Beer and dieting

damonjewel

Beer and dieting

I must lose weight but don't want to say goodbye to my beloved beer. So I obviously have to cut back to a few pints a week. But which beer is the least calorific? its probably the lite (bud coors) beers which I dont like. So how does Stout, Cider, Ale fair? I hear high alcohol lager too (e.g.Holsten Pils) is good too. Anyone any pointers?

jdivision

You'll have to look for it but Michelob sales underwent a resurgence in the US because it had lower carbs. If you look at the fitness forum though you'll see why you should give it up while you're trying to lose weight.

r3nu4l

I understand the reluctance but believe me knocking the beer on the head is the best way for now if you absolutely must lose weight.

If you must drink alcohol, why not try limited amounts of wine?

White Horse

damonjewel wrote:

Beer and dieting

I must lose weight but don't want to say goodbye to my beloved beer. So I obviously have to cut back to a few pints a week. But which beer is the least calorific? its probably the lite (bud coors) beers which I dont like. So how does Stout, Cider, Ale fair? I hear high alcohol lager too (e.g.Holsten Pils) is good too. Anyone any pointers?

You'd be better having a couple of good pints once a week as a treat. The low cal stuff is muck.

guildofevil

r3nu4l wrote:

If you must drink alcohol, why not try limited amounts of wine?

A 150ml glass of wine averages 125 calories. The wine you drink could be more.

A 330ml bottle of Pilsner Urquell is 155 calories.
A 330ml bottle of Coors Light is 100 calories.
A Pint of Guinness: 170

If you prefer beer drink beer in moderation. You won't avoid many calories by switching to wine. You may even end up consuming more calories.

r3nu4l

My reasoning for suggesting wine is that it makes it less likely that the OP will go to the pub for 'a few scoops' after work on a Friday. If the OP does go for a few drinks and is a sensible drinker, he/she will drink far less wine than they would normally drink beer.

I do take the point however that if he/she prefers beer over wine then it is easier to just stick to that and drink a lot less than usual.

The other trick of course is to drink a pint of water for every bottle of beer that you drink OP.

rubadub

Why are you drinking beer? Is it just for taste or do you want to get to a certain level of drunkeness/tipsiness.

If you want to drink 1 pint for taste then you can get 3% or lower beer, or good non-alcoholic beer like NA erdinger.

If you want to get a certain level of alcohol in your bloodstream the most efficient low calorie way is to drink white unsugared spirits, quickly, on an empty stomach with a artificially sweetened mixer
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_1646002.htm

If you want to get a certain level of alcohol in your bloodstream but insist on beer then usually high strenght pilsners are the way to go. They will have more calories per ml, but they are stronger so to get Xml of alcohol in your bloodstream you drink far less, so overall your calorie intake is less.

Pilsners & "lite" beers are usually brewed to completion so all sugars are fermented out. So less calories are present, with distilled spirits you have just alcohol with no proteins or carbohydrates.

rubadub

guildofevil wrote:

A 330ml bottle of Pilsner Urquell is 155 calories.
A 330ml bottle of Coors Light is 100 calories.
A Pint of Guinness: 170

A lot of these online calorie guide can be wrong. I am not sure where you got those figures but it makes out that guinness would be 98.7calories per 330ml, so would have less calories than coors light. Maybe it does but I wouldnt have guessed it.

damonjewel

Just to clear up a few things, I am 36 yo and could do with losing a few pounds. I would say I was a stone and half overweight. I dont go to pubs too often and actually find myself drinking lots at home when sitting in with the wife especially since take out beer is so cheap. So I have knocked that on the head. The problem is that I know I will be out twice this month at a big party where I will probably have half a dozen pints of something nice. So not to undo my hardwork I wanted to know which beer (or cider) was least calorific.

I had in mind something a bit tasty (so all american beer is ruled out as I just think its dreadful) my preference is Ale/Bitter, but how does this compare to Stout, or Lager (German/Czech lagers in particular). The net seems very contradictory on this topic.

Blisterman

From what, I've heard, Guinness is the best beer for that.
To be honest, 2 nights out in a month isn't that much. Just indulge yourself, and go to the gym a couple of extra times.

pjq

Blisterman's right , you can compensate by not eating biscuits , take a walk , and as I was trying to think of a third possibility ,,, I googled "sex calories" and found plenty of humour ( 1st site listed ha ha )
A more serious site ( I think) with calories for beer etc. http://calorielab.com/results.html?xn=se&q=alcohol&food_group_db=main&boo=a , they translate their flounces to grammes ( 1g water = 1ml & 1kg water = 1litre ).
The maths then indicate that a 170cal pint can be burned off with 21 mins of "Bicycling, moderate effort From 12 to 13.9 mph at 476 cal/hr" whereas it will take ( the average yank!!) 5 hours at 34 cal/hr if you go for a horisontal burn off .
pjq

edit found much better news from Pravda ,http://english.pravda.ru/science/health/20-07-2005/8601-sex-0 "Sex makes people healthy, cheerful, strong, beautiful and sleepy ...Thirty minutes of sex kill about 200 calories. In other words, daily sex can take away 500 grams of your weight in a week. ... " and we thought that fat yanks was a by-product of McDonald's !!

oblivious

Guinness is a relativity light beer; it’s the nitrogen that give it a sense of body

blow69

Bud light and Bulmers light are pretty nice for lower calorie drinks!

bigears

I had in mind something a bit tasty (so all american beer is ruled out as I just think its dreadful) my preference is Ale/Bitter

I don't have much to add to the calorie discussion I'm afraid so this may be slightly off topic, but you shouldn't judge American beer by its biggest brands. Some of the best beer in the world is being brewed in the US and they have been primarily responsible for the surge in microbrewing. Any good off licence will have beers by some or all of Sierra Nevada, Anchor Brewing, Brooklyn Brewery, Goose Island and Sam Adams. I presume you are basing your aversion to American beer on Bud/Coors/Miller which is entirely understandable.

Fishamble

bigears wrote:

I don't have much to add to the calorie discussion I'm afraid so this may be slightly off topic, but you shouldn't judge American beer by its biggest brands. Some of the best beer in the world is being brewed in the US and they have been primarily responsible for the surge in microbrewing. Any good off licence will have beers by some or all of Sierra Nevada, Anchor Brewing, Brooklyn Brewery, Goose Island and Sam Adams. I presume you are basing your aversion to American beer on Bud/Coors/Miller which is entirely understandable.

Bigears, have you seen Brooklyn Brewery beer in Ireland? If so, where???

Thanks.

bigears

Hi Fishamble,

I've seen Brooklyn Lager in Sweeney's, Phibsboro and the Wine and Beer Warehouse in Stillorgan.

guildofevil

I got Brooklyn Lager in Sweeney's off-licence in Glasnevin.

Fishamble

Thank you both. Been looking forward to tasting that beer since reading the book the founders wrote.

Back on topic: The calorie advise above is generally spot-on. In my own experience of losing weight (several stone) some years ago, the thought of curbing my beer and wine consumption never entered my head. Exercise is definitely the healthiest way of losing and/or maintaining weight, and - for me at least - it worked. When you reach your desired weight, and if you can keep exercising, then you can enjoy treats (including those of the alcoholic variety) without penalty.

Sorry if this sounds preachy.

bigears

I've got the book but haven't got around to reading it yet - I take it you enjoyed it?

Fishamble

Yeah, I enjoyed the book, lots of good tales in it, and it doesn't talk long to get through. I got more from it from the point of view of starting and building a business than details about beer or running a brewery, but that's okay 'cause I've been involved with a start up for the last few years (IT, not beer).