I’ve struggled a bit with this too because of not drinking alcohol and deciding not to eat sugar or any processed foods over the past two months. I’ve lost about 5 or 6 pounds of actual fat (obviously estimated), and am trying to find the best balance of eating enough and the right macros. It’s actually quite difficult to eat enough while training when not eating silly calories. I’ve had bouts of low energy and some bad workouts because of it - but slowing getting less of these bouts by eating more protein and fueling the workouts much more than I used to.
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Don’t want to veer too off topic, but seeing some people mentioning weight loss. In a similar vein to this thread - except I’ve been sort of trying to do the opposite - maintain weight.
I think in cutting out alcohol, snacks, etc. it might be worth using an app to track food to make sure you’re eating enough. I recently started using one again. The first time I used it was to try and lose weight. But as I have been averaging 11-13,000 kj a week and no longer drinking or snacking nearly as much, I started to worry I’m running too extreme of a deficit.
It might be worth it as an experiment for a week or two to track if you don’t? I discovered I was often undereating, and I have found the process fun (and hard) to try and hit my daily goal. The alcohol wasn’t beneficial, but maybe those calories were.
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@KorbenDallas - I’m still working on my weight (sitting at a little over 200 pounds now at 6’1" and hoping to get down to 185ish), so if I go for even the low end of the recommended 1.5 - 2.0g grams of protein per kilo per day, I need to eat around 150g of protein. For me, that means fat-free Greek yogurt with granola (plus some fruit) for breakfast most days, with a whey protein shake mid-late morning, then more Greek yogurt with maple syrup and fruit in the afternoon. This is a routine I actually enjoy, and it gives me a really solid protein baseline so I don’t have to worry nearly as much about everything else I’m eating. And clearly, this wouldn’t work for someone vegan or lactose intolerant.
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One thing I always wonder about with alcohol and fitness is correlation vs causation.
Is the absence of alcohol the major factor that is driving fitness gains? Or…are people that abstain from alcohol naturally more likely to make solid training decisions about adherence to plan, sleep, general nutrition?
I don’t have the answers…and as someone who drinks consistently but not excessively (I hope), and has considered stopping/limiting alcohol…I’m certainly curious. By gut tells me it’s probably a bit of both…alcohol has an impact, but the associated other lifestyle changes probably share a similar or larger role…
Quantity certainly matter though…2 glasses of wine is a whole lot different than closing down a bar after 10 beers…
Sorry…it appears I’m just thinking out loud semi coherently here 
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Yeah I mean like everything it depends. Genetics, cycling and drinking history, how much a rider consumes each day etc…just make for a web of unknown.
What the human body has to do to metabolize alcohol is fascinating. Perhaps start there. I think once you realize alcohol does less than zero for you (emphasis less than zero) you can appreciate the benefits of cutting or severely reducing consumption.
The great thing is you can try it for yourself. No research, relying on forums or friends anecdotes, no questions. My only recommendation, like trying to lose weight, give it a good 6 months or longer. The body just doesn’t morph into a butterfly overnight like I used to believe.
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I used a calorie counting app back in 2011-12 for diff reasons and thought it was brilliant insight into portion size and how the small things add up each day. I was using it not to lose weight but, to not gain weight as I was injured and not riding for a year. I lost about 20 pounds.
Fast forward to today…a month ago I was against calorie counting as I thought I had it figured out. But, you may be correct at least in this “transitional” period. The only piece of information I don’t have that I had tested back in 2011 was my actual BMR.
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Thing is, bad sleep and general nutrition are directly affected (negatively) by alcohol too. So at least for this part, there is an immediate improvement when stopping alcohol (regardless of any other decision making).
Another important point is that you need to allow some time - from my experience, it’s a bit like with weight - it’s pointless to do a 2 week’s special diet. But if you do it for 2-3 months, you will see the results.
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I considered myself a pretty “standard” drinker. 2-3 beers a night, ~4 nights a week. I still trained 10-13 hours a week. Since January 1, I have had maybe a “week’s” worth of beers. I didn’t go cold turkey but I have been gradually easing off of it. No beer in the last 3 weeks. I’m now regularly riding 13-17 hours a week.
My sleep hours, foods I eat, training plan, etc. remains the same. Just way less alcohol.
I think that before I still had the willpower to ride even if I felt a bit off, so my training was still decent. But now with much less alcohol my riding feels more enjoyable because it requires less willpower to get on the bike. On a Saturday or Sunday morning I’m more likely to wake up early and hop straight on the bike. No more sitting around the house all morning working myself up to do it. So for me, it’s solidly the drop in alcohol consumption that is driving fitness gains.
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Hmm, maybe I’ll give it a whirl long term. I actually just got back from buying a bunch of non-alcoholic beer to replace my 1-2 drinks a night with.
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I was a moderate to heavy drinker before I quit drinking. I also rode my bike a ton and did structured training. When I quit drinking noticed many subjective changes others have said and two objective differences. By about 30 days sober I noticed my resting heart rate had settled in at 10 bpm lower. When I did an ftp test it was 17 watts higher. This was with no change in training. I wasn’t using TR at the time and was in my off season just doing zone 2.
N=1 on this info so not saying it would apply to anyone else but with all the other benefits not drinking has given me, I’ll take it!
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The NA beer thing, both Athletic Brewing and a seltzer called Hop Splash (?), has been working great for me. I enjoy them and my whoop doesn’t complain about them. In fact I hit 100% sleep and high 90s on recovery two days in a row this week with a little help from them.
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Not had a drink since the weekend, which is the longest gap in two years.
M/T/W have all been a solid 8 hr sleep. according to Garmin my body battery is way higher than usual and my RHR has dropped 10bpm.
Just need to keep going now
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Love the Rodman pic - man he was fun to watch play.
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Childhood hero of mine. One of the best defensive players and rebounders of all time.
19 days no alcohol. I had an unhealthy relationship with west coast IPAs lol decided to take a little break. Absolute game changer with respect to mood and performance on the bike. Also watched the Huberman pod on alcohol which really had an effect on me. I like the Athletic Run Wild but if you’re in the PNW check out the No Mo NA IPA from Crux Fermentation in Bend, OR. Only 30 calories, so less than half the calories of a Run Wild. Kinda feels like something in between Sierra Nevada Hop Splash and the Run Wild stuff.
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Fun facts for you, next time you are drinking it in good company, courtesy of a speaker of one of the three languages that have the letter ø , which are Norwegian, Danish and Faroese
- NØ is not a word, but can sometimes be used as an abbreviation for nordøst (north-east)
- MØ on the other hand is definitely a word, and it is the sounds cows make (moo)
This has been a public service announcement brought to you be the tourist council of Norway 
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@timeforcrime can you detail what you are seeing on the bike? 50+days for me and I honestly can’t say I’m seeing improvement in terms of absolute power metrics. I might be slightly more durable but, that’s from race performance so far and totally subjective.
Anyone experience post exercise hypotension? Pretty good correlation for me when I stopped drinking but, I don’t understand the causation. For example, I’m figuring out I need to drink more on the bike and have electrolytes in the drink whereas before I never thought about it and would often drink straight water. Why I would become more dehydrated not drinking alcohol seems backwards. Anyone?
It seems that lower blood pressure is expected when you stop drinking, but the extent of it probably depends on how much you were drinking. Lots of data showing that but unfortunately I’m not seeing a ton of it related to athletes.
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