DO any of you T-Men and vixens drink? Well, I know a lot of you do but when is it too much? How many drinks per week should one consume at the most? Is one night of binge worse then 2 beers a night for a week? thanks.
We answered this a few weeks ago in “News and Reader Mail”. Here it is:
Beer Bellies and Binge Drinkers
Lie on your back and take a look at your belly. The higher it rises above your torso, the more abdominal fat or “central adiposity” you have.
This type of fat accumulation not only looks bad, but it’s also a sign of sub-abdominal fat?fat under the abs and probably covering the internal organs. Some doctors call this “heart attack fat.”
Now, in a study published in the August issue of The Journal of Nutrition, researchers have linked abdominal fat to drinking habits. Those who don’t drink alcohol often but drink heavily when they do had more abdominal fat than those who drank the same amount but spread consumption out regularily.
In other words, the guy who had a drink every couple of days had less fat than the guy who had the same amount of drinks all at once and then puked in the parking lot of Chile’s embarrassing his date and amusing his friends.
The type of alcohol consumed also made a difference. Hard liquor drinkers had the worst central obesity patterns, and wine drinkers had the lowest. Current drinkers in the study, those who’d consumed alcohol within the past 30 days, had lower abdominal height than non-drinkers, oddly enough.
What does this mean in the real world? It means that an occasional drink is fine, maybe even beneficial in some ways, but getting totally plastered is bad for your health and bad for your physique.
Gee, did we really need a study to tell us that?
I got hammered last night and I still look great! 
I seem to see a stange trend when I drink -
I don’t look any different but the girls look WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better!
The only problem I find with drinking is that my ILS (imaginary lat syndrome) gets to be too much to handle. I think I’m walking around with Thunders back, and have nothing but air.
I think that part of being a T-man is living life to the fullest. Whether that means that you force out another rep under the bar, or that you enjoy a glass of wine or beer with your dinner, or smoking a good cigar, you’re living your life.
We all have to come to grips with the fact that we’re going to die some day. What you have to decide is how much you want to sacrifice to live longer and stronger.
One thing that I think will help is to develop expensive tastes: good wine or Scotch, nice Cuban Cigars, whatever. Something that doesn’t lend itself to being drunk/smoked every night, neccessarily. (Or if it does, you just have, say, a glass of wine or Scotch before your dinner.) The key is that you really enjoy it, This, in my mind, is better than getting blitzed on cheap beer.
Though maybe part of moderation is learning when it’s okay to do that, too.
Sometimes, your physique goals have to take precedence. Other times–well, that’s up to your discrestion. How are you going to maximize your pleasure in life and minimize your pain over the long run?
Dan “The Utilitarian” McVicker
drinking is much like weight training. you must always go for overload. vary your frequency and duration and load to find out the optimal drinking regime for youself.
I personally find drinking while working a great way to pass the shift a lot quicker
Guinness for strength.
Dan,
Very well stated!
I dont drink at all. EXCEPT - the occasional glass of red wine.
To many empty calories and a big expense in my book.
But hey you gotta live too I guess.
The utilitarian my ass. Utiltiarianism has nothing to do with maximizing YOUR pleasure…that’s called hedonism.
-Zulu
Zulu,
One definition of Utilitarianism is “The greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people,” where good=pleasure. As long as bobo doesn’t hurt someone else while enjoying his filthy pleasures–smoke cigars in a room full of babies, drive drunk, drop dumbells on other people’s feet, etc.–then the other people are irrelevant to the equation. So it then becomes a question of how to maximize bobo’s personal happiness, as this will maximize the “greatest amount of good…” equation.
Utilitarianism is a system of Ethical Hedonism. Ethical Hedonism just means that you equate pleasure with what is “good”.
Dan “Back to my paper on G.E. Moore’s Principia Ethica” McVicker
I drink wine – only cabernet, dry riesling, chardonnay, or white zinfandel. I don’t like beer or hard liquor. And I drink maybe once every 2-3 months? So I don’t drink a lot.
Besides I’m light weight…cant drink much.
I drink beer. I ENJOY my beer. And I also drink wine; not as much as beer, but I enjoy the occasional glass or two.
I have no worries about drinkin’ beer, too. Geez.
I took up a friend’s challenge to stop drinking for six months. Stupid, I know, but the condition was that he started going to a gym and following a proper exercise regimen.
I just about managed it, though it was a shame at celebrations and fancy meals not have to a drink or two. An exercise in discipline. Now I appreciate much more what a social lubricant it is, but also how some people use it as a crutch, and can’t have a good time unless they drink. I’m certainly better at enjoying myself than I was before I did it.
Anyway, I’ve started drinking again, and suddenly my body fat is way out of control. I got used to eating enough for growth without too much fat, and didn’t worry too much about beers. But now adding in the calories from drinking, plus all the crap I eat while drinking, I’ve ballooned in only six weeks. I’m having to readjust my diet, though I’m not too worried about putting on a few pounds before the snow gets in.
How much is too much? Well, if you need a beer or five to unwind every day, you should find better ways to relax that don’t involve empty calories or hormone interference. The occasional binge is fine, even healthy - it’s good to let go of everything, it can be very liberating as long as you don’t get too moody, or violent, or jump out of a window, or try drive your truck.
The last time any alcohol touched my lips was November of 2000. I think I can count the number of times I have been drunk on one hand. Never really appealed to me.
Ethical Hedonism
i like that term…
me drinking makes the whole world happier so i’ll keep doing it (in moderation…ptffff!)
Only the occasionaly liter or two!
OK, that was on my trip to Germany. I have maby a drink or two a week.
If you are worried about the effects on your body physically…
there’s always “smokey, smokey”!
I personally find drinking while working a great way to pass the shift a lot quicker.
Hey Whetu - I agree. All that heavy machinery doesn’t seem so “heavy” or that difficult to operate after having a few beers.
In response to the original query, it is an individual thing. I have been what most people would consider a “heavy drinker” for 25 years. (six pack a day, sometimes shots of crown, or gin gibsons etc.) It doesn’t seem to have slowed me down at all. I’m 43 yoa, five nine, 180, and can bench 285, dead 355, and do 10 chin ups (and all of my workouts are at 7:00 AM.) Drinking is like any other rewarding activity, you are only going to get out it what you put in. Oscar Wilde, “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” He who loves not wine, women and song, remains a fool his whole life long.