There are T-shirts, posters and even socks: “I run for beer,” they say — and, apparently, many people do. According to a study out this month in the journal Health Psychology, people of all ages tend to drink more alcohol on the days they exercise more. The researchers don’t know why this is the case, but one possibility is that “work(out) hard, play hard” is a very real phenomenon.

“If I’m going to go out to drink tonight, the thought is, if I work out a little harder, I am actually going to be able to counter it,” says Marissa Gannon, a head trainer at Anytime Fitness in Marinette, Wisconsin, who sees this mentality among some of her clients.

In some respects, the approach is a decent one, Gannon says: If you’re going to indulge at night, logging an intense morning workout boosts your metabolism and burns those extra calories more effectively as you party the night away. Research has also found that hitting the gym on particularly indulgent days — Halloween, anyone? — can help counteract a food binge’s negative effects on your metabolism.

But the theory has some holes when you substitute overeating with overdrinking, experts say.

“Physiologically, it’s a terrible strategy” to hydrate with alcohol, says David E. Conroy, the Northwestern University professor who led the Health Psychology study. Alcohol dehydrates, slows your muscles’ healing processes and can perpetuate soreness. Among athletes, imbibing “affects their speed, their endurance and their general performance in their sport several days after they consume alcohol,” says University at Albany psychologist Dolores Cimini, who researches risky drinking and directs the university’s alcohol abuse prevention program.

[Read: Your Brain on Booze.]

Of course, an occasional or even regular glass of wine or pint of beer isn’t a bad thing for most people. Some research suggests it can even be healthy, particularly for your heart, Conroy says. And if you’ve just completed your first marathon or carried your softball team to victory? Cheers to a celebration! But, Cimini says, “if there is a deliberate link by an individual to use exercise to compensate for excessive alcohol use, that is a problem.”

Here’s how to keep a healthy balance between working out and going out:

Do exercise you enjoy. If you’re someone who dreads the gym, you may be more likely to reward yourself afterward with a vice like alcohol. You may also expend so much willpower lacing up your shoes or dragging yourself to the gym that “you deplete your self-control resources and you’re unable to resist temptation to drink when you look in the fridge,” Conroy says.

But if you look forward to your workouts, you can help skirt this cycle. That’s what Jennifer Rainey learned when she moved from the District of Columbia to Boise, Idaho, where exercise is a way of life — not a chore. Now Rainey, 32, a physician assistant student, sees hikes, bikes and barre classes as rewards in themselves. “My attitude is, I drink because I want to have fun and feel good, but there are a lot of other things that do that, too,” she says. On the day of her (boozy) bridal shower, for example, Rainey went on “a killer long bike ride” and then took a nap. The nap felt like such a treat, she says, it was easier to switch to iced tea later when drinks were flowing.

[Read: Ballet for Adults: Getting Fit at the Barre.]

Be an early bird. From kickball leagues with beer pong habits to running clubs that congregate at the bar, alcohol is part of the culture for many exercisers. But it’s possible to get a workout — and your social fix — without imbibing, particularly if you sign up for a morning class or boot camp. Not only will you ditch the expectation to raise a toast post-workout (the office calls, after all), but the early morning commitment can also make you think twice about that extra drink the night before.

That’s been the case for Jonathan Levitt, 24, a Boston-based runner who’s training to run a 5K in under 18 minutes. He wakes up around 5 a.m. at least three days a week to participate in the November project, a free fitness program in several cities across the country. Same goes for fitness aficionado Shaira Morales, who often attends the project’s 6:30 a.m. sessions in the District of Columbia. ” Because I’m doing exercise, I limit my drinking,” she says.

[Read: How and Why to Become a Morning Person.]

Change your mindset. If the driving reason you exercise is to indulge, it’s time to find a healthier motivation. “I try to encourage my clients to change their mindset so they see beyond having the drink and eating the cookie,” Gannon says. In a moment of temptation, she advises, ask yourself how the treat will make you feel the next day, week and year. “It’s one moment of pleasure,” she says. “Look past that moment and say, ‘What is it really doing for me?'”

Other simple strategies, too, like alternating water and alcohol, can help curb your intake in booze-heavy environments, she says. And if you need help changing your patterns, enlist the expertise of a doctor, mental health professional or even a personal trainer who can help you understand how your alcohol use is affecting your athletic performance. “There are so many health benefits of physical activity,” Conroy says, “it’s important to harness those without incurring any undesirable side effects.”

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Does Working Out Offset Going Out? originally appeared on usnews.com