Why Are Athletes Likely to Drink More?

Chances are you know someone whose sporting achievements constantly blow your mind. Considering their fitness level what seems even more incredible, however, is their capacity for drinking.

Turns out, the fitter you are the more likely you are to drink more alcohol.

What might seem totally counterintuitive at first – there is so much research backing the harmful effects alcohol consumption can have on athletic performance and recovery and healthy and unhealthy behaviours tend to cluster together – is more common than you’d expect. Around 80% of college athletes in the US drink alcohol and team sports players in UK universities are likely to be categorised as hazardous drinkers.

But drinking doesn’t stop at university. A recent study, published in January 2022 in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, confirmed that both men and women with high fitness levels were at greater odds of heavy alcohol consumption compared to people with low fitness levels.

The study examined close to 40,000 healthy people – people like you and I – who visited the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas, for preventive medical examinations and had also signed up for the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study.

It measured the cardiorespiratory fitness levels of patients, ranging in age from 20 to 86, through a treadmill test and compared the results with their alcohol consumption and dependence.

The authors placed people who consumed three or fewer drinks per week as light drinkers; women and men who consumed seven and 14 drinks per week respectively as moderate drinkers; and anything above that was classed as heavy drinking.

The results showed a strong link between fitness level and alcohol consumption in the general population.

Both men and women in the moderate fitness categories were at greater odds of moderate alcohol consumption, while people in the high fitness category were at double the odds of heavy alcohol consumption compared to their low fitness counterparts.

What causes this paradoxical relationship between the health-enhancing view of sports participation and the unpropitious engagement in heavy drinking? Why are athletes likely to drink more?

Alcohol and sports are social

Even if you participate in an individual sport, you are likely to train with other people. And just like sport is social – the vast majority of people exercise not only for the health benefits associated with training but also for the social opportunities sports provide – so is alcohol.

Drinking can be an integral part of socialisation between training buddies and team members, a time for bonding and celebration. In fact, research suggests that alcohol consumption is “a central component of the sociocultural milieu of sport”.

Sports and alcohol are both activities done socially and, as such, athletes can experience greater endorphin release if following one with the other.

The licencing effect

You are more likely to allow yourself something “unhealthy” if you have just completed something healthy, such as a hard training session.

This is known as the licencing effect in psychology: it is the subconscious act of rewarding good behaviour with indulgence.

It implies that working out, which will improve your health and fitness, also gives you a green light to treat yourself with something “bad”.

Additionally, this 2015 study found that there is a potential compensatory mechanism between physical activity and food intake, and that exercise can trigger a search for reward. While the paper focused on snaking, it would not be far fetched to assume that the same can’t be true for exercising and drinking.

However, framing is key: “engaging in a physical activity seems to trigger the search for reward when individuals perceive it as exercise but not when they perceive it as fun,” the authors concluded.

Personality traits

Even non-runners are aware of the phenomenon known as runners high, a feeling that keeps athletes grinding through tough training sessions for the elation that follows. This sensation-seeking behaviour is also common with people who drink.

But it’s not only impulsivity that might lead someone to couple sport and alcohol. Components such as stress relief, body image, or a work hard – play hard mentality can also influence this relationship.

Additionally, the correlation can be reversed: someone who drinks more might feel a greater need to exercise to make up for the fact. It is also possible that this someone is more prone to dedicate themselves to sport in a more “compulsive” way than other people would.

The cause or the cure

The fact that fitter people consume more alcohol isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While beer might not be the best hydration strategy, alcohol can be a central part of sports culture.

The 2021 study mentioned above found that the fittest men were the least likely to exhibit signs of alcohol dependency. “This fits with the idea that their exercise habits are filling some of the psychological space that alcohol might otherwise fill on its own,” columnist Alex Hutchinson writes in his article exploring the same question.

Moreover, the study only demonstrated a correlation between drinking and fitness levels but does not prove causation.

It can’t be said for certain that being more active causes you to drink more.

Besides, the study relied on self-reported data, which can lead to errors in the data as people rarely report to 100% accuracy, and included only healthy participants, so it would be interesting to see if people only entering fitness are also likely to increase their drinking habits. As for the classifications, what constitutes a moderate and heavy drinker can be different to anyone reading.

Ultimately, exercise provides a wealth of benefits to brain and body and is regarded as a protective factor against disease. If alcohol is consumed as part of it in a mindful manner, socially and spread out, it’s hard to tell if it’s such a bad thing.

If you think you may have a dependence on alcohol, skip activities to drink, regularly drink more than you intended to, or experience withdrawal symptoms, reach out to a health professional or substance abuse councillor.