{"id":32268,"date":"2014-09-23T15:15:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T19:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=32268"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:05:12","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:05:12","slug":"drink-more-alcohol-gym-days-092314","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/drink-more-alcohol-gym-days-092314\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Shows You Drink More Alcohol on Gym Days"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Drink
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If your ideal Saturday activities involve some combination of spin class<\/a> or running<\/a>, followed by a boozy brunch or beer garden, you\u2019re not alone. A new study published in the journal Health Psychology reveals that we tend to drink more alcohol on days we work out \u2014 especially Thursday through Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Study author David E. Conroy, a professor of preventive medicine and deputy director of the Center for Behavior and Health at Northwestern University\u2019s Feinberg School of Medicine, says the fitness-booze connection is surprising, because fit people usually maintain pretty healthy lifestyles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone is very active, they tend to eat reasonably well, and they tend not to smoke. But with physical activity and alcohol, the direction is actually the opposite,\u201d Conroy says. \u201c[In previous studies,] people who were more active were the ones who drank the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/b> Is Alcohol Killing Your Workout?<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe same day people are more active, they are also drinking more.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To better understand the connection between drinking and sweating, Conroy and his fellow researchers designed an experiment involving 150 healthy men and women, ages 18 to 89. Every day, each person logged his or her physical activity and alcohol consumption using a smartphone app<\/a>. Previous studies had relied on data gathered once a month, or once every six months, likely skewing results based on how well participants remembered their habits.<\/p>\n

The data showed some unique findings. Unlike earlier research, which had indicated that fit people drank larger quantities of booze overall, this new research demonstrated that active people were simply drinking most of their alcohol on days when they also worked out. \u201cThe same day people are more active, they are also drinking more,\u201d Conroy says. \u201cThe alternative was [thinking that] people might be more active during the week and drink more on weekends, but that\u2019s not the case \u2014 it really is the same day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why You Drink More Post-Workout<\/h3>\n

Though it\u2019s unclear why this link exists, the researchers have some theories. \u201cOne of them is that when you do something good for yourself, like exercising, you give yourself a reward \u2014 you reward yourself for exercising by drinking more,\u201d Conroy says. \u201cAnother possibility is that you use all your self-discipline and willpower<\/a> to get yourself to be active; you\u2019re depleting your willpower and won\u2019t have enough to resist temptation afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet another hypothesis is that people who exercise more drink more alcohol because physical activity is often social<\/a>. In other words, it\u2019s hard to resist participating in your intramural kickball team\u2019s post-game outing to the bar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just young people boozing up on gym days, either. \u201cWe actually found that the effects seem to cross the lifespan,\u201d Conroy says, meaning older folks are just as guilty of reaching for a drink after breaking a sweat.<\/p>\n

While too much boozing could be bad for your waistline and overall fitness, only about 35 percent of the participants had a day of heavy drinking throughout the course of the 63-day study. In most cases, people consumed one alcoholic beverage for every two exercise sessions lasting 10 minutes or more.<\/p>\n

Though this study didn\u2019t examine how grabbing a beer post-gym could impact health, Conroy says he and his team will continue to explore the connection. \u201cWe\u2019ll be looking at some of the mechanisms linking these behaviors \u2014 is it a social process? Ego depletion? Or is it that people reward themselves and give themselves permission to indulge?\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you more likely to grab a beer on a gym day than on a rest day? Tell us in the comments section.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love following spin class with happy hour? A new study shows that people tend to drink more alcohol on the days they hit the gym. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":32276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[28,44,289,251,341,352],"class_list":["post-32268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diet-nutrition","category-health","tag-alcohol","tag-drinks","tag-exercise","tag-news","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2weight-loss"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}