Drinking alcohol after a workout, even if you also eat protein, stops your muscles from rebuilding as well as they would if you just had protein alone—alcohol messes with muscle recovery, and protein can’t fully fix it.
Context Details
Domain
exercise_science
Population
human
Subject
Co-ingestion of alcohol with protein following exercise
Action
does not fully restore
Target
post-exercise myofibrillar protein synthesis to levels achieved with protein alone
Intervention Details
Gold Standard Evidence Needed
According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Alcohol Ingestion Impairs Maximal Post-Exercise Rates of Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis following a Single Bout of Concurrent Training
When people drink alcohol after working out—even if they also eat protein—their muscles don’t repair as well as when they eat protein alone. The study proves alcohol gets in the way of muscle recovery, no matter how much protein you take.