Drinking is a part of most peoples weekends (mine included), however, packing on the pounds doesn’t need to be a part of your weekend as well. As we all know, alcohol is pretty bad for your diet, but just how bad is it and why is it so bad?
Alcohol calories are comprised of mostly carbohydrates (carbs). Carbs are essentially your bodies fuel to give you energy. When you digest carbs, your body converts it into glucose (energy). Any glucose that isn’t used up in your body for energy is stored as fat which is why people get beer guts.
Here is the nutritional breakdown for a fall classic: a Shipyard Pumpkinhead. To the right of it is the nutritional breakdown for a bowl of oatmeal.
If you had 5 shipyards while at the bar (carbs and calories wise) that would almost be like eating 5 bowls of oatmeal!
If you want to cut some calories and carbs out of your trips to the bar try replacing beer with some type liquor and club soda. A gin/tequila/vodka and soda has about 100 calories and more importantly 0 carbs.
If your normal diet consisted of drinking 6 shipyards in a weekend, or something similar in calories, that would equal 1,110 calories just from beer. Over the course of a year, that would equal 57,720 calories. If you substituted Shipyards with gin and soda’s your total annual calorie count would equal 31,200, saving you 26,520 calories. Considering a pound equals roughly 3,500 calories, holding everything else constant (your metabolism, current diet), you’d lose just about 7.5 pounds this year if you just switched out beers for gin and soda’s. If you cut out the late night food you ate that drinking brings on as well you could easily lose 15 pounds this year without making any additional changes.