Alcohol and Fitness after 40

Most of my middle-age readers consume some form of alcoholic beverages on a weekly or daily basis. For many, this is one of life's great pleasures after all. Consumed in moderation (no more than the equivalent of 3 glasses of wine a day for a man and two for a woman) alcohol has mostly proven to be beneficial or at least not harmful to your health.

A few studies have evidenced a slight increase in the risk for certain cancers (digestive tract) but this risk may be offset by potential cardiovascular benefits. 

Now I personally do not believe that red wine alone makes a big difference in the likelihood of having a heart attack in one's 50's or 60's. The so-called French paradox has probably been largely exaggerated by marketers of wine to increase sales in the US. On the other hand, I am pretty convinced that drinking moderately, especially wine is not harmful to yourhealth and may even have psychological benefits by enabling moderate drinkers to relax after a hard day of work.


NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH DOES NOT MEAN INNOCUOUS FOR YOUR FIGURE
Having said that, health benefits and fitness should not be equated. In other words, things that may be healthy may nonetheless constitute a hurdle in attaining your fitness goals. Alcohol should definitely be placed in this category.
The first reason for that is that alcohol consumption adds extra calories to your diet that are not registered by your brain. As a matter of fact, drinking a glass of wine or a beer does not trigger satiety mechanisms in your brain that could potentially prevent you from "over-drinking". Alcohol calories are thus of the "invisible" kind, making them all the more pernicious if you want to maintain optimal body weight or keep the fat at bay.
A single glass of red wine brings in 90 KCal whereas a pint of beer has about 160. My experience is that hardly anybody drinking socially at a party or a bar stops at a single drink. Even at home most people typically drink two glasses a day. Over a long period, these extra alcohol calories really add up. Two glasses of wine a day correspond to 5,400 Kcal a month, which is the equivalent of a pound of body fat.

ALCOHOL CALORIES MAY BE INTRINSICALLY HARMFUL TO YOUR WAISTLINE
The second reason why alcohol does not mix well with fitness goals is that, according to the latest research, calories from alcohol are not processed by the body in the same way other calories (typically from glucose) are.
Certain scientists even believe that biochemical processes involved in metabolizing other forms of sugar like fructose into energy are intrinsically harmful to the body. I recommend you watch the following video featuring Pr Lustig, a distinguished professor of endocrinology at UCSF. Now the same would be true for alcohol, which means that calories derived from drinking a glass of wine or beer are less healthy than those from a slice of bread.

To be honest, I am not qualified to judge whether the alarmist position of Pr Lustig towards fructose and alcohol is fully justified. However, after spending over 20 years in the fitness world, I have ample circumstantial evidence corroborating some aspects of Pr Ludwig's thesis.

To put it bluntly, after a certain age, about 35 or 40, no matter what you do, you have to choose between your can of beer and your belly. I have never met a single regular drinker (even a moderate one) over 40 that does not sport a beer (or wine) belly, no matter what his/her level of physical activity is. It really seems as if alcohol calories are different from other calories in that they more readily turn into belly fat.

Contrary to Pr Lustig's opinion though, I would not systematically consider this a health hazard. It is all a question of quantity. I therefore doubt that a moderate excess of belly fat is hazardous to your health.

On the other hand, I know for sure that even a moderate potbelly is a dead giveaway for a middle-aged person. Every single time I go to the gym, I notice several younger athletes, some still in their 20's, whose muscular and toned figure is "ruined" by a potbelly. Maybe it is a question of perception. But I personally consider it a pity to put in so much effort in building a strong, muscular body only to be betrayed by a protruding mid-section. And more often than not, that bulge is caused by alcohol consumption.

The morale of the story is that if you want to keep a flat stomach into your 40's and beyond, you should drink alcohol only on rare occasions, which is much a lot less frequently than a couple of beers a day.

IS YOUR WAISTLINE WORTH A GOOD BEER?
I am fully aware that this no-alcohol recommendation may come as an unwelcome message to most baby-boomers reading this blog. But, once again, fitandwise.com is not about being popular or selling snake oil. I have always tried to give you the facts not the hype. But after all is said and done, it all comes down to a personal choice: you may well decide that a flat stomach is not worth sacrificing the pleasure of a couple of beers a day after all.