what is the verdict on alcohol on low carb diets such as atkins, vdiet etc.
what alcohol has the least amount of carbs?
how bad is it for you?
Easy. Avoid it.
Low carb alcohol? Bullshit. It’s alcohol for crissakes.
From another thread for the 15th time:
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
The old news on this front is that small amounts of alcohol prudently consumed have well documented health benefits and anything over that becomes bad pretty quick with the deleterious effects escalating directly in proportion to how far over you go how often.
There may be those who will flame me mercilessly for this, but I don’t see how anything like serious physique goals can coexist with excess alcohol use.
I don’t mean sensible consumption or even getting wrecked on rare occasions, but consistent overuse of alcohol will harm your progress and there is just no way to escape that.[/quote]
I would consider excess to begin where the benefits end.
[quote]Hawkson101 wrote:
what is the verdict on alcohol on low carb diets such as atkins, vdiet etc.
what alcohol has the least amount of carbs?
how bad is it for you?
[/quote]
I wouldn’t worry so much about the carb content of alcohol:
Carbs- 4 calories per gram
Alcohol- 7 calories per gram
Guess you pack’a wetnoses are too young to remember the original low-carb diet, even before Atkins: “The Drinking Mans Diet”!..So, yes, you can low carb diet and drink (responsibly, none of that spring-break binge stuff, gotta’ be cool like Dean Martin/Frank Sinatra/Sammy Davis/Joey Bishop etc…Of course all the bluenoses and fanatic know-it-all’s will insist you don’t drink at all, so be prepared for that negative input) See, being an old bastard has one advantage: knowledge, so follow the link and be educated, Grasshopper(s)…
The problem with alcohol and getting lean well leave out any drinking problem /excess hell weve all had our times 
but the problem is that alcohol is a VERY simple fuel source and when consumed you essentially start burning and processing JUST it until it is gone so food etc well it sits around and or is stored.
That said I went from 300 - 215 in 3 months drinking bourbon like a fish and eating very low carb and LOTS of it just meat. LOL healthy Not really but it worked.
Phill
[quote]Phill wrote:
That said I went from 300 - 215 in 3 months drinking bourbon like a fish and eating very low carb and LOTS of it just meat. LOL healthy Not really but it worked.
Phill[/quote]
Let me get this straight, Phill…You basically went on a modified “Tuna & Water” diet (like Dave Draper talks about), combined with principles from the “Drinking Man’s Diet”: i.e. you were eating tons of meat and only salads and veggies for carbs (no rice, spuds, etc)…Do I have that correct?
(Hell, with a diet that strict, you need the booze to stick to it! LOL/
[quote]Blacksnake wrote:
Let me get this straight, Phill…You basically went on a modified “Tuna & Water” diet (like Dave Draper talks about), combined with principles from the “Drinking Man’s Diet”: i.e. you were eating tons of meat and only salads and veggies for carbs (no rice, spuds, etc)…Do I have that correct?
(Hell, with a diet that strict, you need the booze to stick to it! LOL/;-)[/quote]
It was very close to that but take out the veggeis and salad honestly I would have an occasional pickle LOL but it was 10-20 MAX carbs and that included fiber and the carb from an egg etc. It was smoked slabs of ribs no sauce etc with a bottle of whiskey LOL
this was year back pre T-Nation but it worked heck I lived that way for a couple years,.
Phill
[quote]Phill wrote:
It was smoked slabs of ribs no sauce etc with a bottle of whiskey LOL
[/quote]
Whiskey and Meat! Doesn’t get anymore T-Nation really does it? Haha, Nice work!
I was skimming through the wikipedia article on alcohol’s health effects today by coincidence and I came across this:
It’s not as cut and dry as I expected.
Google for ‘ketosis alcohol’ or something similar - there’s some articles out there that say that there can be side effects to drinking alcohol while in ketosis. i.e. increased level intoxication.
I can’t speak for the validity of these articles, however.
[quote]etaco wrote:
I was skimming through the wikipedia article on alcohol’s health effects It’s not as cut and dry as I expected.[/quote]
“Demon Rum” vs. being “on the wagon”…
[quote]etaco wrote:
I was skimming through the wikipedia article on alcohol’s health effects today by coincidence and I came across this:
It’s not as cut and dry as I expected.[/quote]
I stand corrected; maybe it isn’t that simple.
I do know from experience that beer messes with my blood sugar and causes my appetite to increase, so indirectly at least, it’s bad for me. I haven’t had appetite increase with liquor though. YMMV
I recall reading that alchool also has acute negative Testosterone effects. I always have relatively shittier workouts after a night of binge drinking, even when I don’t have a hangover.
Probably 1-2/day is fine but more is bad. And for lower carbs lean away from beer and towards liquor. Plus everyone will think you’re badass if you’re drinking straight liquor all the time.
Forgetting for a moment about it’s effects on bodyfat, overall, anything above very moderate alcohol consumption on a consistent basis has negative health consequences that get worse the more you overdo it.
Anyone who may not believe this is welcome to pardy hardy, but you are kidding yourself.
Carbs are carbs, if you’re low carbing you shouldn’t touch them. It’s as simple as that. You’re probably fat because of how much you drink, and if you find it hard to stop for 8 weeks then you have an addiction and you need to seek professional help because you obviously help yourself.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Forgetting for a moment about it’s effects on bodyfat, overall, anything above very moderate alcohol consumption on a consistent basis has negative health consequences that get worse the more you overdo it.
Anyone who may not believe this is welcome to pardy hardy, but you are kidding yourself.[/quote]
Not to mention that moderate consumption of alcohol is linked to brain shrinkage as well as the plethora of negative hormonal effects.
Alcohol doesn’t have any carbs. It’s a glycerin molecule with about 7 calories per gram. Beer, wine and drinks with sweet mixers contain carbs of course. Alcohol while dieting has several problem:
It’s anti-anabolic.
It diverts the liver from doing other important jobs while detoxifying your blood.
The calories it does contain (whether carbs or not) are essentially empty.
It leads to “munchie” time. (Hello TacoBell!)
Hangovers can wreck the next days’ workout.
In addition:
It destroys brain cells that are needed to design training programs and multiply by 45.
It may lower inhibitions enough to result in your foolishly posting a pic of your skinny ass on T-Nation.
Wow, all this typing is making me thirsty… I need a BEER!
Click on the link to see the citations. It is wikipedia after all, so someone should check.
Cognition
Research finds an association between better cognition or thinking ability and moderate drinking. “After adjustment for age, education, and smoking status, men with CVD/diabetes and low-to-moderate alcohol intake had a significantly lower risk for poor cognitive function (MMSE < or = 25) than abstainers (odds ratios of 0.3 for less than one drink and 0.2 for one to two drinks per day). Alcohol intake was not associated with cognitive decline. ? Alcohol may result in an acute beneficial effect on cognitive function among those with CVD/diabetes. However, selection bias and unmeasured confounding should be of concern when evaluating these results.”[54] “We report a positive association between moderate alcohol intake among middle-aged men and subsequent cognitive performance in later life. However, it is possible that the health risks associated with drinking outweight any potential benefits for many elderly persons.”[55] “These findings suggest that, among women, moderate alcohol consumption may have a beneficial effect on cognitive function.”[56] “? although a number of studies have noted a measurable diminution in neuropsychologic parameters in habitual consumers of moderate amounts of ethanol, others have not found such changes. Recent studies have also noted some positive effects of moderate ethanol consumption on cognitive performance in the aging human.”
Alzheimer’s disease
Studies have found the risks of Alzheimer’s disease to be as much as 75% lower among drinkers than among teetotalers.