Fitness and beer

[Takeem406]

I'll go ahead and throw it out there, I love beer. Not that Bud Light imitation beer, but the stuff that's a couple hundred calories a glass, like our local Montana brewers make or at least Blue Moon. If it's not that I love me some Pendleton, maybe Jager. All in moderation of course. I'm getting to old for partying. A couple nights a week I'll have a glass or three, no shame.
I usually eat healthy besides that and get my workouts in. On Huntday I have no issues getting from point A to B and back.

So I guess how bad is some beer for the physical fitness of a Rocky Mountain hunter?

I know there's tons of recovery drinks, but I was sure glad to get to Lambkins in Lincoln, MT at midnight on Saturday for some whiskey and coke after packing mt bear out! Of course after a few bottles of water!

I just got done with my workout and after shooting the bow I'm planning on going out for a meal, ice tea or beer...

Are adult beverages more of an issue if your really trying to lose weight? I'm sure I could use a lower BMI, but I literally recovered from anorexia and it's been a lot of work to go back...

 

[airlocksniffer]

Love beer as well. Make my own and have no qualms about having a pint or three. I usually don't drink during the week and slightly imbibe on the weekend. We in MT are very lucky to have a lot of good local beers. Really, I don't think moderate alcohol (beer) consumption is going to have a huge impact on fitness. It's a big motivator to getting a critter packed out....

 

[Poser]

I wouldn't worry about it too much or overthink it. The only thing that I have found as you get older, especially past 35 or so, is that alcohol seems to increasingly impede your recovery from hard workouts. Based on that, as a general rule of thumb, I don't drink on training days anymore. That is definitely not a hard rule by any means. If it happens to be a training day and I also happen to be going to see, say, Robert Plant that night, then I'm certainly going to enjoy a couple of beers. My gym also has semi regular social events: workouts immediately followed by a cookout and drinks. I've definitely cracked a beer within minutes of finishing a team workout before. Sometimes, drinking is necessary and, in certain pinnacle moments in life, there ain't a damn thing finer than a cold beer and, if you lose the ability to enjoy that moment because you are too wrapped up in fitness, you're missing out on life. If you are a professional athlete, I could see having some hard rules during peak training, but for the rest of us, plain old moderation with the occasional over indulgence should be sufficient, if not necessary for balance.

 

[Ridge Ghost]

Yep, moderation is key for me. There's lots of calories in the beer I like, so I approach it the same as I would any other treats (ice cream, cookies, etc). Enjoy it, but don't over do it. Heck, I'm usually down about 5-10 pounds at the end of archery season, so I give myself license to gain a few pounds back for the rest of fall.

Currently Kettlehouse Cold Smoke is my top choice, but I need to do another batch of homebrew now that I filled my elk tag.

 

[SDHNTR]

I don't care how bad beer is. I'll just train harder.

 

[Takeem406]

Well I discovered "Mountain Man" last night, a local brew from Great Falls. It's like Guinness but it's not bitter. Hints of carmel and coffee! It was delicious! I know that even after hunting Saturdays really hard, Sundays and even though Monday my motiabislm is in over drive. I'm 28 I guess I burn a lot when I'm out. I'm definitely not like my brother in law! He's in his mid 30`s and has been in 32" wranglers since he was a kid. He probably consumes 6k a day and it doesn't phase him. It's funny how everyone is different.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I don't care how bad beer is. I'll just train harder.

^^^^ what he said. A new brewery is opening up, in our little town of Eagle River, today and I was going to head out for a hike but, i'm starting to build up a powerful thirst, so I think that the mountains will have to wait.

 

[colonel00]

Just hike over to the brewery If you decide you like the beer, throw a couple cases in your pack for the hike home

 

[AK Troutbum]

Just hike over to the brewery If you decide you like the beer, throw a couple cases in your pack for the hike home

I like the way you think!

 

[COlineman78]

Well, I guess I'll be the first Coloradan to chip in here. You can't live in Colorado and not love craft beer. I just want to slap a Coors lite out of someones hand when I see them drinking it. There are at least 4 breweries that I know of within a half mile of my house and a bar with 100 taps with no macro brews. I will be going to GABF this Sat and enjoying hundreds of beers 1oz at a time in a 4 hour period. MT has some good breweries (went to Red Lodge this summer, not bad beer) but you at least have to try if you want to go to one; here they are everywhere. Just look at it: http://www.fermentedlychallenged.com/p/denver-area-breweries-map.html (I can see at least a few missing too)

That being said, when I was seriously losing weight (I lost over 100lbs in less than 4 months) I cut out alcohol all together. I have seen a noticeable different in Alcohol's effect on my metabolism. My family in general is fairly overweight and therefore I am constantly fighting my metabolism. When I was very careful about maintaining my weight, I would make sure that I worked out before I drank anything. I felt that this got my metabolism going before hand and I didn't notice much if any weight gain. Recently, I have not been doing this and have noticed some weight gain. Another thing that hurts is calorie intake directly before bed, something I used to also be very careful about.

 

[Floorguy]

^^^^ what he said. A new brewery is opening up, in our little town of Eagle River, today and I was going to head out for a hike but, i'm starting to build up a powerful thirst, so I think that the mountains will have to wait.

Wait...there's a new brewery opening up in eagle river? Bleeding heart is opening soon in palmer. I might have to start working out more.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Well here it is, another little brewery just opened up today right down the road, the IPA's kick ass and it's the last damn thing I need!! Oh well.

 

[bourbon]

Just hike over to the brewery If you decide you like the beer, throw a couple cases in your pack for the hike home

This man knows what he is talking about.

 

[nflesher]

Just hike over to the brewery If you decide you like the beer, throw a couple cases in your pack for the hike home

How can you argue with this?! This literally is the funniest thing I have read in a long time!

 

[Jaguigui]

I'm in Great Falls too. I love getting a growler of Mountain Man from the Front. Its awesome. About my only source of carbs now since I'm trying to cut back.