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What are the effects on the body due to alcohol? Should I simply consider it as a carb in my macros or is it different (worse?) than that?
I’ve been bodybuilding for a year and a half and I haven’t been wasted since, but maybe this weekend I will. I want to know how much I can consume without affecting my gains too much.
Alcohol has many detrimental effects in the body, and you cannot replace carbs with it.
Alcohol has a catabolic effect on protein synthesis; the result is lower muscle mass/smaller gains, but it also inhibits other proteins in the body. One effect is that neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) in the hippocampus is shut off for 4-5 days after alcohol consumption.
One huge effect this has is that it decreases the synthesis and release of the peptide (protein based) growth hormone. This is reason enough to abstain from alcohol if you are exercising.
Besides his fact, it also decreases testosterone release, so that less is available to increase muscle mass. This eventually leads to a decreased lean muscle mass as well. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24658221) - Some research shoes that testosterone increases following low doses of alcohol, and decreases with moderate and high doses. However, the synthesis is inhibited, leading to long-term effects. Alcohol inhibits gonadotropin-releasing hormone which otherwise stimulates the production of sex hormones.
Alcohol also slows down recovery. This happens because energy expenditure is increased for the detoxification from alcohol, and as such less energy is used for muscle regeneration. As far as research goes, this effect depends on the type of training performed.
Another effect is that it functions as a diuretic. This leads to a state of dehydration which induces fatigue, lowers performance and decreases ATP levels. Also, dehydration in itself causes an increase in the heart rate. This makes aerobic training less effective and harder to perform.
Alcohol decreases glycogen levels in the muscles. When doing medium to high intensity training, muscle glycogen is the main energy source; depletion results in premature ending of training, with subsequent lower gains than otherwise.
Finally, alcohol is pretty caloric, but is rather low on nutritive value. There are better options to increase calorie intake both during gains and cutting.
Edit:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4056249/ - This review sums up many of the effects I mentioned above concerning hormonal function. I will try to find studies on the other aspects as well.
Alcohol consumption slows your body's mechanisms for metabolizing fatty acids by interfering with the citric acid cycle (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/87483). It essentially bumps fatty acid metabolism down the priority list. This mostly applied to chronic alcohol use, however. So it doesn't just increase in carbohydrates in your diet, but it also slows fat metabolism in long term drinkers.
If you're not a drinker, in the short term (like this weekend) my guess is the only effect you will see is the increase in calories from adding more carbohydrates to your diet. But in aggregate, especially for a body builder where the goal is to essentially metabolize as much fat as possible, alcohol consumption may make your bodybuilding a little tougher than it has to be.
A different take on the matter: http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html . Not an expert by any means so would be great with some comment on that particular article since it paints alcohol in a different light than what seems to be commonplace among the fitness community.
One of the major things you will notice with alcohol consumption (more specifically liquor) is that:
This will destroy your gains considerably if you think importantly about nutrient timing. If you are dedicated to your craft, you know that eating every 2.5-3 hours is optimal to maintain metabolism. Once you start missing your mark, your body realizes that it is expecting resources, but is not receiving resources due to the destroyed protein synthesis process.
Thus, cannibalism of muscle tissue.
Although you asking about the effects of alcohol on health which has been alluded in other comments. It seems you are keen to understand the effect of alcohol on weight gain and if it's worse than carbohydrates.The estimates of energy intake you get from carbohydrates and alcohol are as follows: I gram of Carbohydrate =4 Kcal I gram of alcohol = 7Kcal
In view that, even though people drink alcohol, they also consume other meals with it during the day.Therefore in addition to energy intake from food alcohol adds an extra energy intake at 7kcal per gram. Therefore alcohol might lead to weight gain and may counteract the effects of exercise on weight loss. Therefore it will be good to avoid alcohol, consume less energy dense foods and exercise for effective weight loss.
