In 48 young adult women, resistance training lined up with lower body fat, and binge drinking lined up with higher fasting glucose

What the research found

A four-group comparison was published online on 12 November 2026. Comparisons were in women. It enrolled young adult women in four groups of 12: sedentary with low alcohol intake, sedentary with binge drinking, resistance-trained with low alcohol intake, and resistance-trained with binge drinking. Resistance-trained women had lower body fat than sedentary women (29.28 percent and 29.03 percent versus 37.18 percent and 34.83 percent, p<0.05). The resistance-trained low-alcohol group had more fat-free mass than either sedentary group (48.31 kg versus 38.08 kg and 40.37 kg). Bone, muscle quality, and physical performance did not differ between the two resistance-trained groups. Fasting glucose was lower in the resistance-trained low-alcohol group than in the resistance-trained binge group (88.92 mg/dL versus 103.17 mg/dL, p=0.008). Post-meal glucose was also lower in that low-alcohol trained group than in the other three. The authors read a year or more of binge drinking as poorer metabolic health without a performance gap, inside this young adult sample. These are existing groups, not a trial that assigned alcohol. DOI 10.1249/MSS.0000000000004185. Not medical advice.

Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.

Read the original at Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise