The more people exercise, the more they drink – and it’s especially true with women! The most active women actually consume the highest amount of alcohol every month, according to research.
A study from the University of Miami of more than 230,000 men and women found that on average, drinkers of both genders and of all ages were 10 percent more likely to engage in vigorous exercise like running. But heavy drinkers exercised an extra 10 minutes each week than moderate drinkers, and 20 minutes longer than abstainers.
There’s this misconception that heavy drinkers are exercise-averse couch potatoes,” explains study author Michael T. French, Ph.D., a professor of health economics at the University of Miami. “That may be true in some cases, but that’s certainly not what we’ve found.”
Alcohol contains calories, and chances are, people who exercise frequently are trying to avoid weight gain. It’s not like exercise makes people want to drink (though they may drink more because they know they’re burning more calories); it’s more likely they exercise more to burn off the extra calories from drinking.
But researchers say that theory doesn’t explain why someone who chase an intense workout with a round of drinks, which happens more often than you would think. “There are people who are sensation seekers,” says Ana M. Abrantes, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School. “They engage in activities that produce intense sensations and can be quickly bored by things that don’t produce those feelings.” In this case, it’s more of a “work hard, play hard” type of personality.
Or perhaps it’s just a way to relieve stress. Exercise stimulates the release of serotonin and dopamine – the “feel good chemicals” – and alcohol has a similar effect. The problem is, your brain gets used to it and wants more. According to Women’s Health, a University of Houston study took a group of rats and gave half of them running wheels while the other half stayed sedentary for three weeks. When they took away the wheels and gave half the rodents in each group an open bar, the active rats surprisingly drank more than the sedentary rats.
“We found that rats that exercised before drinking alcohol needed to consume more than sedentary rats to show the same signs of intoxication,” says study author J. Leigh Leasure, Ph.D. “Since alcohol enhances the activity of the brain’s opioid system, it’s possible that exercise could cause cross-tolerance to alcohol—meaning, it may make alcohol less rewarding, so people would therefore drink more of it in order to get its feel-good effects,” says Leasure.
But remember, it’s not just about the calories. Binge drinking is a risky behavior that can have serious side effects. Stick to one or two drinks a night to keep it healthy!
