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That hidden "4th macro" (beyond protein, fats, and carbs) might be the reason you're not seeing results despite tracking everything else.

Philip exposes how this macro impacts your physique beyond just adding calories. What is is? Alcohol!

Learn the science behind alcohol's effects on fat storage, muscle growth, and metabolism - and discover practical strategies to maintain your social life while achieving your physique goals.

Main Takeaways:

• Your body handles alcohol completely differently from any other macronutrient

• Alcohol affects your physique through multiple mechanisms beyond just calories

• The timing of your drinks matters more than you might think

• Exercise changes how your body processes alcohol in a surprising way

• Daily habits matter more than occasional indulgences

• Small strategic changes can lead to significant improvements

Timestamps:

[00:01] Introduction to the concept of a "fourth macro" disrupting fat loss progress
[02:28] Breaking down alcohol's unique properties compared to other macronutrients
[05:23] How alcohol reduces muscle protein synthesis by 24%
[07:21] Research on alcohol's relationship with visceral fat storage
[09:25] Strategic approaches to minimize alcohol's impact on physique goals
[12:14] Practical tips for reducing alcohol consumption
[15:13] Handling social pressure and building alcohol-free habits
[16:41] The surprising connection between exercise and alcohol processing
[18:31] Three-phase framework for managing alcohol while pursuing fitness goals
[20:38] Final thoughts on prioritizing what matters for your physique

The 4th Macro Sabotaging Your Fat Loss and Fitness Goals

When we talk about macros, the usual suspects come to mind—protein, fats, and carbs. But what if I told you there’s a sneaky “fourth macro” that could be the reason your fat loss has stalled, your midsection isn’t budging, and your muscle gains are taking a hit?

That’s right, I’m talking about alcohol, the often-overlooked macronutrient with seven calories per gram that’s wreaking havoc on body composition goals.

Here’s how alcohol disrupts your progress and what you can do to minimize its impact while still enjoying life.

What Makes Alcohol the “Fourth Macro”?

Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, placing it between carbs and protein (4 calories/gram) and fat (9 calories/gram) in energy density. But that’s where the similarity ends.

Unlike the other macros, your body has no storage mechanism for alcohol. It sees alcohol as a toxin and prioritizes metabolizing it immediately, sidelining everything else.

This metabolic priority creates a cascade of effects that sabotage your fat loss and muscle-building goals.

How Alcohol Impacts Fat Burning

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that alcohol suppresses fat oxidation (a fancy way of saying “fat burning”) by up to 73% for four to six hours after drinking. Think about that: for hours after you enjoy a couple of drinks, your body essentially pauses its fat-burning efforts.

During this time, the calories from your food—carbs, fats, and even protein—are more likely to be stored as fat since your body is busy processing alcohol. This is like a metabolic traffic jam where alcohol gets the fast lane while everything else is stuck waiting.

The Triple Threat: Muscle, Fat, and Hormones

The effects of alcohol go beyond fat storage.

1. Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS)

MPS, the process your body uses to build and repair muscle, takes a major hit from alcohol. A landmark study in PLOS ONE found that alcohol consumption post-workout reduced MPS by 24%, even when subjects consumed enough protein. Translation? If you’re drinking after training, you’re undoing some of the hard work you put into the gym.

2. Hormonal Chaos

Alcohol disrupts hormone production, particularly testosterone, a key player in muscle building and fat loss. Studies show testosterone levels can drop by 23% after regular alcohol consumption. Women experience hormonal interference too, with impacts on testosterone and other key hormones.

3. Visceral Fat Accumulation

Alcohol has a dose-dependent relationship with visceral fat (the dangerous fat around your organs). Men who consume more than 14 drinks per week have 30.7% more visceral fat volume compared to non-drinkers. This isn’t the fat you pinch; it’s the deep belly fat associated with serious health risks.

Does Tracking Alcohol as Calories Solve the Problem?

Many people assume they can account for alcohol’s effects by tracking it in their calorie target. While this approach might help with calorie control, alcohol’s impact goes far beyond energy balance. Its hormonal disruptions, suppressed fat burning, and interference with muscle recovery make it a much more complex issue.

Practical Strategies to Minimize Alcohol’s Impact

1. Be Strategic About Timing

• Avoid drinking on training days. Alcohol reduces muscle recovery, so drinking after a workout is a double hit.

• Limit drinking to rest days to minimize its impact on performance and recovery.

2. Moderation is Key

• Every drink you skip is a win for your physique goals.

• Set reasonable limits. For example, aim for one to two drinks per month if body composition is your primary goal.

3. Social Strategies

• Have a go-to non-alcoholic drink like sparkling water with lime or a non-alcoholic beer.

• Be the designated driver—it’s a built-in excuse not to drink.

• Suggest non-drinking social activities like hikes or workouts with friends.

Alcohol Becomes Less Appealing Over Time

As you progress in your fitness journey, something interesting happens: alcohol naturally becomes less appealing. When your training, nutrition, and recovery are dialed in, the short-term pleasure of alcohol often pales in comparison to how good you feel when you’re performing well and seeing results.

This isn’t about perfection or total abstinence (unless that’s your choice). It’s about aligning your actions with what’s most important to you—your health, fitness, and longevity.

My Final Thoughts

Alcohol isn’t just another macronutrient; it’s a disruptor that can stall your fat loss, reduce muscle growth, and lead to long-term health risks.

The good news is, you don’t need to eliminate it completely. With strategic timing, moderation, and better habits, you can still enjoy the occasional drink without derailing your progress.

Remember, every drink you skip is a step closer to your goals.

The key is understanding how alcohol affects your body and making informed choices that support the results you’re working so hard to achieve.

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Transcript

Philip Pape: 0:01

There are three macros, right Protein, fats and carbs and you might be tracking them. You're tracking your calories, your training, but something's off. The fat loss has stalled, maybe around your midsection, and the culprit might be a hidden fourth macro that's wreaking havoc on your body composition. This often overlooked factor is doing more than just adding calories it's actively interfering with your metabolism, muscle growth and fat storage patterns. Today, we're uncovering the science behind how the fourth macro disrupts your progress and what to do about it. Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.

Philip Pape: 0:54

I'm your host, philip Pape, and today's episode comes from an important question in our Facebook community. Jerry asked about alcohol's impact on body composition beyond just calories, and it's a really good question, because we are always obsessed over protein, fats and carbs, and alcohol does act like a fourth macronutrient in some ways. That might surprise you, and the truth is, most of us, myself included, have been pretty misled about alcohol's effects on our physicals especially, and if not misled, then maybe the information just isn't out there. We've heard everything from you know it's no big deal as long as it fits your macros to even unhelpful information now that can be damaging, like red wine is good for your heart. So today I'm going to break down what the evidence actually says about alcohol's impact on the things that we really care about here fat loss, muscle gain, body composition so you know you can make an informed decision. Now, before we dig into that science I mentioned, this question comes from someone in our Facebook group. If you want to connect with Jerry or anyone else who's trying to optimize their nutrition and training, they're sharing their progress. They're sharing their progress. They're sharing tips. They'll answer your questions. You can get form checks, all this fun stuff using the evidence, using good, solid training methodologies. Join our free Facebook group. Just search for Wits and Weights on Facebook or click the link in the show notes and you will find a supportive community, like-minded people just like you, most of whom listen to this podcast and just want to help each other succeed.

Philip Pape: 2:28

All right, let's start by breaking down what makes alcohol unique compared to other macros. Alcohol is definitely a macro. It has seven calories per gram in terms of its density, its energy content. In terms of its density, its energy content. And so it sits between protein and carbs, which those have four calories per gram, and then fat has nine calories per gram, so it's in between, but that's where the similarities end. Okay, I don't want you to think of it as like the other macros, because your body handles alcohol completely different from any other nutrients, and understanding that is really important.

Philip Pape: 3:05

First, let's talk about what happens when you consume regular macros. When you consume protein, carbs and fats, your body can store all of those nutrients. Carbs get stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver. Fat gets stored in adipose tissue. Protein gets broken down and used to build or repair tissues. So your body has options and it can process these nutrients at its own pace.

Philip Pape: 3:29

Alcohol is a completely different story. Listen up, okay. Your body does not have a storage mechanism for alcohol Zero. It views alcohol as a toxin that must be cleared from your system immediately. Right, and this isn't about preference, it's a biological imperative. Your liver drops everything else it is doing to deal with the alcohol first, and this metabolic priority then creates a cascade of effects that directly impact your body composition.

Philip Pape: 3:59

Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that alcohol suppresses fat oxidation. That means fat burning by up to 73% for four to six hours after you drink. Think about that. For up to six hours after having drinks with your dinner, your body basically stops burning fat. But it gets worse Because during that time, guess what happens to all the other calories you consume, all those carbs and fats that you're eating alongside your drinks, or even just your regular meals. They are more likely to be stored as fat because your body's too busy dealing with the alcohol. So it's like having this traffic jam in your metabolism where everything backs up while there's one priority vehicle alcohol. Maybe, know, maybe Elon Musk owns the alcohol company, I don't know, but it has priority everything, everything else, and it gets through. Now you might be thinking, okay, but what if I account for the calories from alcohol in my daily target? Right, if I, I should just track it right. And that is a great question. And it leads us to the next point point, because even if you could perfectly account for the calories, alcohol still affects your body composition through multiple other mechanisms that have nothing to do with calories. So let's get into that and talk about kind of the triple threat here between muscle, fat and hormones. As it relates to alcohol.

Philip Pape: 5:23

We're going to start with muscle protein synthesis. That is, the process of building and maintaining muscle mass. You might have seen it abbreviated MPS, right, and that's all it is. It's building muscle. And there was a landmark study in PLOS1, I never know how to pronounce it, plos1, that found that alcohol consumption decreased exercise induced muscle protein synthesis by about 24% when subjects consumed alcohol post-workout. Now I know we're not all just like chugging down a glass of whiskey or a beer right after a workout although I have done my share of obstacle course races in the past and got my free beer and I can tell you that was a pleasurable experience but still, we're not all doing that. But regardless, 24% drop in muscle protein synthesis after having a drink after exercise like that's a huge reduction in your body's ability to do the thing that you just trained for build and repair muscle, even when you're eating enough protein and training Like that's crazy. So put that in perspective. Imagine you just finished a training session. You spent 90 minutes with your squats, with your deadlifts, with, with your, all your accessories, right, and you you even hit your protein target for the day. You're eating plenty and you're feeling great. Then you have a few drinks with dinner, so maybe you're training in the afternoon, even though you did everything else right, you've just cut your potential muscle gains for that session by nearly a quarter, according to this research Um, you research, and I know we're not.

Philip Pape: 6:52

I mean, it depends on how often you do it right, how much you drink and all of that. But the impact goes beyond and I want to kind of stack on top of that it's beyond just the protein synthesis, because it also affects your hormones. It affects your testosterone levels and, as you surmise, not in a good way. Research shows that regular alcohol consumption can suppress testosterone production by up to 23% in men, and then for women, even though the impact is a little bit less dramatic, it still interferes with testosterone, as well as other hormones that affect body composition.

Philip Pape: 7:21

And then let's look at fat storage, because it gets interesting here as well. There's research in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition that shows that regular alcohol consumption has a dose-dependent relationship with visceral fat, that is, the dangerous fat around your organs, your belly fat, and men consuming more than 14 drinks per week had 30.7% more visceral fat volume compared to non-drinkers. Right, and that is not just the subcutaneous fat that you can pinch, it is the deep belly fat that is associated with serious health risks. It isn't just a function of these guys gaining more weight. It is a separate variable that is very important to get into your brain, like I've.

Philip Pape: 8:08

This is one of the primary reasons I've all but cut off alcohol. I admit I still have a drink every now and then. Once a month I'll have a drink. I mean it is so rare compared to what it used to be for many of these reasons. And then there's something that doesn't take. It doesn't get talked about enough how alcohol impacts your stress response, because when you drink, your body produces more cortisol, the stress hormone. We think of alcohol as this downer. It like relaxes you and everything, but it actually makes you more stress on the whole. High cortisol levels are associated then with guess what? Increased belly fat storage and reduced muscle mass. Double, triple, quadruple, whammy. I mean you do the math. You're not just dealing with direct effects of alcohol, but then this hormonal cascade that creates an environment perfect for fat storage and muscle loss.

Philip Pape: 8:57

Come on, guys, are you getting the picture? That is not what we want, right? And I did this episode because I didn't want to say, hey, alcohol's poison, it's toxic, you shouldn't drink it. I actually wanted to come to it from the other direction of no-transcript. If you care about these things, it's up to you how much. Or if you want to drink alcohol, right, that's it. I'm not coming to it from the judgment or shame perspective, but from the physiology, the anatomy, the biology perspective, all right.

Philip Pape: 9:25

So what do we do with all this information? Right, I'm not here to tell you never to drink again. I know that's not realistic for most people and, quite frankly, it's not necessary for the vast majority of us to achieve our goals. Oh boy, I said it. Yes, I said it, and I know I've had some guests on who've talked about total abstinence from alcohol and that is totally an option for you, absolutely an option. I would totally encourage that if you want to do that. But I'm talking realistic pragmatism here and I know not everybody's going to do that. So instead, let's talk about strategic approaches to minimize alcohol's impact on your physique goals. We'll start there and if you decide you want to totally abstain because at the end of the day that will get you the most benefit, that is up to you.

Philip Pape: 10:08

So first, let's talk about timing. If you're going to drink, do it on rest days, don't do it on training days. If we're to believe the 24% reduction in muscle synthesis. You don't do it on training days, right? If we're to believe the 24% reduction in muscle synthesis, you don't want that happening right after a good workout. Now, it's going to happen whenever you drink. So just know that on the net it's still going to have an impact. But if you train on your off day, that might be a little bit better than training right after you work out or on your training day. But not only that your performance in the gym is going to suffer if you're training while your body is still processing alcohol. So don't do it on, like the evening before your training day either. If you train in the morning, just be smart about it and separate it.

Philip Pape: 10:46

And I see this with clients, right? They hit a great workout, a great training session on Friday. Then they go out for drinks that night and then they're like I'm kind of weak and unmotivated on Saturday. Well, what the heck? You just had a bunch of drinks Friday night, right? It's not just in your head. Your body is literally still dealing with the metabolic aftermath of the drinks.

Philip Pape: 11:04

Um, which, by the way, it doesn't necessarily happen if you have like a massive buffet or Chinese food. Many times you go into the gym next day and you're like super energized from that. So that's why there's a difference between these things. Um, the second is the amount, the quantity. Right, we know that there's a clear dose dependent relationship with the negative effects and, by the way, I should have put this disclaimer early on.

Philip Pape: 11:27

If you struggle with alcohol, if there's alcoholism in your family or yourself or any, I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole. It is outside my scope to deal with actually alcoholism and alcohol dependency. This episode is not for you. This is about just understanding the relationships between moderate alcohol consumption and your body. Okay, so the dose dependent relationships. So every drink that you don't have is a win for your physique. I want you to remember that Every drink you choose not to have. So if you were gonna have like five beers in a row but you decide every other beer is an alcohol-free beer, count those as wins for your physique, and you might be rolling your eyes at this point thinking, okay, again, here's the lecture about never drinking again.

Philip Pape: 12:14

But that's not what I'm suggesting. I want you to set some reasonable limits based on your goals. So if you're serious about body composition, I would limit yourself to one to two drinks per month. And if that sounds crazy, if that sounds extreme for you and I've been there I used to have a glass of wine every night and I used to have like five, six beers on the weekend and I gradually weaned myself off and started to swap things out. So what do you do? Well, you start by cutting your current intake by a percentage of that, like maybe in half, and observe the changes, and then you might be surprised how much better you feel and perform Right, and the way I would do that is I wouldn't just say, okay, if you drink two drinks every day, drink one drink every day.

Philip Pape: 12:51

I might want to drink, like you know, half the days or something like that, but do whatever makes sense to you. Um, you know, one of our, one of our members in our in um, my group program, the physique university, had some struggles with drinking and and you know I see this a lot, right, I see this a lot it's like everything else starts to get dialed in and drinking still is a challenge, and so she simply moved from drinking every weekend every other weekend. So she still accepted the fact that she wanted to go out with her girlfriends to the pub and really enjoy the craft beers, but it would be every other weekend and the weeks where she didn't drink she was like holy moly, I have way better recovery, my walks feel great, I feel like just more up to doing things, my training's consistent, I'm hitting PRs, I'm actually I can lose weight, my metabolism goes up, and then it kind of slides back a little bit on the weeks where she would drink. So that's what I mean by kind of alternating, to see the contrast in your own self and let that data drive you to your decision-making. And then as far as the social strategies, I think that's where most people struggle the most, because it's rarely about that physical craving for alcohol, right, or the physical hunger, whatever you wanna call it. It's the social pressure, it's the habits that we built around drinking. So what do we do about that?

Philip Pape: 14:06

All right, first have a go-to non-alcoholic drink ready to go right, and it could be something, not even in the realm of alcohol, like sparkling water with lime or a seltzer or something you know, not hard seltzer, but a regular seltzer, diet soda, something that looks like a drink. No one questions it. You're at the party, they think it's a rum and coke, whatever. Who cares Not that it should matter, but I know a lot of us care. So that's where I'm starting from. And then, guess what? You stay hydrated too, so probably makes things. You could maybe have the food. You stay hydrated, you enjoy yourself. Don't get as buzzed if if it's mixed in with alcoholic beverages and you're cutting down, um. But here's the thing there are also lots of options with the rise of these non-alcoholic uh, craft beverages, beers and mixed liquors and even wines. So, uh, going with a non-alcoholic beer is a great option these days. Seriously, it tastes, they taste pretty good. So if you just like the ritual and the taste of beer, that alone could be enough for you to say, ah, this is pretty close to it. I'm just not getting that buzz, but I'm also not getting all the terrible after effects and effects on my body composition later either. Um.

Philip Pape: 15:13

The second thing is you don't have to explain yourself to anyone. You just don't write a simple like hey, I'm good with water tonight is enough. If someone's pushing you to drink, it's. It's more about them. It's about their relationship with alcohol, their insecurities. It's not you. Right now you can be strategic. You can volunteer to be the designated driver, and then you know, they know you can't drink or say, hey, I have, I have an early morning training session, like that's important to me, I'm just not drinking. Cause that if you have to give a reason there's, there's a strategic way to do it. And then the third thing here is you know why don't you build connections with people and activities that don't revolve around drinking it and activities that don't revolve around drinking it might sound obvious, but I think that's powerful, right? Instead of meeting friends for drinks, suggest going on a hike or doing a training session together, or a lunch where you're having food but not drinks. I mean, you be the judge. And then you'd be amazed at how many people are actually relieved to have social options that don't involve alcohol.

Philip Pape: 16:10

It's funny part of my wife's family. They stay away from alcohol because there's a history there, and so when we go to parties with them, it's just I remember early on being a little frustrated. I'm like, where's the cooler with the beers? Where where's the wine? And after a couple of those I just didn't think about it and I would go and guess what. We have fun, it's no big deal. You enjoy it. You have diet soda, you have the cake. Right, you throw the football around, whatever, and you have fun. You don't need the alcohol, um, so so that's kind of. Hopefully I didn't get too judge judgmental there. Hopefully that was a reasonable take on this subject.

Philip Pape: 16:41

Uh, and I think if, if you, if you think about alcohol and training, um, it's if you link them together, I think it's going to be helpful, because we know the research shows that regular exercise changes how your body even processes alcohol. Like you actually become better at clearing it, which is not an encouragement to drink more, but it does potentially reduce the negative effects on body composition. It might explain why some, like active, healthy people, seem to handle alcohol better than others. And again, it doesn't mean you should drink more. It suggests that maintaining your training routine becomes even more important. If you choose to drink occasionally, right, you're building a better defense system against the negative effects of really anything you put into your body. It's like having a better cleanup crew right, better, better detox crew in your body. And it like having a better cleanup crew, right, better detox crew in your body. And it explains something that I've noticed with clients over the years that those who maintain consistent training schedules they go to the gym, they put in the work. Even if they do keep drinking moderately, right, they tend to maintain better body composition. They can lose fat. Yes, they can have a-pack abs. Then those who are intermittent with their training but strict about alcohol Now, process that. It's not that the alcohol becomes harmless, it's that the positive adaptations from regular training provide some protection against the negative effects, because you're, overall, a healthier person on the net, which again is a good theme to remember when we talk about moderation and balance, and even when it comes to your food and your indulgences, that, yes, you can have some vices in there. I'm not going to tell you one way or the other, just know the impact and also prioritize being a healthy, fit person, all right. So this episode is getting long in the tooth, but I think it's a really important topic and I want to help you create a practical framework for managing this while pursuing your physique goals.

Philip Pape: 18:31

So three phases I wrote down here. First one is you want to do an audit, an assessment, take an honest look at your current health. Just be honest with yourself, right? How many drinks per week? When do you typically drink? What triggers the desire to drink? Do not judge yourself, just gather the data like we would with anything else we do here. It's data tracking.

Philip Pape: 18:52

Phase two is strategic reduction. Right, this isn't going cold turkey. It's making those intentional choices that are really easy, like switching one drink per week to a non-alcoholic or moving your drinking days away from your training days. Phase three is then building the new habits. Right, and this may be a little harder for some of us, but it's where things get sustainable.

Philip Pape: 19:12

Find the go-to non-alcoholic drink that you identified in phase two. Build connections that don't revolve around alcohol so you don't have as much temptation, and then create routines that don't involve drinking, just in general, things that help you relieve stress, because a lot of you are like well, I drink to relieve stress. There are a million ways to relieve stress that don't have super negative effects that ultimately increase your stress, and remember that one Alcohol actually increases your cortisol. So the key to all of this is progress, progress, progress. It's not perfection. Every drink you don't have is a win for your physique goals. Remember that Every time you choose water instead of wine, you're giving your body a better chance to build muscle and burn fat efficiently, if that is your goal.

Philip Pape: 19:49

So the fourth macro remember that this is the fourth macro, alcohol. It is unique, right, especially if you're trying to be fitter and leaner and more healthy and live a long life. Understanding the mechanisms empowers you to make informed choices. It's not about complete restriction, at least not off the bat. Ultimately, if you want to do that for alcohol specifically, I don't think that's a bad idea. But it's really aligning your actions with what's important right now, right. And when you understand how alcohol affects your body at a biological level. By the way, share this episode with somebody else who needs to understand this or maybe just doesn't know or thinks that there's something good about alcohol. Then you can make decisions that support your goals, just like anything else where we try to get more educated. And then you find that you know, as your physique gets better, your training progresses.

Philip Pape: 20:38

Guess what's going to happen? This happened to me, happens to so many people. The drinks become less appealing. You just want them less Again. The occasional whiskey or whatever you enjoy. I still do that. I get it. But it's not because you're restricting yourself that you avoid those things. It's because you're prioritizing what really matters to you above that. All right. If you found value in today's episode and again you want to connect with others like Jerry on their fitness journey.

Philip Pape: 21:02

Join our Facebook group. Just search for Wits and Weights or click the link in the episode notes and hop on into the group Once I approve you in there, which is usually pretty quickly. Share your thoughts on this episode, right, Say hey, I found you through the alcohol episode and it was interesting and I want to continue the conversation. Right, and hey, I'd love to hear your strategies for managing alcohol, if that's specifically what you're looking for. Uh, but there's lots of other topics we cover in the group, so join to check those out. Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember, sometimes the best gains come from what you choose not to consume. I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.