Truth about alcohol, protein and exercise.

hmm, well, hmm, I drink my face off all weekend
I burn 1000 calories and more 7 days a week.
it works for me.

Hello all, this is my first article I have posted on here. Hope it is of interest and in the appropriate place.



Let’s face it, most of us enjoy a few beers from time to time, but how does alcohol affect our training?

Exercise is normally followed by a recovery period involving repair and building of muscle. However, a recent study by Parr et al (2014) found consuming around 12 units of alcohol (about 5 pints or 6 double vodkas) after training led to a 37% reduction in muscle protein synthesis compared to consuming a protein drink. That means alcohol consumption inhibited over a third of the gains that the athletes would have made, if alcohol had not been consumed.

Most worryingly, they found that a protein-alcohol combination still led to a 24% reduction in muscle protein synthesis versus a protein drink alone. This shows having a protein “rescue” drink or meal after a few pints is only partially effective.

The reasons why consuming protein, along with alcohol, isn’t as effective as we would hope, is explained by how alcohol inhibits muscle growth. Much early speculation guessed that somehow there was an inability to get amino acids (the building blocks of protein) into the bloodstream due to the large alcohol intake. However, in this study, there was no difference in the concentration of amino acids in the blood, regardless of whether the subjects consumed alcohol or not. This means amino acids were reaching the muscle, but not being used as effectively due to the alcohol.

It appears that alcohol can directly inhibit various parts of the “signaling cascade”. This is a series of reactions, which determine how much protein to build/break down (along with a huge number of other things). Alcohol inhibits a complex called mTORC1, and its downstream markers, which are responsible for actually building muscle (feel free to contact me for more information on this). Therefore, alcohol, regardless of what it is consumed with, directly inhibits protein synthesis.

So what can we do about this – many of us consider it unrealistic to give up alcohol and “binge drinking” is highly prevalent in athletes, often more so than in the general population. Unfortunately we cannot prevent the detrimental effects on alcohol, so it is best to limit alcohol intake to when the adaptive responses (muscle growth) are less important e.g. the end of a season. However, when a few pints do get flowing have a protein drink/meal – this isn’t going to eliminate the detrimental effects but will help a little. At this point it’s not clear whether there is a dose-response relationship between alcohol intake and reductions in protein synthesis (i.e. more pints = less gains) but it seems a logical conclusion. Therefore, it may be worth considering minimizing alcohol intake wherever possible. Remember, reducing alcohol is important for far more health-related reasons than just muscle gains.

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Doctoral Researcher in Exercise Adaptation and Metabolism:

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If you're routinely drinking 6 double vodkas after a workout, you have more to worry about than protein synthesis.

Would be interested in the findings of a more moderate intake.

Yes I totally agree, as I said though no-one has investigated a dose-response relationship yet unfortunately. I would assume however, that one exists... Remember this study is one of the very first to actually look at this in humans, as opposed to rats so it's still early days but the results are pretty conclusive that excessive alcohol is detrimental to muscle gains at this point.