Top 5 Insights: How Alcohol Influences Muscle Building and Fat Loss

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. Alcohol is a diuretic, which leads to dehydration. And when you are dehydrated, that affects muscle function and recovery.

00:33When your body doesn't have the water that it needs, it causes you to decrease muscle endurance and strength. What's up, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, or if this is your first, one of your first episodes, welcome to the show, you guys. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkie Stott, and welcome, you guys, to episode 107,

01:06where we're going to deep dive into talking about something I've talked about early, early, early on in the podcast. And I'm bringing it back up because I think it's important, given the holiday season, that this is reminded and understood because it's often misunderstood within the fitness industry. And that is alcohol. So Thanksgiving just passed. Christmas is coming up. New Year's is right around the corner. And alcohol is a drink of choice right now, given the social environment that you are put in.

01:38Maybe the stress that you may be under. Maybe work is kicking your butt. And so you're relaxing at the end of the day with a glass of wine. I want to bring this topic back up to be a little bit more understood when it comes to you staying in alignment with the goals that you're striving for when it comes to fat loss, building more muscle, changing your body composition, overall well-being for yourself, especially, you know, as we close out this year and we start this new year.

02:11And reminding you how having a few drinks, while it sounds like it's innocent, it actually plays a significant role in terms of the results that you do want to gain with building more muscle and decreasing body fat. So I'm going to dive into five specific things that you should just, I want you to be aware of. I want you to understand. And I want you to be reminded, you know, when you, it's not, I'm not saying that you can't have a drink,

02:41but like reconsider, is this supporting my goals or am I just trying to escape a moment? Or like, you know, is this pulling me back into just comfort and without, you know, maybe facing whatever is in front of you with just, you know, awareness, clarity, and choosing to not have to drink the alcohol. Because I really want you guys like to, obviously, I want you guys to reach your goals. I want you guys to be successful, okay? But like, without like diving extremely too deep,

03:15I know I just said alcohol is not entirely bad for you. However, my very, very, very personal opinion is that alcohol is poison. And I have heard Gary Brekka talk about this. I have heard many other people in this space that I follow with health and fitness speak about alcohol and just what it does to our body. So that's more of the well-being side of things. But like when it comes to fat loss, when it comes to building muscle, which is like, I know what you guys are all striving for, which is probably like the middle of the iceberg,

03:48like the tip of the iceberg is, you know, macros, working out all the things, you guys trying to make better choices on a day-to-day basis. And we're diving a little bit deeper. And we get rid of the things that you know that don't serve you. You're replacing the things that does serve you. And we get a little bit deeper. And then we need to address like this, right? And then like we get even deeper to making sure that everything you are doing on a regular basis is supporting your well-being, right? That is not just building muscle and focusing on fat loss. It's like longevity. It's mental health. It's well-being.

04:19It's overall like down to am I doing? It is what I'm doing supporting longevity, okay? So with all that being said, a little rant at the beginning there. But you know, that's how I like to do it, you guys. Open it up with a little bit of rant. Let's get down into talking about these five specific things and how alcohol can truly hinder you seeing any type of result. Like seriously, here I go with a little bit more of a rant. But like, you know, you have a couple of drinks that you've had on Thanksgiving. And then you're watching. You see that you're choosing that maybe at the end of the night leading into the next couple

04:50weeks and then comes Christmas and then comes New Year's. If there's anything that may hinder your progress without you getting back on board, like I talked about earlier in last week's podcast, like the holidays are a temporary pause. They're not a permanent change. However, if you like allow permanent change within these next coming weeks and until like New Year's has passed and alcohol is something that you are having a little bit more because of the holidays, this this is why you may not see the results given like a four to six week period because this can greatly impact it.

05:22OK, so let's first talk about how like alcohol and its caloric density and its nutritional displacement. So alcohol contains seven calories per gram. That is nearly as calorically dense as fat is. Fat has nine calories per gram. And then carbs and protein have four calories per gram. So when you have like, you know, you're choosing regular alcohol consumption, this can significantly increase your daily caloric intake.

05:52So, for example, you have those truly cans. I'm going to use this because this was a Instagram reel that popped off on my Instagram a couple months ago. And a lot of people look at those truly cans are like, oh, this is only 100 calories because it which, you know, sure, it's only 100 calories or drinks that you choose that are less calorically measured. But I need you to and how and then but then we pull it peel back the onion a little bit more. And it's like, oh, there's only two grams of carbs in here.

06:25That's freaking awesome. However, what's not being recognized is this like it's not breaking down how much alcohol, which alcohol is a macronutrient and there's seven calories coming per gram coming from that. So like if there's really only two grams of carbohydrates and the alcohol is being counted as the carbohydrates, then it would only be 14 calories because two times seven is 14. So like where are the rest of the calories coming from? And that's where the nutritional label is entirely wrong and the marketing is entirely wrong.

06:59So if we're breaking it down by carbohydrates, right, if you're lumping in alcohol with a carbohydrate here, you may not be counting, you can either break down 100 by seven, or you can break down 100 by four. And then you can attribute you know, how many actually how many grams of something are there actually I'm going to use carbohydrates, for example, so I'm not losing you guys here because it's a little bit easier on the math. If you're breaking down carbs by 100, because there's four calories per gram, that means that means that there's 25 grams of carbohydrate in that drink. So you just having two of those means that you just had 200 calories worth of carbohydrates,

07:35meaning that you had 200 grams of carbohydrates. Am I doing that right? Math right? 25 times, 25 times eight, if I'm doing that right. Yes. I'm bad with quick maths. Don't hold me to that. But I just wanted to bring that a little bit more of an enlightenment to you guys and awareness to you guys. It's not just two grams per can. There's so much more to unpack with that to equal out to the 100 calories that it's telling you that it's made up of. Basically, that's what I'm trying to say.

08:05So don't hold me to that quick math if I did that wrong. And essentially, what alcohol is considered, it is considered an empty, it's an empty calorie in nutritional terms. So it's a nutritional displacement. It's an empty calorie, right? It's often replacing, you know, you're often replacing more nutrition options and disrupting a balanced nutritional diet that is essential for building muscle and fat loss. So people that consume all of their calories coming from alcohol, majority of the calories

08:35coming from alcohol in a day, you're replacing the ability to have a more balanced focus like with protein, fats and carbs that are going to help aid in you building more muscle and aid in the fat loss goals that you want to accomplish. Okay, so just keep that in mind. It's more calorically dense. It's as calorically dense almost as fat grams are. And then the nutritional displacement, it's an empty calorie. These are empty calories. They are not doing anything nutritious for you and for your body.

09:07Nothing at all. Squat diddly. Okay, so when you're consuming this, it's not helping you. In terms of building more muscle and aiding in fat loss. Number two, alcohol is a huge interference with muscle protein synthesis, which is a process critical for muscle repair, muscle growth, following your workouts. So it not only slows down the repair mechanism, but it also promotes muscle tissue breakdown. So alcohol interferes with protein synthesis.

09:41It slows down the repair mechanism to build up muscle and it promotes muscle tissue breakdown. So like this dull effect, this dull impact means that muscle may take longer to recover and to grow after your workouts. If you are consuming alcohol, it's setting you back towards achieving those types of goals that you want to achieve. In order to be more toned, you have to undergo this process with muscle protein synthesis,

10:13with building and repairing and growing muscle, and to eliminate the fat around the muscle so that you can be more toned. And this is hindering that process from happening. This is actually, alcohol interferes drastically with muscle protein synthesis. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it and there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too.

10:47Now diving a little bit deeper. Number three is that when you have alcohol and drink alcohol and do it, you know, regularly or more routinely, this consumption leads to hormonal imbalances. So it noticeably and mainly when I'm talking about, I mean, it has a plethora of other things that it causes all hormones to go off balance. But when it comes to building muscle and decreasing body fat, there is a notably decrease in your testosterone,

11:22which women already don't have a lot of testosterone to begin with, and a noticeable decrease in your growth hormone levels. And these two specific hormones are insanely vital for muscle growth and recovery. And additionally, with that, it also disrupts hormone or insulin function. So when these things are disrupted, especially the insulin function, that with insulin function being disrupted, it impacts your energy levels.

11:56It impacts your muscle endurance. It elevates your cortisol levels. And when your cortisol levels are elevated, you guys, that leads to an increased fat storage and increased muscle breakdown. Because cortisol is like a stress hormone. And when alcohol is a stressor to the body, it's poison to the body, as I said earlier. And with all of everything that I've already talked about, when cortisol gets elevated, it is a fat storing hormone.

12:26So you are just increasing the chances of holding on to more fat when you are consuming alcohol. And then on top of that, it increases the ability for muscle breakdown. So with everything that I even talked about with the muscle protein synthesis and how that sets back your muscle building efforts because it promotes muscle tissue breakdown, the fact that testosterone, growth hormone, and insulin function all gets disrupted,

13:02that is another way that muscle is breaking down. So like you can put all your effort into working out. You can put your effort into choosing to eat the right types of foods. However, the consumption of this specific thing, alcohol, and, you know, even a couple of drinks in a week, okay, trust me, I am a drinker that is once in like a blue moon. Because this type of thing that I feel after consuming a drink or two or three,

13:34I am, my body is so insensitive to this because I don't do it often. And when I, how I feel on a regular basis is obviously prime and optimal. And then I have this coming into my system. Every, every, like seriously, like a blue moon. It's been very rare. I think I've had maybe like three drinks this entire year. And when I, this hat, when I do do that, I can feel all of these things happening in my body. I can feel the total off balance that is being internally,

14:07internally shifting from just this consumption. And so think about it, people are more, how should I say it, numb, maybe to the fact that with whoever, like the people that consume alcohol more consistently, because they, their body has come, become accustomed to these types of feelings. And you may not be as sensitive as I am to it. But I want you to understand what is happening when you are doing this,

14:39because you may not even notice it. Because things, your body is used to you having alcohol every weekend or every other day, or even on a bi-weekly basis. And so what I just encourage you guys from this entire podcast, right, is like just reconsider this consumption. Reconsider the way, just ask yourself, is it helping you and the goals? Or is it moving you in the opposite direction of your goals? And that should be a very like, conscious like, answer.

15:13Because it should be loud and clear, right to your brain, as I'm talking through this podcast. Because like I was saying, you could be putting in all your efforts into following a program, and into doing your workouts, and into trying to make better food choices. However, if this specific thing is happening, I will tell you that the results that you are seeking with building more muscle, and experiencing more fat loss, are like very, very low. It's like below probably a 30% turnaround for you to experience those type of goals.

15:45Because this thing, alcohol, is like I'm saying, it's poison. The things that it does internally to our body, which not a lot of people can feel that it's not participating, that's interfering with muscle protein synthesis, that it's increasing your, people can feel it's increasing your fat storage, but or that it's like, you know, causing, promoting muscle tissue breakdown, causing muscle breakdown, like all, like you're not going to feel those things. However, when you're doing the work in one facet, but like this thing is still,

16:21you're still intertwining this one thing into your journey, it's slowing down your progress. It's slowing down you getting the results that you want. It's basically the message I'm trying to get across in this podcast, okay? Now dive into the last two things, right? We already talked about the hormonal disruption, how that affects muscle and your fat metabolism, how that affects muscle breakdown, how that increases fat storage, the impact that it makes on interfering with muscle protein synthesis,

16:52how it's more calorically, it's close to being as calorically dense as fat is, and it's also an empty calorie. And not to forget to mention that like when you drink, you usually find yourself in the snack cabinet at the end of the day and making horrible nutrition decisions. So like not only is an empty calorie, but you're also consuming shit on the back end of it because you have, you're a little, you're a little buzzed, right? And you're like, oh, anything and everything sounds amazing right now. Sugar, sweets, like it's just, it makes,

17:24it makes you cognitively impaired as well, obviously. But to dive back into the last two points, it causes, it's a diuretic. So alcohol is a diuretic, which leads to dehydration. And when you are dehydrated, that affects muscle function and recovery. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause?

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18:26Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Dehydration, when you aren't, when your body doesn't have the water that it needs, it causes muscle, it causes you to decrease muscle endurance and strength.

18:58And when you're dehydrated, there's this disrupt in the electrolytes of your body and the balance of the electrolytes, which is necessary for muscle function, for growth and repair, for even cognitive function too as well. And when you're experiencing dehydration, when you're experiencing the lack of the electrolytes that your body needs, not just for muscle function, but for function in general, you're going to notice that maybe it's leading to, like I said, cognitive function and fogginess,

19:30but also in the muscle, you're going to lead into cramps and you're going to lead into spasms. For those of you guys ever feel like you have cramps in your calves or you have cramps in your biceps or you cramp somewhere, it may be the electrolyte imbalance of potassium. However, it could be even deeper. If you are consuming alcohol, you are dehydrated. It is a diuretic. That's why you pee so much when you are drinking, right? Don't want to break the seal. That it's a natural, it's a diuretic.

20:00It leads to dehydration. And it's causing all of these imbalances inside the body. It also impacts body temperature regulation, which can further diminish your performance and your recovery after you're done a workout. If you ever recognize if I wear an oral ring, right? And this is where this and then like do a period without drinking alcohol or like test it now and then stop alcohol for the new year.

20:30Make that be one of like your new year's resolutions. That's something we're doing inside the VIP program right now with Warrior Bay. We do an end of year challenge and a part of one of their tasks is to remove alcohol. We've allowed them to drink alcohol on the holiday, but every day around that, they are challenged to not drink alcohol. And within the first freaking couple weeks of this challenge kicking off, there has been so many wow factors, so many wins and accomplishments of how everybody feels with eliminating alcohol from their system.

21:06It's truly incredible. There's been so many wins I've seen within our community. There's been so many wins that on a weekly basis our coaches are sharing inside of our weekly team meetings. Sometimes it's just incredible how what people can experience when this thing gets eliminated. But with this, with the Oura Ring, like I said, go test it with you if you're drinking alcohol now to when you're not drinking alcohol, you will see your HRV increase, which is your body's ability to regulate stress. You will see your body temperature decrease because it increases, right?

21:39It impacts body temperature regulation. If you ever notice you have a couple drinks and you lay down and you go to sleep at night, which is going to be the next thing I talk about, you will notice that your elevated body temperature is up. You have an elevated body temperature. So because it's, you ever feel like you're hot in the middle of the night when you drink alcohol? This is why. It's literally impacting your body's temperature, which is wild. Like think about all these things that it's impacting. It's also so much further and deeper than just like it's impacting your muscle building ability and your fat loss ability.

22:13It's just poison overall in general. It's affecting longevity. It's affecting well-being. It's like I was saying at the beginning, the iceberg. It's like I don't want to get too deep and like dive into too deep around this stuff. I want to keep it like mid-level right now so that you guys can just start having the light bulbs go off and the wheels turning and be like, you know what, for this goal, I need to reconsider this consumption. And the last thing is that it impacts your sleep quality like dramatically.

22:46And sleep quality is so important for building muscle, for muscle recovery, for fat loss, and for just overall well-being. It severely, like when I wear this, which is an aura ring, right? When I wear this at night and I've had a couple of drinks, my HRV, so I have an average HRV of like around 200. It's honestly like superhuman status right there. And I'm very proud of that. That's a very important indicator of your health. And my HRV after having a couple of drinks is literally 50.

23:20That is so scary to me. I'm like, it's almost like I'm dead. Like that's what I joke about the next day. I'm like, oh, that's actually really scary that alcohol is that type of impact on my overall HRV heart rate variability. And it's pretty gnarly just to see that drastic. Like I'm telling you, like think about like just listen like to my experience, right? I'm somebody that does not drink. And then I see this and it's just like light bulb. Like holy moly, that's insane that this type of beverage, this type of this thing that people regularly drink has this insane impact on the body.

24:01So like I said, it impacts your sleep, which is crucial for muscle building. It impairs the ability to reach deep stages, deep sleep stages where muscle repair occurs. When you enter into the phase of deep sleep, that is where your body hits the ultimate recovery period. I on average get like two hours to three hours of deep sleep a night. Like I sleep like a baby. And when this is consumed alcohol, my deep sleep is like 30 minutes.

24:35It's horrible. And when this is impacted sleep from alcohol, it affects your hunger regulating hormones, which increases you the next day to have appetite of wanting to eat whatever you want. And usually it's always junk food or greasy food to want to help you make you feel better, but also because this regulating hormone is totally shifted. And that right there will challenge you into managing the body fat that you want to decrease.

25:10So all in all, these are really, there's probably so many other ways that alcohol affects your body when it comes to building muscle and losing fat and overall longevity. But these are the main five things I just wanted to bring to your attention. I want you guys to understand this process and what is going on when even like a few drinks is consumed. Like, and then think about it. Like if you're having it every single weekend, this type of thing internally is happening, regardless of either it's a few or it's like you're getting wasted.

25:47Okay, regardless this in this entire like the fact that your recovery period is going to be diminished, the process of which is crucial for muscle repair and growth is impacted drastically. Hormonal imbalances that with like testosterone and growth hormone and insulin function and then it's impacting your energy levels and your muscle endurance and increasing cortisol levels. All of this, regardless of it's a couple drinks or you're getting wasted. All of this is happening and all of this is why you may not be getting the results that you want with your body composition and seeing the results and seeing fat loss and seeing more tone develop and seeing more muscle grow.

26:32Because this thing, alcohol, literally severely impacts all of the things necessary for those results to happen. So you could, like I said, you could be putting in the work, you could be eating right, you could be working out, you could be following the program is telling you to do. However, if you were choosing to still consume this and like I don't, I almost am scaring you guys because like I want you all to succeed and I all want you to be the most healthiest version of yourself. So reconsidering this is like just my end goal for you all.

27:06And like I don't expect you to be like this. However, pulling it back a little bit each week and each month will just not over, not even just for longevity, but also, you know, not even just for results, but for longevity and for well-being and just for you, you as a human to live fully and, and be more, you know, healthy. That's it.

28:03If it's helping you, then, you know, I can lead you to water, but I can't make you drink it. Okay. All right, you guys. I love you all. I hope you have an awesome day and I'll catch you next podcast. Peace out. Real quick. The only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review, it will take you 10 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.