like it's worth figuring out what's going on behind that. You're just defaulting to drink because everybody else is drinking. But again, what I want you to do in this first step is just decide in advance.

14:55Be intentional about the drinking. The second thing is, is choose your drink strategically. Not all alcohol is created equal from a macro standpoint. So the lowest calorie, lowest sugar options are like clear, like vodka, tequila, gin, rum. And then this is what I do. I mix them with zero calorie mixers like soda water or club soda or sparkling water or and then adding like a fresh lime on top.

15:28That drink is maybe roughly 100 calories. A tequila with soda and lime, roughly the same. Those are your best options when you're trying to minimize a caloric impact. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you.

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16:34That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. I would say, you know, if you're more of a wine drinker, that's more of the middle ground. Like you're looking at maybe a standard five ounce glass of wine is probably around 120 to 130 calories. It's manageable if you're having like one or two, right? Beer, especially craft beer, that's where usually the calories add up pretty fast.

17:08A standard light beer, you could get, you know, around 100 calories as well, like Corona Light or things like that. But like the IPAs, you're pushing like 250. If you're drinking beer, I would go light beer. Those are more, you know, macro friendly. I'm more of a macro friendly choice. Now, when we get into like the cocktails with juice, with simple syrups, with flavored liqueurs, this is where things can go sideways pretty quickly from a calorie and sugar standpoint.

17:40Now, a margarita made with mix, like a Mojito or Cosmo, those things run like 200 to 400 calories per drink, depending on how they're made. If you love cocktails, I would say knowing this lets you either order them occasionally and account for them or ask for modifications when you're ordering, like a skinny margarita with fresh lime and tequila over a mixer heavy version. I personally, you can't go wrong with a tequila and club.

18:15That's one of my favorites and the lime on top. But I know some of you guys love the sugary drinks. Just make sure that you now knowing that we, the conversation we just had, it'll allow you to set them, allow you to order maybe them a little bit differently or maybe just have one of those and then have, you know, vodka or tequila or rum or something, whatever of the spirits that you like. Another one is where, another step that I would recommend in this framework,

18:46putting this into play, is making sure that, and I probably sound like a broken record, but you want to front load your protein for the day. This is one of the most practical and underrated strategies for a night out. On a day that you know you're going out with your girls or you're going out with your friends or you have a holiday to celebrate, and you know you're drinking, prioritize hitting that protein target earlier in the day. Not by, not by eating more overall, but by building your meals so protein is done before the evening even starts. Like the way that I would think about it is, okay, sometimes I'll just have all protein

19:22and maybe some carbs and some fats light, knowing that I'm probably going to have myself a big dinner or some snacks afterwards that are going to be carb and fat heavy, right? Because what happens here is alcohol will tend to deplace protein in your eating. Like if you're at a restaurant and you're at a party and the food is less controlled there. You're drinking and protein is usually the last thing that is on your mind. So by front loading protein during the day, you have that control. You protect that target regardless of what the evening looks like.

19:54And then you kind of know that you front loaded it and you did your due diligence with eating your protein. So it's like, okay, well, I'm just going to have the snacks that I want. Knowing that this is just an occasion that you're intentionally planning and that it's okay that this is, this is what's this, you know what's going, you know what's happening. You know how you're intentionally walking into the situation, right? Maybe I would also say I have a food, I have a plan for the food situation. So we talked about how food, alcohol impacts your food decision making.

20:26The way you protect that against it is by removing the decision from the drunk version of yourself in advance. Before you go out, if you're going to be eating, know what you're going to order. Look up the menu, make the decision sober. Now, I would say that and I would also say what I just said is like you can make the decision sober ahead of time. Or if you know this is a once an occasion for yourself and you're having a couple drinks and this is where I would be more,

20:59be like, okay, it's okay that I have fats and carbs. Not the sloppy kind, but, and even if you do have a sloppy kind, just allow yourself to have a couple of the options that are out there. You don't have to be too rigid. I don't want you, want it to get too rigid. And the last thing that I would say on this step, I think this is probably what's step five by now, is get back on track the next day. Not next Monday, not pushing it out another week or two. And this one's big because the day after drinking, it may be hard to feel like you want to get back to your normal routine,

21:30but you want to get back to your normal routine as cleanly as possible. Log your food, hit your protein. If it's a training day, go in and train. Even if, even if the hangover makes it impossible, just get outside for a walk if you can't go train. And just make sure you get a lot of water. Drink a lot of water. Don't turn one night of drinking into a weekend of, well, I've already ruined it, so whatever. Like that's where the real damage happens. And that multi-day spiral that follows one night.

22:05And it becomes a reason that some people abandon the week and then they push things out until the following week. And they're like, okay, I'm just going to start again on Monday. It's one night. Get back on track the next day. That's the main habit that keeps you, that keeps summer from undoing months of progress that you put in during the wintertime. Okay? Here's the thing that I want to close this framework with because I think it reframes the whole conversation in a useful way. One intentional night of drinking done with the strategies that we just covered and talked through

22:37is not going to significantly impact your body composition. Your body is very resilient. So having one night of paused fat burning, fat oxidation, one night of maybe slightly impaired sleep, one night, you know, slightly over budgeting, over consuming or budgeting the day of eating that you had planned, this is completely, that is completely absorbed by a week of consistent, solid nutrition and training. It's not even close to a big deal. Now what matters, what actually moves the needle and body composition outcomes

23:09is the frequency and the pattern of this. Drinking three to four nights a week, even if, you know, individual nights seem moderate, that still creates a chronic environment of interrupted fat burning multiple days a week, reoccurring sleep disruption, frequent cortisol elevation, and constant calorie surplus from both the drinks and the food that accompanies them. Even if you're like, I'm not a foodie after I drink, still the other three things are happening. So don't try to justify your way out of it.

23:39That pattern over time absolutely will impact your results. Not because of any just single nights, but because of the cumulative effect of drinking. So the real question isn't, can I drink and still make progress? That answer is yes. The real question is, how frequently is it happening? And is the pattern supporting and working against your goals? One or two intentional occasions per week done strategically, most women who are consistent with their nutrition and training can handle that and continue to make progress.

24:11More frequent than that, and the more cumulative impact, that starts to show up in your results in ways that are hard to ignore. So what is your pattern? What is your frequency? And know that and be honest about it and make the choices that fit the season of your life that you're actually in, not the one that you think that you're supposed to be in. Okay, so just to wrap it up here, alcohol impacts fat loss through more than just calories. The fat burning process,

24:42the impaired food decisions, the sleep disruption, the cortisol elevation, those are the biggest issues. But they're all manageable with the right strategy and that framework that we talked about. Drink intentionally, not reactively. Choose lower calorie options. Front load your protein on drinking days. Plan for food situations in advance. Or like I said, if it's just one or two nights, then so be it. Like it's okay. It's not going to ruin your progress. All of your consistent impact front loads that, that you did for the week.

25:12Make sure you protect your sleep. And then most importantly, get back on track the next day. And then knowing, we just talked about the end of the podcast, frequency is what actually determines your results. One or two intentional occasions per week done right is completely compatible with consistent progress. It's the chronic, frequent, unplanned pattern that will quietly undo or make your ability to see results much, much more harder

25:44or undo the work that you're doing. You don't have to choose between having a social life and making progress this summer. You just have to be a little bit more strategic with the strategies that we went through. And you're going to be fully capable of enjoying both. Enjoy the rooftops. Enjoy the patios. Enjoy the long summer evenings with your friends and your family. You now have the tools. So do it without guilt and do it without derailment. All right, ladies? I hope this episode helped you. And I also hope that maybe some of you guys

26:15were worried about summertime because of what it brings. And you've had summers in the past where you feel like you've totally derailed your progress from what you worked on in the springtime or since January. Don't let that be this year. I know you guys got it. You do with this episode. All right? And share this with one of your girlfriends who maybe is navigating the same thing. Because I guarantee this conversation is happening in your friend group somewhere or at work or whoever. Somebody needs to hear this as well. Not just you.

26:45So share it. I love you guys. I'll see you in the next episode. Peace out. Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference. Helping more women discover the tools they need to transform the fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.

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