I use to to drink a lot myself before untill I realize how alchohol plays a negative affect in your muscle. Alchohol is empty calories and it doesnt have nutrients but does have a caloric value of 7 calories per gram.
Not only will the high calorie content of alcohol have a negative effect on your total calorie intake, but it also slows down your metabolism.
Alcohol consumption also hurts muscle growth. Not only due to hangovers lowering your workout intensity, but it actually lowers protein synthesis by 20%. Twenty percent! There are several reasons why it does this. For one, it dehydrates your muscle cells. As many know, hydrated and even over hydrated muscles (like when you take creatine) allows for a much higher anabolic environment.
Because your cells aren't holding as much water, it becomes much harder to build muscle. The second reason why alcohol can severely hurt muscle growth is because it blocks the absorption of many important nutrients that are key to muscle contraction, relaxation and growth including calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and potassium. Alcohol also slows down protein synthesis.
Another big factor alcohol lowers testosterone and increase estrogen. Alcohol has also been shown to cause a quicker aromatization of androgens into estrogens, which would explain why heavy drinkers often get gynecomastria over a period of time.
Its alright to drink alcohol but just keep it in moderation and not binge drinking. I know it will probably be hard to do since your in college and have a lot parties to attend to.
