bulking and alcohol

[smok44]

I'm bulking at the moment, while trying to limit fat gain as much as possible, so I'm eating 4000kcal on training days and 3000kcal on rest days.
Once or twice a week I like to drink some alcohol, let's say a bottle of red wine ( around 600kcal ) on a Friday night, it's a rest day.
What do you guys think, should I in this case substract these 600kcal from my daily 3000kcal and only eat 2400kcal of real food, or keep 3000kcal
of food and add the wine bottle on top ? I'm asking because I still can't grasp how the metabolism of alcohol works. Can it contribute to weight gain while
bulking, or does it only hinder fat loss in a cutting phase ?
I know it would be better to not drink at all, but bodybuilding is just a hobby for me, I want to keep some balance in life, wife keeps complaining that
I'm too obsessed anyway....

 

[Othello]

keep 3000kcal of food and add the wine bottle on top

this

 

[pickapeck]

Ethanol is converted to acetate, which then enters into the TCA cycle to generate ATP and other energy intermediates. It can deliver 7 kcals of energy per gram.

 

[EnhancedFatGrappler]

if you want to drink your glas of wine, drink it, it won't have any measurable amount of impact on your results. Now, if you want to have a bottle of wine every day, it may not be so great in the long term, and I'm not talking about the fat gains here.

Just enjoy it in moderation and you're fine, don't overthink this. Those alcohol calories are shitty calories though, wouldn't replace any of your real food (that has actual nutrients in it) with it.

 

[Flex500]

I'm bulking at the moment, while trying to limit fat gain as much as possible, so I'm eating 4000kcal on training days and 3000kcal on rest days.
Once or twice a week I like to drink some alcohol, let's say a bottle of red wine ( around 600kcal ) on a Friday night, it's a rest day.
What do you guys think, should I in this case substract these 600kcal from my daily 3000kcal and only eat 2400kcal of real food, or keep 3000kcal
of food and add the wine bottle on top ? I'm asking because I still can't grasp how the metabolism of alcohol works. Can it contribute to weight gain while
bulking, or does it only hinder fat loss in a cutting phase ?
I know it would be better to not drink at all, but bodybuilding is just a hobby for me, I want to keep some balance in life, wife keeps complaining that
I'm too obsessed anyway....

Honestly...drink and enjoy. I do the same (although with beer) on saturdays. Your biggest risk is a downward spiral of binging for days. If you can control that, you are good man. You could subtract the calories and all that...nothing wrong with that of course but I wouldn't overly worry either way and just enjoy some food and wine on a friday.

 

[Virtuous]

I drink once or twice a week at work happy hours or when traveling.

I’m sure I’d be a bit leaner and have a couple more grams of muscle if I didn’t, but I like enjoying it.

Used to be a full blown alcoholic but got that shit handled, that set me back a lot

 

[smok44]

Thanks for the replies, you guys are of course correct, however I have rather poor genetics and I need to be really meticulous when bulking, if I don't eat enough I'm not gaining anything, but if I eat just a little too much I start to gain fat really fast, much faster than muscle So this time I'm trying to track everything really precisely and adjust if needed, based of what I'm seeing in the mirror. So my question is - is this bottle of wine going to have the same effect as 150g of white sugar worth also 600kcal ? I'm using sugar for comparison just because it doesn't have any nutritional values either. Will it affect weight gain the same way ? Not taking into account the negative effects of alcohol on recovery, just purely from an energy balance standpoint.

 

[Fit2Serve]

drinking alot at once (a bottle) may be enough to cause liver to blunt hunger/appetite signals.
when i drink alot at once next day its very hard for me to eat.

 

[hevi-head]

drinking alot at once (a bottle) may be enough to cause liver to blunt hunger/appetite signals.
when i drink alot at once next day its very hard for me to eat.

I’m the opposite. I want to pound food the next day if I drank too much.

 

[livinlean]

Add it to your plan. I have 2 rest days per week where my cheat meals land. IF I feel like it, thats where I add a few drinks. On the weekend rest day sometimes I end up having a bottle of red like you mentioned.

 

[UnholyAlliance]

I’m the opposite. I want to pound food the next day if I drank too much.

Same here and basically same effect I get after smoking the green stuff. When I drink, which is rare I usually have 2 Coors lights which is my fave brew that goes down easily but now and the I'd go for the Guinness. So I better plan what I eat otherwise I'd get that nasty weight gain (and I gain weight easily).

 

[Fit2Serve]

I’m the opposite. I want to pound food the next day if I drank too much.

shit food tho right? like greasy hang over stuff or can u go right back into clean food?

 

[hevi-head]

shit food tho right? like greasy hang over stuff or can u go right back into clean food?

Lol pretty close. Not necessarily total shit but not children and broccoli either. Well unless it’s a Chinese buffet….