Filling in gaps with "empty" calories? And, drinking alcohol?

[CoreyK]

I'm 21, ~ 5'10", 162lbs, currently bulking.
My diet is decent, I try my best to get enough protein and calories, particularly on workout days (I just started doing 3 days/week full body).
I eat fairly "clean", for the most part (I think).

However, sometimes I feel that I'm eating too clean, and combined with my fairly busy schedule, its tough for me to get to my goal calorie intake.

1) How bad of an idea is it to throw in a few Pepsis, or other things that are considered "empty calories"?

2) On a somewhat different subject, I drink alcohol somewhat heavily on the weekends. I know this is taking steps backwards to achieve my goals, but I'm a senior at a big 10 college, and to be honest, it's probably more important to me to make some memories with my friends than it is to build muscle.
What exactly is the weekend partying doing to my body, in terms of training?
Is there anything I can do to counteract the effects (ie. a diet change on the days that I drink)?

Any input is appreciated,
Thanks.

 

[Mista]

Quote from Jodi

Alcohol is empty calories.
2. Alcohol dehydrates you
3. Alcohol slows down your metabolism
4. Alcohol inhibits protein synthesis
5. Alcohol blocks the absorption of nutrients to the muscles
6. Alcohol lowers testosterone
7. Alcohol increases estrogen
8. Alcohol consumption is catabolic

 

[Mista]

Try eating more calorie dense food. Substituting a meal for a soda or beer is not benificial IMO.

I have thought about this alot.

In terms of changing the diet to the day I do try. Have low carbs the night I drink and low carbs the next morning.

 

[Mista]

Alcohol doesn't help your body but it certainly helps you have a good time!

 

[Plateau_Max]

Haha, Mista you could always use the edit function to add stuff.

But yes Alcohol is definitely a very adverse thing for you to consume especially in large quantities every week. Personally I would say it's rediculous to assume you need to drink your ass off on a weekly basis to have good memories of college. All the same you are going to want to consume a lot of things in your diet that negate the toxic effects of alcohol. Take a good multimineral and a couple solid multivitamines every day, and in the morning add a hefty amount of mixed berries to your breakfast. Berries are probably the best antioxidants and they provide healthy carbs to compliment your first meal which you'll want anyway.

Have you heard of MSM? Hop Extract? If you can find them they will help clean your system too. On top of that make absolutely sure you get EFAs and Vitamine E. If you drink coffee switch to green tea, it has more caffiene anyway.

The biggest solution? Don't drink so much.

 

[CoreyK]

Thanks for the replies.

I completely agree that getting wasted isn't the only way to have great college memories (especially when you can't remember half of the night in the morning), but me and my housemates love to go out to the bars and have parties, and it just kind of become inevitable. We have a party house for this last year of college.
I really try not to overdo it, drink lots of water etc. I normally don't drink a drop of alcohol during the week. I rarely get hangovers so I think I'm doing something right.

I've been taking a multi-vitamin daily for years which has a lot of vitamin C, so I should be good there. I also drink more Propel water than you would probably think is possible for a human, and it claims to have antioxidants and metabolism-aiding vitamins.
I'd like to look into other antioxidants though, thanks for the suggestions.

Any suggestions on some more calorie rich food?
I eat a lot of chicken breasts, cooked veggies, beans, rice, protein shakes etc. but find it difficult to get 2500 calories out of that stuff, its so damn healthy lol.
I find myself just ordering some not-so-healthy chinese food at night to get some calories in me, heh.

Bear with me here, I'm a nutrition noob.
Thanks!

 

[BulkMeUp]

Have you seen Jodi's sticky 'Guide to ..'? thats a good place to start to learn about nutrition in addition to searching this forums threads.

 

[Plateau_Max]

If you're eating 6 meals a day and snacking on fruit during the day the calorie number should be very easy to achieve, I have to give myself 4,000 on running days 'cause I burn about 4,500 total on those days. It's actually easy and sometimes I have to watch myself to make sure I don't go over.

Eating unclean food and empty calories does you no good and might as well be in a calorie deficit. The fact that they're empty or pollutant carriers negates the any benefit they would have to "filling the gap". The whole point in achieving enough calories is to provide your body with enough fuel and nutrients to support your daily activities and your workouts, which empty calories do not do (hence the name).

 

[CoreyK]

The whole point in achieving enough calories is to provide your body with enough fuel and nutrients to support your daily activities and your workouts, which empty calories do not do (hence the name).

This is exactly what I wanted to know, thanks very much.

 

[slip]

Oh come on dude, 2500 cal is nothing. Take 40mins and cook up a big batch of chicken/rice/veg. Eat 3 of them a day, protien shake, sandwich, couple of pieces of fruit, maybe a bowl of museli/yoghurt, and that's pretty much it (that might even be over). I'm 6'0 and 171lb, so im not big and eating 3000 cal/day is pretty easy. youll probably notice a big difference in performance on a monday if youve had a big weekend, but look at a lot of amateur team sport players (soccer, rugby etc) who get mega pissed every weekend with the boys - its not the best for you, but its not the end of the world.

 

[Witchblade]

Do cardio on your drinking days.

Stay hydrated at all times, especially when drinking.

Don't drink on an empty stomache.

Calorie-wise, drinks with a high alcohol percentage are superior to drinks with a low alcohol percentage. Therefore vodka is better than beer, if you want to get drunk without getting too many calories.