It is not an uncommon thing to see a group of runners or athletes meet up for a beer or two and a cheeseburger at the local pub. Hey, you’ve worked hard and trained for months and you deserve it, right? The studies show that drinking just a few beers throughout the week doesn’t have too many unhealthy side effects, so long as the alcohol is being metabolized quicker than you’re consuming it.

In order to decipher all of the studies conflicting with what we previously thought we knew about alcohol, we should first define how much you are drinking on a regular basis or what the purpose of your drinking is.

Upon consuming alcohol, our body will recognize this as a toxin and make it a priority to metabolize it as quickly as possible and to try and get rid of it. This a great thing, but a negative side effect is that it may slow down the process of other nutrients such as carbs, fats and proteins. It may be worth argument to say alcohol itself isn’t making you fat, but the slowing of processing other nutrients while your body is processing alcohol IS.

It’s also worth noting once alcohol is consumed excessively, inhibitions are lowered and self-control over healthy food choices become null and void. And then we have the comfort foods during the hangover period the following day. So, from a caloric standpoint or fat loss perspective, alcohol is not exactly an ally if you’re looking to achieve weight loss or get your body fat percentage lower. Of course, if you are precise on calculating your caloric intake and you are in a caloric deficit, you should be just fine. Just be sure you account for all of the factors named above.

In the quest for getting into shape, many set the goal to add more muscle mass to their body composition. We know from current studies that having muscle mass is easily connected to having better healthy and better longevity. A study from 2014 done by PLOS One showed that heavy alcohol consumption in the realm of 8-9 drinks post exercise reduced protein synthesis by up to 37%! On top of that, even when protein was consumed at “optimal” or increased levels, there was still a 25% drop in protein synthesis.

I think another big issue with alcohol that should be considered is how alcohol effects sleep. Many will refer to sleeping after excessive consumption as “passing out” rather than, I slipped into a deep and comfy sleep. This is pretty accurate as falling asleep should be a bit of a process instead of a fast “passing out” from drinking too much as soon as our head hits the pillow.

The feeling of drowsiness after a few drinks is not necessarily due to your brain slowly slipping into a healthy sleep, it’s actually from sedation and the loss of ability to activate your frontal cortex, the part of the brain used with planning and organizing. Sedation does not equal asleep. The second issue with drinking is you will be less likely to have a continuous sleep throughout the night. Studies have shown that sleep becomes fragmented after drinking and you will wake up more frequently throughout the night. Some of this will be conscious awakenings and others you may not remember at all. Lastly, alcohol is notorious for inhibiting REM sleep or rapid eye movement. This portion of sleep depth is essential to for us as humans as it is known as the process our brain uses to sort out emotional issues we may have encountered throughout the day. Compartmentalizing our emotions in a healthy manner is essential to function at an optimal level throughout the day.

There is room to say if you are drinking just 1-2 drinks in a sitting and only on occasion, the negative side effects from them may not make much of a difference to worry much about. There is an argument to say that when alcohol is used occasionally to bond with friends or with a partner to have fun, this emotional and mental satisfaction may be offset some of the physical negative side effects. However, overall, alcohol is not shown to have any physical health benefits at low levels of intake and is absolutely measurably detrimental to anyone drinking more than 3-4 drinks in a sitting, especially when done regularly.