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mkyl428

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I have been a homebrewer for a few years now, I even used to write some articles here on HBT. I also used to be pretty overweight....

About a year ago I got very into fitness and started lifting weights 5-6 days a week, and changed my diet entirely. As you can imagine my brewing took quite a hit, but I lost over 40 lbs and gained a lot of muscle!!!

I went from brewing almost every weekend, and consuming a lot of beer, to last year I brewed 2 beers. (I'm still drinking a pale ale I kegged in July)

Today I brewed for the first time since June, a nice American Stout. I really enjoyed myself and want to get back in the hobby at some level just not sure how to balance my fitness goals and homebrew....

Fitness folk seem very anti alcohol especially beer. Many preach a lot about how drinking will hurt your muscle/ strength gains.

So who here is into fitness and also makes beer? How do you balance it, and how often do you brew? How much are you able to consume in a given week and still get good workouts, and the results you want?
 
Conrats, a lot of homebrewers carry the extra weight with pride. I do not. I workout so i can drink home brewed beer. I try to burn 1500 to 1800 calories a week in the gym and track the beer calories I consume since Beersmith estimates calories for my brews. I try to match burn with consumption. I go to the gym alot more often when I'm brewing. Since I brew alot of session beers, 1800 calories grants me a couple per day
 
There is the balance of intake and practice of moderation to begin with. Unless you are prepping for a show, a few beers a week should not hurt overall.

It also opens up the opportunity to brew smaller batches.
 
I don't really work out- I just have a very active and fit oriented lifestyle. I do love my pilates and yoga classes, and hiking, biking, and kayaking, and so on.

I tend to eat primal/paleo, except for the beer I drink. I joke that I drink my grains and don't eat them, but alcohol is metabolized differently in the body than grains and I don't gain weight from a couple of beers a day. I think too many times it's not the beer that causes the weight gain, but instead the junk food (like pizza) that goes along with it.

I bet I haven't had a doughnut in 30 years, maybe longer. I don't consume sugar (including agave and honey) or refined foods as a general rule. I follow the 90/20 rule where 90% of what I consume is real food, and nutrient dense. I'm pretty small, so I try to make sure everything I eat provides the nutrition I need.

I think beer can fit into any lifestyle. I'd rather have a beer than junk food, so that's my splurge.

I'm very fit and strong, although I notice less cardiovascular fitness since I stopped playing hockey when I turned 50. Still, my lab work is great and I'm more fit than many people half my age (including my own kids). I can quite literally run circles around my 27 year old daughter, and she hates that!

I'm almost 53, weigh 130 pounds, and am 5'5" tall. I'm in great shape and am very healthy. I would encourage everyone to think about what they are consuming and make good choices. It's not really difficult to be fit for a lifetime with good dietary choices and some physically challenging activities.
 
I still work out often, but now 52 and with torn labrums in both shoulders this year is about staying healthy and building up the supporting muscle around my shoulders. My desire is to keep in shape (doing well) so I can take on all my physical hobbies- road biking (occasional mtn biking and running), water skiing/boarding (why I really need the shoulders in good shape), kayaking, lifting and hopefully back to yoga. Bottom line is keep moving. I drink about 1 - 1.5 beers / day. Tend to be all <7 ABV, in summer are 5ish.

If you are around body builders, especially competitors, I'd expect they won't drink any alcohol. If you enjoy brewing and want to keep it up, just give a way a lot and/or brew smaller batches. I brewed 16 batches last year, so about 32 cases. I gave away about 1/2, so that's right about my 1 - 1.5 beers/day. Wow, that still sounds like a lot of beers!!
 
I've generally been pretty active in my brewing. I lift grain, and fermenters all the time. its a good workout........
I also do bicep curls at the bar... (my drinking arm is so strong now.)

but seriously, health is important. my beer intake is moderate I would say. I actually lost weight drinking wed/fri/sat/sun by regular exercise and good eating. ( I went from 105kg to 94kg in 2 months)

Running 2-3 mornings a week, plus regular sport is what I did. although I've put on a bit of weight since I tore up my knee (I'm waiting for surgery now) so apart from my leg strengthening exercises and an exer-cycle. I've been trying to get out and do some hill walking as well.
 
I'm about to turn 50 in a couple of months. I don't lift weights, but I'm a runner. I run a couple of half marathons each year and log up to 30 miles per week in the warm seasons. It's down to 15 in the winter. (Winter sucks!)

I relish my daily beverages though, usually my delicious and varied homebrew from a six tap keezer which taunts me from my garage, sometimes a glass or two of red wine. I definitely feel more sluggish if I have two beers in the evening after work, and I conk out rather unattractively on the couch after dinner when I do that. I'm trying to limit it to one beer a day now, especially in the winter when my miles are also cut in half.

My running goals are to... keep running as I get older! I want to get a bit faster, sure, very gradually, but it's the long, slow distances that challenge me. It's the hope of longterm cardiovascular health and endurance that motivate me, and it's the promise of a post-run "high" and day-long energy that push me to get out the door when it's cold or hot out or I'm tired.

If both things matter to you, then you'll invest in both pursuits and learn how to not let one compromise the other.
 
Runner/brewer here too. Pretty moderate - if it's a weekday, 1-2 drinks max, weekend maybe 3 (wife and I love a good homemade cocktail Sunday afternoons). On the running side, ideally 3 days a week. I like going for a longish 8-14 miles on Fri or Sat, and the weekday runs are 3-4 miles - sometimes steady pace, other times threshold pace workout. Usually, if it's a brewing weekend, I'll forgo the long run, or only do 6 on Sunday. I trained up for and ran my first (so far only) full marathon in 2015, and once the long runs got up to 16-20 miles, just didn't find the time to also brew much on the weekends (what with the wife and 4 kids). Right now, holding at the half marathon level is a good balance of fitness and time available for other pursuits. And allows for that moderate level of consumption with minimal effect, at almost 43 years old.
 
Nice, @mikeasu. We have similar profiles.

I ran my first and only full marathon in 2015 also. Those > 15 mile runs are a major time commitment. Even though I did great in training up to 22 miles, the actual marathon had me at a hotel, poor sleep, different food and routine, maybe too much adrenaline... and it was the hardest damn thing I've ever done (but I finished)! If I ever get into the NYC Marathon via lottery, I'll commit to that - otherwise I'm satisfied to say I've run one and I'm done!

The half is a perfect distance. Runs of 4-6 during the week, and a 10+ on one of the weekend days. Man, I can't wait for summer... it's 10ºF out today.
 
I can get all my nutrients out of 2000 calories. Based on my activity level a 2,800 calorie diet keeps me weight neutral. 800 calories of beer is my daily allotment.

If your goals are to gain or lose weight, beer is tough to justify from a caloric perspective. If you are bulking you may be consuming 3,500 calories per day - but you want that to be energy rich and protein dense foods. If you are cutting, you may be down in the 1,400 to 1,700 calorie per day range and you need to get as much nutrient from each calorie you can.

If you are at a weight/bodyfat% you are comfortable with and maintaining an active lifestyle with good exercise and healthy diet, you can drink a decent amount of beer. If you are still looking to get to your ideal body shape, you might be better off skipping beer. Most of the guys and gals at the gym are never happy with how they look and are in constant pursuit of physical improvements; this is probably why they are against beer/alcohol.

TL : DR - get to a BMI of 20, a body fat% of less than 15 and enjoy beer once you achieved this. Otherwise delay the gratification until you are there.
 
I find drinking beer makes me feel tired and lazy. So since I started trying to work out more, I decided to try not drinking any beer until after my workout. It's kind of a nice congratulations on a job done. (Although, to be honest, I usually have a beer on days I don't work out too...)

Much depends on what your working out is geared to do. If you are cutting weight, then you need fewer calories and beer might not make the cut (Except for one or two on the weekend.)

If you are just trying to stay healthy and maybe bulk up, then one a day won't kill your program.

Just be aware that one sometimes leads to two, and it can be easy to slip into the habit of having a bunch each week. I have been trying to do Mediterranean diet to a certain degree (As much as our stores and my family will allow) and I've been losing a few pounds and feeling more active in general. I'm a far cry from being a fitness nut, but even a little bit helps. When you look at the numbers, a little bit of carbs and alcohol aren't going to break the bank on the average workout.

I'd say sweets are more of a danger. Studies have shown that sweet foods, even those that don't contribute calories, can somehow make you ingest a certain amount of calories. One study has shown the people who used non-nutritive sugar substitute in their daily coffee tended to eat more later to make up the calories their body thought they were eating. So it averaged out to be equal in calories with people who put sugar in their coffee.

I know when I eat certain things I not only don't feel full, I feel maybe hungrier shortly thereafter, and want to eat even more. Beer is the same way, but usually not until after about 2 beers, when I get the "beer munchies".
 
I am also a runner, about the same mileage as McKnuckle. No problem maintaining/losing weight and drinking beer. It is all about balancing intake vs exercise.
 
I workout 5-6 days a week and I eat a low carb diet so I can get my carbs from beer. Like everyone else has said it's about intake vs expending the energy. If you can have a healthy diet besides beer\alcohol and try to have a active lifestyle you'll be fine. I know when things are getting out of wack when my sides start getting a bit soft. So I'll not drink during the week and bump up my workouts to get things back in order.
 
Fitness folk seem very anti alcohol especially beer. Many preach a lot about how drinking will hurt your muscle/ strength gains.

I don't know nuthin' bout bodybuilding, but I have been a competitive athlete at real sports all my life (track, mtb and road cycling, xc skiing, dirtbike racing, hockey, practical shooting). The bicycle community in particular seems pretty much pro-beer, but that's because riding a bicycle 5-10 hrs a week makes most caloric issues unimportant.

when I was road racing in germany, my rule was no beer the night before a race, because otherwise I would start to get leg cramps by the end. I stuck to the same rule for mtn bikes, but during cyclocross season (45-60 minute races) I could afford to have a beer or two without noticeable effect, so I did. Now that I'm not racing, I just don't worry about it.

Personally I think exercise makes beer taste better, which is a good motivator to exercise.
 
I'm very fit and strong, although I notice less cardiovascular fitness since I stopped playing hockey when I turned 50.

lol, I waited until 52 to *start* playing hockey. What a great sport, doesn't mentally even feel like exercise. :ban:
 
If you are around body builders, especially competitors, I'd expect they won't drink any alcohol. If you enjoy brewing and want to keep it up, just give a way a lot and/or brew smaller batches. I brewed 16 batches last year, so about 32 cases. I gave away about 1/2, so that's right about my 1 - 1.5 beers/day. Wow, that still sounds like a lot of beers!!

I've seen a quote from Arnold about how he drank lots of dark beer when he was young and working out.
 
Lots of great replies here, it seems there are a lot of you that maintain an active lifestyle and still brew. I would like to stay lean and pack on some more muscle, maybe if I just limit beer when I'm cutting and try not to go overboard otherwise I will be okay.

Loving these examples of how you all balance fitness with your love of beer!
 
There are a couple of somewhat contradictory axioms out there:

First is the belief that, if you work out hard and burn lots of calories, you can eat what you want. Second is the assertion that you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet.

Both are true! Because the bad diet is not just about obvious weight gain. It's also about inflammation at the cellular level where you can't see it, especially in your digestive tract and vascular system. And about your insulin response - when your body tries desperately to flush out the excess glucose you just dumped into your bloodstream from that large pizza or two slices of cake. Over time, your body stops responding well to the insulin, and that's partly how diabetes is developed.

You may have burned an extra 1000 calories on a given day, but you can't routinely practice extreme eating and get away with it in the long term. And packaged, processed, fake foods - such a staple of the American diet (and of other "advanced" nations too) - well, who knows what that's doing to you.

I look at beer like I do bread and pasta. It's simple carbs, and frankly, we all should have a daily limit on calories from those sources. The carbohydrate calories feed right into the bloodstream as glucose, and if you haven't depleted much muscle glycogen recently, most of it will get deposited in your adipose (fat) tissue. I am known for making sandwiches with one piece of bread, and for weighing out my pasta portions. I figure it makes sense to explicitly leave some room for beer rather than over-indulging in just about everything, which is really so easy to do.
 
I'm about to turn 50 in a couple of months. I don't lift weights, but I'm a runner. I run a couple of half marathons each year and log up to 30 miles per week in the warm seasons. It's down to 15 in the winter. (Winter sucks!)....

On the running side, ideally 3 days a week. I like going for a longish 8-14 miles on Fri or Sat..

....Runs of 4-6 during the week, and a 10+ on one of the weekend days..

I am also a runner, about the same mileage as McKnuckle...

All of you above piss me off!! :D I cap my runs to about 5 mi, else I get knee pain. I've run 2 marathons, and many half and other distances, so now its hang up the longer ones, besides switching to biking more..

... The bicycle community in particular seems pretty much pro-beer, but that's because riding a bicycle 5-10 hrs a week makes most caloric issues unimportant..

Exactly! My avg ride (with longer daylight especially) is 2.5hrs. Longer rides on weekends (up to and +3 hrs) make keeping on weight almost difficult!

I've seen a quote from Arnold about how he drank lots of dark beer when he was young and working out.

Yeah, but that was in the 70's. Times they are a changin'!
 
I am very thankful that I have never had to pay any attention to how much simple carbs I eat. Lots of bread every day. lots of beer pretty much every day, but not very much packaged crap, because I just don't like that stuff much. but I am definitely more active than the average person, even in my mid 50's.
 
All of you above piss me off!! :D I cap my runs to about 5 mi, else I get knee pain. I've run 2 marathons, and many half and other distances, so now its hang up the longer ones, besides switching to biking more..

i switched from running to biking after college because my knees were unable to handle a college workout schedule over the long term, but about 10 years ago (45 years old), i was getting back into running, no intervals or speedwork, just trail running for 60-90 mins at a time. My knees liked that just fine. Then I was hit head on by another dirtbiker while trailriding, and had a compound fracture of my femur that split the bottom portion of the femur lengthwise all the way to the knee joint, and cost a bit of cartilage in the knee as well. Now my running is so much more limited that I just don't do it much. Thank goodness for xc skiing and hockey.
 
i switched from running to biking after college because my knees were unable to handle a college workout schedule over the long term, but about 10 years ago (45 years old), i was getting back into running, no intervals or speedwork, just trail running for 60-90 mins at a time. My knees liked that just fine. Then I was hit head on by another dirtbiker while trailriding, and had a compound fracture of my femur that split the bottom portion of the femur lengthwise all the way to the knee joint, and cost a bit of cartilage in the knee as well. Now my running is so much more limited that I just don't do it much. Thank goodness for xc skiing and hockey.

Yeah I do like trail runs, they are a bit kinder to the knees, not to mention way more fun and challenging. Still limit my distance / time.

If I'm mtn biking single track (mostly) and its a limited visibility trail, I tend to use that before and/or after vegetation growth limits the visibility. That is the big fear in mtn biking, well ok, that and a hard fall on rocks, down a hillside, into trees.... Still its a great sport, tremendous cardio and reflex workout as well as a mental workout too!
 
I have a very similar story to the OP. Used to be in great shape, had a kid young and put on a bunch of dad weight, now back on point and 6 pack shredded. Got into bodybuilding about 3 years ago and haven't looked back. I run 8-12 miles a week and lift weights 4 times a week following a Wendler 531 style routine on a upper/lower split. Mostly the compound lifts with a little accessory work to round things out.
For eating Ive been carb cycling lately which makes getting a few beers in easier on my high carb days. But for the most part I shoot for 1-1.5g protein, .3-.7g fat, and fill the rest of my daily cals in with healthy carbs. Ive successfully cut ~40lbs and lean bulked 10lbs this way, just adjust cal intake.
As for brewing I brew a lot, both at home and with a nano, but I don't drink a whole lot. Im happy just drinking for taste these days not the buzz.
 
All of you above piss me off!! :D I cap my runs to about 5 mi, else I get knee pain. I've run 2 marathons, and many half and other distances, so now its hang up the longer ones, besides switching to biking more..

Ha, I went the other way, I used to do a lot of road biking until I had a friend who crashed and will now live the rest of hiss life in assisted living. It just hit a little close to home, so I hung up the bike and started running. I don't know if I will ever do a full marathon due to what I see as potential damage to my knees, but I really enjoy halfs and 10k runs. Personally a good morning run followed by an evening brew session makes for a great day.

Edit: oh and I brew a 6 gallon batch about once per month. That seems to keep me slightly ahead of the consumption curve for myself and my guests.
 
Ha, I went the other way, I used to do a lot of road biking until I had a friend who crashed and will now live the rest of hiss life in assisted living. It just hit a little close to home, so I hung up the bike and started running. I don't know if I will ever do a full marathon due to what I see as potential damage to my knees, but I really enjoy halfs and 10k runs. Personally a good morning run followed by an evening brew session makes for a great day.

Edit: oh and I brew a 6 gallon batch about once per month. That seems to keep me slightly ahead of the consumption curve for myself and my guests.


Man. That sucks, my old boss was knocked off his bike. And spent the next couple of weeks with head injury concussion and amnesia.
Bloody boy racers knocked him over and he tumbled halfway down the hill.
That's why I have a bike in my living room, less danger
 
I can relate. When I got my act together and began exercising in my early 40s, I became an avid road cyclist for about 3 years. I was really fortunate and never had an accident, but certainly had a few "whoops" moments with traffic. Eventually I simply became spooked - partly from stories of other people's mishaps and also from just observing the distracted, aggressive idiot drivers in my area. Our roads have tiny shoulders if any, and it's just an unfriendly place for riding.

My wife and I planned a trip to Madrid, Spain for a milestone wedding anniversary, and I thought, uh-oh, how am I going to ride over there? And of course the answer was... you're not! So I decided right then to learn to run. I had always hated running but I was in good shape from cycling, so I started a couch-to-5K routine. Man, running is truly steady state. There's no coasting like on a bike! It's much harder, mile for mile. But I stuck with it, and now it's basically all I do.
 
I've been out of the gym for probably 2 months now since I've been friggin exhausted for the past 4 months. And I know, that exercising increases your constitution but man the energy is just not there right now.
 
I've been out of the gym for probably 2 months now since I've been friggin exhausted for the past 4 months. And I know, that exercising increases your constitution but man the energy is just not there right now.

I *never* have energy for the gym.

OTOH, i have an easy time finding energy to go xc skiing or take the dogs for a run or play hockey. Gyms suck.
 
I *never* have energy for the gym.

OTOH, i have an easy time finding energy to go xc skiing or take the dogs for a run or play hockey. Gyms suck.

I get what you mean but up until October I was regularly in the gym 4-5 times a week. I might start playing some roller hockey again this spring but I need to get back into the gym as well. Gotta keep my back strong and have enough energy to chase my kids around.
 
About energy... there is a quote I like:

For better results, replace Motivation with Discipline.

Simply put, it paraphrases Nike's "Just Do It" mantra. Don't wait til you feel like it. Because if you are human, you'll often not feel like it! Instead, make it a routine part of your life, like brushing your teeth (hopefully) or checking the mailbox. Make it automatic. Have discipline, and just make it happen.
 
Coffee works wonders. Drink a cup thirty to an hour before hand and you'll be ready to throw some weights around. There's also pictures of Frank Zane...always gets me inspired lol.
 
I've been out of the gym for probably 2 months now since I've been friggin exhausted for the past 4 months. And I know, that exercising increases your constitution but man the energy is just not there right now.
Sounds like you need a good preworkout supplement
 
Sounds like you need a good preworkout supplement

As someone thats taken my fair share of pre workouts Ive given them up for coffee over time. The supplement industry can be scary shady and everyone has some "proprietary blend" to sell. This is a worthy read involving the company that made Jack3d and OxyElitePro. https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/793706/download (<--opens a pdf doc in your browser) from late '15 around the same time they cracked down on GNC, Walmart, etc. Really gives a look at how little some of these companies care about their products fcking people up. I still have a few aminos I buy in bulk but Ive learned to be weary of "prop blends."
 
Much good advice in this thread, here's my two cents. OP, I think this is pretty easy, if you identify as an athlete, then alcohol consumption doesn't really fit. If you are more of a mind that you want to appear fit and feel strong then having a small portion of your carbs as beer is acceptable a couple time a week or however you decide.

I don't happen to be very trim, but when I brew I do all the lifting even the one time I made a 5 gallon batch... (I'm a 56 yo woman) So brewing is a work out ;) if you don't want to give up the hobby, make smaller batches and/or give some away. Because one is a home brewer, doesn't mean one needs to drink a lot ever, in fact there are countless studies stating one beer or wine a day may benefit health, but gaining weight, alcoholism or binge drinking obviously are detriments to health and fitness. Like smoking, it generally catches up to us, though it may take some time.
 
Nice, @mikeasu. We have similar profiles.

The half is a perfect distance. Runs of 4-6 during the week, and a 10+ on one of the weekend days. Man, I can't wait for summer... it's 10ºF out today.

Agreed - and usually, the half marathon events, either solo or in conjunction with a full, still give a good experience and sense of accomplishment. Despite falling off on the training due to a two week work trip working nights, still ran a sub-2H at the Annapolis Half in early Nov - nice hoodie, medal, and a dozen oysters and free beer at the finish! Once of the best post-race meals ever! Different NOT running in the winter - only been here in MD 2 years, before that, Tucson - so this would be prime training time over there...
 
I run. I train a lot during the year. When I'm not training for races I want to brew and I try and schedule it into my weekends just like a 2-3 hour run. It's just a matter of finding what you want to do. I don't run on a treadmill but I don't watch a lot of tv on weekends until night. I run on lunch when possible to have more time and I start my brews early if possible as well. I don't brew every weekend. I might brew once a month so I have some to drink. I ran two marathons last year and while I don't have marathons to race after April I have a desire to keep running 40-50 miles per week to stay in shape. I also have a 55k race in July and a 12 person relay in June and August. Again, I don't watch much tv, have kids, travel, or have multiple hobbies I focus on besides running and brewing.

It might be worth dewing 10 gallons when you set aside a day to brew. I'm considering it with my igloo coolers.
 
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