Ep. 020 - Optimizing Your Relationship with Alcohol for Better Health and Weight Loss

Alcohol will wreck your health and your weight loss goals. There is no doubt about that. If you know you drank too much and you want to optimize your health and lose weight, then today's episode is a must.

Listen. Welcome to Man in the Arena, your go-to podcast for all things related to health and weight loss for men over 40. Here we discuss strategies that will get you off the sidelines and into the game so you can achieve your optimal health. It's time to lead a legacy of longevity. Hello and welcome back to Man in the Arena. I'm your host, craig Spear, and I'm diving into a bit of a tough subject today.

Summer is officially one week away, but the nice weather is already here, and that means more barbecues, beach days and ball games, and usually this means more alcohol. In saying that, i thought this would be a great time to create a series of episodes related to alcohol and men's health. A few weeks ago, I talked about sugar, and my sentiments here are very similar Drinking alcohol does not make you a bad person.

There is a lot of stigma around overdrinking, though, and unfortunately, that stigma only perpetuates continued use, and increased use at that. So my goal over the course of the next three episodes is to not shame anyone about their drinking. Rather, my intention is to offer you some new insights, and if you're willing to and you're wanting to change your relationship with alcohol, then you have some ideas and insights to move forward with. In this episode, i'm specifically talking about alcohol and your health, and then in the next two episodes, i'm bringing in my first ever guest, patrick Fox and Jordan McCarter, who are going to offer up some really great insights and they're going to give you some things to think about and then take action on.

But today let's talk about alcohol and your health Now. A few months ago in Canada, where I live, the Canadian Center of Substance Use and Addiction came out with a new recommendation stating that the recommended number of drinks per week is two drinks per week, and a drink is defined as a 12 ounce beer or cooler or cider, five ounce glass of wine or a one and a half ounce of spirit. When you drink two drinks or less per week, this puts you in the category of low risk, which means your risk of developing alcohol related cancers, stroke, heart disease and other alcohol related consequences go down dramatically, and a lot of people were really upset when these recommendations came out, because there is a drastic reduction from what was previous recommended, which was 15 drinks for men and 10 drinks for women.

So as you hear this, i want you to check in with what you think about these recommendations and how they make you feel. I remember I had one client. He laughed at these recommendations, and I get that, because alcohol plays a really big role in our society and as human beings we really hate it when things seem to be taken away from us, especially when there are things that help us cope with the demands of life. But keep in mind that the science and the data is so strong about the dangers and lasting effects alcohol has on our health. That's why these recommendations have been altered Not to make you feel bad, but to bring you more awareness to the dangers of alcohol.

So I grew up with alcoholism in my household and I saw just how devastating alcohol was, and it's something that I experienced and it really helped me form my current relationship with it. At the same time, my best friend was not interested in drinking alcohol at all and he's never had a drink to this day, and that also had an impact on me. Now, as a result, i never acquired the taste for alcohol, and so now I don't drink at all, because I know just how bad it is for you and because I just never really had that acquired taste and because of what I saw growing up. And when I say it's really bad for you, this is what I mean.

So 16 million men in the United States have an alcohol use disorder. 40% of men in Canada report drinking more than six drinks per week. Men are more likely than women to binge and two times more likely to die of an alcohol-related cause every year. On average, men engage in 12 binge drinking episodes per year, and 17% of men meet the criteria for alcohol dependency at some point in their lives.

So overdrinking negatively impacts virtually every area of men's health, including mental health, reproductive health, cardiovascular health, liver health, and on and on and on. There's virtually no part of our body, no system, no orion that isn't negatively impacted by alcohol, and much of what I talk about on this podcast is related to weight loss. And if you want to lose weight, the amount you drink is going to be a big factor in your success or in your failure, and here's why.

So, first and foremost, alcohol has a ton of empty calories. outside of spirits and liquor. It's very high in calories, so consuming alcoholic beverages is going to add extra calories to your diet without providing any nutritional value.

Number two it increases your appetite. So appetite is going to stimulate different hormones, primarily ghrelin and leptin, which leads to overeating. At the same time, it also reduces inhibitions, making it easier to indulge in high-calorie and unhealthy foods.

Number three poor nutrient absorption. So alcohol can interfere with the absorption of certain nutrients, such as vitamin B, which are essential for energy metabolism, and over time, this interference can impact your body's ability to efficiently utilize the nutrients from food.

Number four alcohol slows down your metabolism. So your body prioritizes metabolizing alcohol over other nutrients, because our bodies can't store alcohol. This means that when you consume alcohol, your body focuses on breaking it down and eliminating it, which can temporarily slow down your metabolism, and a slower metabolism can make it much more challenging to burn calories and lose weight.

Number five disrupted sleep patterns. This is a big one. This is the one I see the most in my coaching. Alcohol disrupts your sleep quality and duration And this leads to increased fatigue, decreased metabolism And then, as we know, poor sleep is associated with weight gain, and it's going to hinder your weight loss efforts.

Number six dehydration. So alcohol can act as a diuretic and this leads to increase urination and then potentially increase dehydration. And then dehydration affects your body's ability to metabolize fat, and then it's going to also impair your exercise performance, which of course, makes it harder to burn calories.

And lastly, number seven, increased alcohol use leads to decreased muscle protein synthesis. So alcohol consumption can interfere with the muscle protein synthesis And this process helps repair and build new muscle tissue. And then, of course, as you interfere with this muscle growth and this maintenance, it obviously negatively impacts your metabolism and overall weight loss progress.

So if you're in a point in your life where you understand the health implications of overdrinking and you want to start drinking less, here's what you can do. First and foremost, if you're dependent on alcohol and you suspect alcoholism, there are many different interventions, including, but not limited to, medications, behavioUral therapies, support groups and individualized treatment plans.

So if you're overdrinking and it's alcoholic in nature, then you want to go after one of these approaches first. Second, if you just want to stop overdrinking and you reduce the number of drinks you have each week, or maybe you want to stop drinking altogether, there's some fantastic coaching programs available that deal specifically with this topic. And one of those coaching programs is the Alcohol Rethink Project, which is run by our guest next week, Patrick Fox.

So make sure you tune into that episode because he offers up some really great wisdom. And lastly, the literature shows us that two of the most effective strategies in helping people reduce their drinking is a two-fold approach. And the first part is planning your drinks in advance.

So, before you go out for a night, or before you go out on the weekend or even for the week, decide ahead of time when and how many drinks you're going to have. This is a game changer. And the second part of this strategy is reminding yourself of the negative outcomes and health implications of drinking. That goes a long way in just reminding yourself how dangerous alcohol is to your health.

So with that, i want you to remember and take away from this episode that alcohol is the antithesis of good health. If you drink more than two drinks a week, just know that you're sacrificing your health and weight loss goals and that you have a choice to change your relationship with drinking.

And once you make this decision, there are plenty of ways to do that. So with that, that's what I have for you today. I want to thank you so much for listening and I look forward to next week and the week after that where we'll continue this conversation around alcohol and men's health, and in the meantime, i encourage you to keep leading a legacy of good health and longevity.