How to diet fast 1 week

Alcohol is the most abused recreational drug in society and is the one most used by athletes. It is well known to cause poor judgement, decreased reaction time and decreased fine motor skills which is why we dont drink and drive. In addition, it effects our heart function, our ability to regulate body temperature and it can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

Research states that 88% of intercollegiate American athletes use alcohol. Moreover, collegiate athletes are much more likely to binge drink compared with non-athlete students. Its speculated that maybe the competitive behavior of athletes is not just on the court or field but also in social activities, such as drinking.

So, what can alcohol do to performance? Lets go over some facts:

• Athletes that drink alcohol once per week have been shown to have twice the risk for injury. 
• Moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower force production.
• Chronic alcohol use can cause substantial weight gain. Which in turn can slow you down.
• Alcohol use can decrease aerobic ability as well as decrease sustained power output. In fact, one study showed that drinking 24 hours before an event caused 11% decrease in performance which could be the difference between being first and last.
• Alcohol hurts recovery by interfering with muscle protein synthesis (building and repairing muscle) as well as glycogen re-synthesis (restoring our glycogen stores so that we have stored fuel for exercise). One study showed that even if you consumed alcohol with protein after exercise you would still have lower rate of muscle protein synthesis.
• Alcohol can interfere with our ability to regulate core temperature, therefore, lowering our ability to tolerate training no matter what the temperature is (even in an air-conditioned facility).
• Alcohol influences our psycho-motor skills which means it can decrease balance, reaction time, visual search and recognition, memory as well as accuracy of fine motor skills. Now imagine a quarterback that has all these problems.
• Alcohol shortens our time in deep sleep (REM). Lack of deep sleep causes a decrease in performance as well as a decrease in human growth hormone (HGH) secretion. HGH helps us build and repair muscle. (Stay tuned for a blog on how sleep effects performance in the near future).
• Alcohol is a diuretic (promotes production of urine) which means it can cause dehydration. Dehydration in turn can cause a decrease in performance.
• Alcohol may continue to effect your performance 2-5 days after you drink, depending on how much you drank.

You better make sure you are competing in / training for the right sports before you spend you get all excited about a 46% performance increase

After the initial excitement was over, it has gotten quiet in the "nitrate" section of the supplement stores - no excited crys, no customers willing to pay whatever it takes, just to get a bottle of the "next big thing".

Personally, Id say that this is mostly a result of the disappointment of users of the mostly extremely underdosed "nitrate supplements" experienced. The not exactly earth-shattering effect sizes that have been reported in many of the more recent studies were are another factor... the 46% increase in time-trial performance and the albeit non-significant 27% difference to the caffeine-only trial, on the other hand, has the potential to rekindle the interest of any athlete for whom longer duration high intensity work at 80% of his / her individual VO2max doesnt sound like HIIT gone wrong ;-)

Whatever, ... the big news is that the effects add up perfectly

Within the health and fitness community people are always on the lookout for new pills to pop. If you look at the "regimen" some of them post on pertinent bulletin boards, you sometimes have to scratch your head and ask yourself, whether this guys & gals even eat anything else but supps.
Something that is commonly overlooked, though, is that in the world of dietary supplements the simple equation "1+1" usually aint "2" - in 85% of the cases the result will be somewhere between "1" and "2". In 9% the effects will be less pronounced than with the administration of a single agent. In another 5% youre lucky and the compounds display a special synergy so that "1+1" isnt just "2", but actually "2.x". And, lastly, there is this 1% of the cases, where "1+1" is actually "2".

Figure 1: Ratings of perceived exertion at 80% ̇ VO2max, left; total time trial performance (cycling at 80% VO2max to exhaustion) in s, right (Handzlik. 2013)

As you can see in Figure 1 the study at hand is actually one of these rare 1% of supplement studies, where "1+1=2" is a true statement; and it is also one of those studies that could help nitrate supplements to return to the focus of attention, if people realized that they are no pump supplements and that their usefulness for strength athletes and bodybuilders appears somewhat questionable. I for my part, would at least be surprised to see a strongman cycling like mad for 30 minutes... but I guess, principle neither rule #2 nor any of the other "Simple Rules of Sensible Supplementation" will ever be heard by the confirmed supplement junkies (learn more).
References:

• Handzlik, M. K., & Gleeson, M. (2013). Likely Additive Ergogenic Effects of Combined Preexercise Dietary Nitrate and Caffeine Ingestion in Trained Cyclists. ISRN Nutrition, 2013.