Posted by FeedtheFiend

Date Posted June 25, 2007

Alcohol is a horrible, horrible thing for people who are trying to lose weight or get into better shape. I've mentioned before how it just can really destroy you by sapping your energy and flooding your body with empty calories. Any benefits from it, like thinking you have extra carbs to burn during a run at 5am are seriously outweighed by its detriments.

But, it is really difficult to find people who are focused on fitness and who completely cut the booze out of their lifestyle, at least around where I live. People who work normal day jobs (outside of the gym) pretty much work during the day, work out, and then go out. Not every night of course, and not necessarily in that order. For example, take my friend Maddie," who really enjoys working out at her Equinox. Whenever we try to make plans to grab drinks, she is only willing to go as soon as she gets off work, so that she can go work out later in the evening. Personally, I think that is crazy to have a drink and then work out.Aside from being less efficient, you could actually hurt yourself.I guess, though, it is an incentive for her to limit herself to one or two glasses of wine, but come on!

Also, no matter what, you can?t really justify all the calories that come with alcohol. Some friends of mine doing the Weight Watchers points thing will not eat so they can save up points for alcohol. That is a little nuts. At least, though, if the drinks are lower calorie drinks, they can drink more.

I try to stay away from beer. One normal beer has anywhere from 150 to close to 200 calories; a light beer could be around 100 to 120 calories.

Instead, I mainly go for the spirits. Sure, the hangovers generally are worse, but you don't get as filled up, and you surely do not get as many carbs. Beers have roughly 5g of carbs a pop, where as a shot of vodka/rum/gin/whisky has zero carbs. Calorie wise, a shot has a little under 100, so it really isn't that much better in those terms. Mixers, though, are what can kill you. I go for the Diet Coke or soda. There is no sugar in them, so you avoid the extra calories and even feel the effects faster, which makes you a cheap date!

The below table shows a pretty general rule for calorie and carb content for booze.

 

Alcohol Type	Calories	Carbohydrates (g)
Beer, regular (12oz) - 150-200 Calories - 5-6 grams carbs	150-200	5-6
Beer, light (12oz) - 100-120 Calories - 4-5 grams carbs	100-120	4-5
Gin (1.5oz) - 100 Calories - 0 grams carbs	100	0
Rum (1.5oz) - 100 Calories - 0 grams carbs	100	0
Vodka (1.5oz)-100 Calories - 0 grams carbs	100	0
Whiskey (1.5oz) - 100 Calories - 0 grams carbs	100	0