For some of us, this might be the most important chapter in the section. It starts funny. It ends honest.
The short version
- Five good days and two wild ones can add up to standing still.
- Alcohol is high in calories, makes sleep worse and slows muscle repair.
- The UK guideline is no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days.
Weekend maths
Monday to Friday, you're a machine. Walks, home sessions, vegetables you can name. Then Saturday turns up with a takeaway menu and a thirst, and by Sunday night you've undone the week. Five good days plus two undoing days equals going nowhere slowly, at great expense.
Researchers have seen this exact pattern. In one study of people trying to lose weight, they ate more at weekends, and their progress stalled on those days.1 Other studies have found weight tends to go up at the weekend and back down in the week.2
The fix isn't to ban weekends. It's to make them part of the plan. A walk on Saturday morning. One treat meal rather than a rolling buffet. A few drinks rather than a few too many.
What a night out really costs
Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, almost as many as fat.3 A pint of 5% beer can be up to 222 calories, and a standard 175ml glass of 12% wine up to 158.3 Five pints is over 1,100 calories before the kebab has even been considered. And the kebab is always considered.
Then there's the rest of the bill:
- Sleep. A few drinks might help you nod off, but sleep in the second half of the night tends to be more broken.4 You wake up having technically slept.
- Muscle repair. In one study, drinking after a hard training session cut the muscle-building response by about a quarter, even when protein was eaten with it, and by over a third when it wasn't.5
- The hangover. Hungover people don't go for walks. They go to the chip shop, then lie down in a dark room, then go back to the chip shop.
The guideline
The UK Chief Medical Officers advise not regularly drinking more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days, with some drink-free days.6 14 units is about 6 pints of average-strength beer, or 10 small glasses of lower-strength wine.7
The honest bit
Drinking can drift. It starts as a weekend thing, then becomes a Thursday thing, then a "hard day" thing. If you're not sure where you are with it, these are worth an honest look:
- You often drink more than you meant to.
- You feel you need a drink to relax, sleep or face things.
- You feel guilty or defensive about how much you drink.
- People close to you have mentioned it.
- You've tried to cut down and found it hard.
None of that makes you a bad person. It makes you someone worth helping. Your GP is a good place to start.8 Drinkline is free and confidential on 0300 123 1110, weekdays 9am to 8pm and weekends 11am to 4pm.8
If you've served in the armed forces, Op COURAGE is the NHS service for veterans, and it helps with drinking as well as mental health.9
Your rep for this chapter
Plan this weekend now: one walk, one treat, and how many drinks, if any. Write the number down before Friday, not after Saturday.
All 18 chapters of Basic Training
Sources
1. Racette SB, Weiss EP, Schechtman KB, et al. Influence of weekend lifestyle patterns on body weight. Obesity. 2008;16(8):1826-1830.
2. Orsama AL, Mattila E, Ermes M, van Gils M, Wansink B, Korhonen I. Weight rhythms: weight increases during weekends and decreases during weekdays. Obesity Facts. 2014;7(1):36-47.
3. NHS. Calories in alcohol.
4. Ebrahim IO, Shapiro CM, Williams AJ, Fenwick PB. Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 2013;37(4):539-549.
5. Parr EB, Camera DM, Areta JL, et al. Alcohol ingestion impairs maximal post-exercise rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis following a single bout of concurrent training. PLoS One. 2014;9(2):e88384.
6. UK Chief Medical Officers. Alcohol consumption: advice on low risk drinking. 2016.
7. NHS. Alcohol units.
8. NHS. Alcohol support (includes Drinkline, 0300 123 1110).
9. NHS. Op COURAGE: the veterans mental health and wellbeing service.