(PLEASE NOTE….this is of course a discussion about “healthy” overall alcohol intake and a “healthy” relationship to drinking so if discussing alcohol is a trigger, please ignore this post and know I will love you for doing so.)
I get asked if I drink it…
YES.
Beer?…meh. Wine?…meh. Craft cocktails and margaritas?
Hells to the YEAH!
I also get asked about how it fits into the macro cycling program and a healthy lifestyle in general.
I’ll tell you right now…
NO alcohol is healthy.
Now don’t go trying to defend the health benefits of your wine…Cause that just really isn’t all that it’s touted to be.
First off, most of us DO NOT actually get those supposed benefits.
And secondly, most of us aren’t really consuming wine for it’s health benefits in the EXTREMELY moderate amounts it should be consumed.
Basically studies showed the healthiest amount of alcohol was ZERO.
Sorry to break it to you, but as I jokingly say all of the time – Alcohol is a toxin.
Drink it knowing this.
But that doesn’t mean there can’t be a reason to ENJOY alcohol.
I would argue the only real “benefit” of alcohol is that you ENJOY it and life is meant to be enjoyed.
And that by relaxing, and enjoying a couple of drinks with friends, you can lower stress levels, which may, in the end, do much more to benefit your overall health than a few drinks will do to negatively impact it.
Because STRESS does play a major role in our overall health. Much more of one than we give it credit for.
So if alcohol is a part of your lifestyle, it doesn’t have to be eliminated.
But how do you TRACK alcohol if you’re counting macros?
I do tell clients though that when they are starting out with tracking their macros to keep it to their “cheat day” or at least 1-2 set days.
Logging alcohol is an interesting thing.
While beer and wine will register a few carbs, alcohol will register as calories but not really a macro since it’s…well…it’s own macro.
So if you’re trying to track and log, you can count it as either a fat or carb, whichever you have more of with the ratio you are using.
You will then divide the calories in your alcohol by 4 for carbs or 9 for fat to get the grams of each you would have consumed. (No you can’t count it as protein :-P)
If you can, I do recommend counting it as a fat because alcohol suppresses fat oxidation.
So alcohol can fit into a balanced lifestyle even while you’re tracking to get a specific result.
I will tell you though that if you want FASTER RESULTS, eliminating alcohol, if even just for a time, can be key.
Let’s face it…most of us get a few drinks in us and want some not so healthy treats!
Plus, even if you avoid overindulging, alcohol can also negatively impact the benefits you see from your training done PRIOR TO drinking by inhibiting protein synthesis and lipolysis (or fat loss).
Not to mention it usually makes for a crappier training session the next day (hehe this picture below cracks me up)!
And dudes…you have it worse as drinking negatively impacts your testosterone levels too!
Plus, it can perpetuate and create inflammation, which can not only make you feel aches and pains more but be detrimental to your workouts AND your recovery!
So, while I’m sure this sounded negative, my overall feeling is that you can find a balance and that alcohol doesn’t have to be something you eliminate.
Just go in with your eyes wide open when you do decide to indulge.
Find that lifestyle balance that helps you eat according to your goals!
MACROS – You may have heard this word recently when someone mentioned a new diet they were starting. But what the heck are macros and how do you “hit” or “fit” something into them?
I wanted to give you a little “cheat sheet” guide to macros and why paying attention to them may help you get better results FASTER!
So first…
What is a macro?
A macro is a macronutrient or protein, carbs and fats. It is the nutrients your body needs in large quantities.
Almost every popular diet out there manipulates the amount of each macro you consume to get results whether it is promoting low or no carbs, low fat, high protein, or some balance in between!
And all of the foods we consume have a certain amount of each macronutrient.
Animal proteins such as chicken, fish, eggs and beef all have a different amount of protein, and fat. Some are very low in fat, like chicken breast, while some can be higher in fat like say Salmon.
This doesn’t mean one food is BETTER than another.
It just means you can include a variety of protein sources based on your specific needs and goals and even “work around” different fat contents by the foods you include at other times!
For instance, if you’re doing a diet that is lower in fat and higher in protein, you may start to realize that eggs, while protein, also increase your fat intake.
So you may still include eggs, but you may eliminate a less healthy source of fat from somewhere else OR include a leaner protein source at another time.
Or if you’re doing Keto, you may start to look at which foods are higher in fat to focus on those while eliminating some foods that are higher in carbs.
Or if you’re a vegetarian looking to increase protein, you may realize that you need to not only combine certain foods for a completely protein, a complete amino acid chain, but that many of your protein sources also contain more carbs too.
The key is understanding what our food is made of so we can eat according to our goals!
To often we start a diet, dial in our diet with whole, natural foods and then wonder WHY we aren’t getting the results we want.
And it may be because while we think we are following the principles of the diet, we aren’t actually hitting the macronutrient ratios the diet suggests because we don’t actually KNOW what the macros are.
That is where this quick cheat sheet can come in handy!
And it is also important for us to realize that while the quality of our food is key for optimal functioning and better health…for some aesthetic goals…well it kind of doesn’t matter!
Quality Doesn’t Matter!?
This isn’t meant as an excuse to just go eat crap.
BUT I think it is an important fact to recognize because it is a frustration I often hear from clients trying to lose weight.
“Well I cut out all of the processed stuff and am eating one ingredient foods, but I’ve stopped losing weight and I have 10 more pounds!”
It’s because the quality of our food doesn’t fully matter to weight loss.
Because calories in vs calories out is at the heart of what matters, and how we dial in your macros CAN affect how we create a deficit, but you can still OVEREAT even eating only healthy foods.
While the quality of our food does help our body function optimally, I think often the fact that we cut out all of the foods we love to eat “cleaner,” ends up backfiring.
Often I even see clients overeating because they have a craving they aren’t satisfying.
So they hold themselves back from getting the results they want instead of striking a balance.
Instead of also including the foods they love while focusing on whole natural foods, they completely cut them out, and, all too often, end up binging on them at some point and falling off the restrictive diet they’ve created.
You CAN indulge in those foods you love while still dialing in the overall quality of your diet for results.
But realize that no matter how “clean” you eat, the bottom line is that if you want to lose or gain weight, the amount and type (aka macros) of calories that you consume matters most.
What’s Right For Me?
The most confusing part of this is where to start. What ratios or diets do you choose?
How do you create a calorie deficit without cutting out too much?
How can you get fast results without restricting yourself so much you end up binging?
Where is the balance that will work for you!?
The one key to figuring out what is right for YOU since one size doesn’t really fit all with dieting?
START TRACKING!
Learn about the different diets, experiment with different ratios and then track what you eat so you can truly see your calories, your macros and even what may be working or NOT working!
If you don’t track, you don’t know.
And tracking, while annoying yes, not only becomes easier and a HABIT, but it also helps you stop feeling like nothing will work!
What’s worse, not knowing what is or isn’t working and therefore constantly struggling to see the results you want OR taking a few minutes each day to weigh and measure and log?
