Fattening Alcoholic Drinks

dubguy2006

Hey all,

Quick question. Which alcoholic drink piles on the weight the easiest? I'm currently a Bulmers drinker but in a get-in-shape mode for the summer at the moment. Know should really cut out the drink alogether, but it ain't gonna happen in the next few weeks anyways:)
Is Bulmers worse or better than beer e.g. Bud / Heineken etc?

Cheers

Smellyirishman

dubguy2006 wrote:

Quick question. Which alcoholic drink piles on the weight the easiest?

Is that really the question you want to ask?

Alcoholic drink that piles on the least weight is something like whiskey.

I don't think beers are going to vary drastically and if you care about every cal then you should cut the drink .

Dr4gul4

I'm sure i heard miller was the least damaging. however i have no idea where i heard this. it could have been in a pub

Shinners23

Vodka and Slimline Tonic along with Champagne have the least calories. If you are a beer drinker try Coors light, Bud light, Bulmers light. It are a little better for ya...... stay clear of Guinness -

mikemac

Lots of sugar in cider.
Try Bulmers Light,plus it's far nicer than Bulmers.

And if anyone gives you grief about being a wimp for ordering a "light" drink, tell it's the same alcoholic strenght, just a better flavour.

Still not good for you though

justsomebloke

double johnie walker and ice ftw

rubadub

Dr4gul4 wrote:

I'm sure i heard miller was the least damaging. however i have no idea where i heard this. it could have been in a pub

No it still has plenty of carbs. Even fully dry pilsner beers have a lot. Baileys has a lot of calories per gram of alcohol.

It is fundamentally simple, the purest alcohol has the least additonal things in it. So pure spirits or vodkas are the way to go (many spirits have added sugar, not just liquers).

If your aim is to get your alcohol blood level to a particular level by ingesting the least amount of calories then it is pure spirits with diet mixers on an empty stomach in a very quick time. Diet mixers have been shown to increase alcohol absorption. If you have no diet mixer then straight spirits is the way to go.

Unless of course you are willing to inhale, inject or insuffulate the stuff.

Check out www.awolmachine.com

seamus

If something has quite a lot of sugar in it, then it's going to be quite "fattening". So pretty much all alcopops. Spirits on their own are OK, but a vodka and full fat coke is as bad as anything else.

Beers aren't great at all. "Light" beers generally aren't light in calories, only light in alcohol. They still have the same calories. You have to check each one to see if it's the low-fat or low-alcohol type.

Wine can be OK. A pint of Guinness has less calories than a pint of beer (210 Calories -v- 240 for Budweiser).

In terms of controlling your weight gain through alcohol, I would strongly suggest switching to bottled beers if beer is your tipple. They are expensive, but you'll drink slower, thereby drinking less calories (and probably reducing your drunkenness). But this is how I find them. Your mileage may vary.

cowzerp

Shinners23 wrote:

Vodka and Slimline Tonic along with Champagne have the least calories. If you are a beer drinker try Coors light, Bud light, Bulmers light. It are a little better for ya...... stay clear of Guinness -

Talk about ignorance.
Guinness has about 200 kcal's per pint where most beers have 240 and ciders have 270, just because it looks heavy does not mean its got more calories-most fat dudes that sit at the bar drinking are not fat because they drink guinness, its because they drink too much and too often, thats where this stereotype comes from..alcohol is always bad when it comes to weight gain, if your going to drink just drink! then knock it on the head after hols and get stuck into your diet and training..

tribulus

Also the fact that alcohol has 7 calories per gram so shots while maybe not as bad as breezers or wicked etc. still aren't great.

olaola

One thing about the demon drink... it is the bag of chips* on the way home!
I have to put on the blinkers on the way home of a Saturday night.
Otherwise I'll be elbow deep in a Zaytoon as fast as you can say 5-clicks-on-a-treadmill.



* chips, battered sausage, onion rings & garlic sauce

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Diamondmaker

G&T so @ 7 cal / g = 36x7=252 cal but only 2 cal in 100ml of tonic.

7 cal / g is correct and surprising, just checked:eek:

Wow never thought that it was so high in cals, but 0 fat, are the cals in the form of carbs?

King of Kings

unfortunately my fav Stella is calorie loaded.

tribulus

7cals per gram of *alcohol* not per gram of liquid in case anyone mixes that up.

The cals will be from alcohol and carbs.

Also if you want to be exact I believe alcoholic %'s are given in volume per volume rather than weight per volume so to work out the actual weight of the alcohol (assuming it's all ethanol) you'll need it's density.

I.e 5% alcohol in a 100ml drink does not necessarily equal 5g of alcohol.

Diamondmaker

tribulus wrote:

7cals per gram of *alcohol* not per gram of liquid in case anyone mixes that up.

The cals will be from alcohol and carbs.

Also if you want to be exact I believe alcoholic %'s are given in volume per volume rather than weight per volume so to work out the actual weight of the alcohol (assuming it's all ethanol) you'll need it's density.

I.e 5% alcohol in a 100ml drink does not necessarily equal 5g of alcohol.

Oh yeah thats it, did not think a G&T could be that high!

Roughly 37.5% of the 252cals are presant then, as the rest of volume is water etc as I calc'd. ....
The rest being water etc and containing very little cals. (Allowing for alcohol being = in density to water)

So 37.5% x 252 = 95cals, say 100 odd inc mixer of tonic. Thats pretty good!

Its the long way round but I think its right ish?

Very heavy on the pocket though my drink of choice :mad:

Short way round: 37.5% x 35.5ml = 13.3 x 7 = 93 cal per 35.5ml measure.

DublinWriter

Beers, Lagers and Cider = bad.

Spirts, wines and Toilet Duck = good.

Pherekydes

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Coors = 5%
Coors lite = 4.2%

BossArky

Drink about 4 pints of water before you head out. You'll be so bloated it will take a few hours before you get into your stride downing pints. By that time everyone else will be locked, you'll clean up on the dance floor, and possibly just possibly have a clearer head in the morning / heavier wallet / lighter belly.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Frankiestylee

Pretty positive that Bulmers light is less calories ... but all the rest "light" products, i.e Bud Light, Coors Light are just easier drinking versions. They're not called light because they're lower in calories, they're called light because the taste is lighter (pretty much non-existant imo). One might think Coors Light is targetted at women because it's the low fat equivalent, but the reality is just the fact that the majority of women don't seem to get a taste for what I'd consider real beer. I may be wrong,but I'm pretty sure after reading far too many drinks trade magazines that I'm not.

brianthebard

Hit the dance floor after a few beers to balance out the calorie intake. *hic*

rediguana

I posted this before but I drink vodka + tap water in bars / clubs and I'm lean as an immigrant. Wines at home and, again, no weight effect. You're on to a calorie loser once you start beering.

Frankiestylee

Vodka and tap water sounds disgusting though.... and that's thinking of all the decent vodkas out there, the best you'll find in most clubs is Stoli which I wouldn't enjoy either. I think (as people keep saying) you really have to enjoy a diet in order to stick to it. I went into a whiskey drinking mode for a year in order to lose some weight, but though I like whiskey I didn't really enjoy drinking straight whiskey in a social clubbing environment so it just slowly wore me down to the point that I was standing around like a disgruntled aul man while the young'uns and their beers were gettin' on down.

Frankiestylee

brianthebard wrote:

Hit the dance floor after a few beers to balance out the calorie intake. *hic*

That strikes me as the best answer right there... the amount of times I've woken up in the morning after a night of dancing and felt like I'd played a day's worth of rugby, it just can't be beat for beating ye olde hangovers.

Diamondmaker

rediguana wrote:

I posted this before but I drink vodka + tap water in bars / clubs and I'm lean as an immigrant. Wines at home and, again, no weight effect. You're on to a calorie loser once you start beering.

Thats disgusting man! Ruin a good vodka that way or make a sh!t one worse!

Why not mix with tonic water or soda water? Maybe cheap as an immigrant? but I hope you at least claim a "free" wedge of lemon when you order it

davyjose

Bacardi and diet coke = 70 cals. I read it on a beermat

rubadub

Alcohol is made by fermenting sugars. If the sugar is fermented out to completion then there is really only alcohol and no unfermented (fermentable) sugar left. Then you are left over with some carbs. Then some makers add back in sugar for taste. Some add sugar and cream like baileys. Cocktails are usually the very worst, feck all booze in them lots of cream and sugar.

It is very simple, distilling alcohol separates the alcohol from the leftover carbs. So 330ml of 4.3% vodka is always going to have less calories than 330ml of any 4.3% fermented sugar mix, be it wine, beer, cider. Many "lite" beers are brewed out to completion, but many strong pilsners will have less caloried per unit alcohol. This seems to be a point many are blind to, alcohol wise and price wise. Shots are very expensive in pubs, a pint of 5.3% erdinger has 2-1/4 shots of smirnoff worth of alcohol in it.

People are recommending buying bottles over pints to drink slower!, just learn self control, bottles in pubs cost about €7.80 per pint. And people saying shots have lots of calories, of course they do they are concentrated thats why you dont drink 8 pints of whiskey in a night.

olaola

Frankiestylee wrote:

Pretty positive that Bulmers light is less calories ... but all the rest "light" products, i.e Bud Light, Coors Light are just easier drinking versions. They're not called light because they're lower in calories, they're called light because the taste is lighter

No - the 'light' products are defo lighter in calories.
They have about 100 cals per 330ml bottle, regular beer is about 150.

rediguana

The vodka and tap water thing is grand. I have an aversion to anything fizzy / sweet and I'm often broke so the tonic etc options don't appeal to me. The water is free and, at a very early stage, begins the process of recovery during / after a binge.

I don't expect much from a drink in some useless club. It's just generic vodka to me at that stage. If I were at home, and drinking Grey Goose or Ketel One or something (not that I would be), I'd probably give more thought to the whole thing.

The worst thing is that I've to repeat my order a million times and break it down in all kinds of abecedarian ways for the always-incredulous bar staff. One of the good things is that people you don't know think you're just drinking water and that you're the life-and-soul of the party even though you don't drink, when in actual fact you're very, very drunk. They quickly become disabused of this foolish notion then once they speak to you and you proposition (or otherwise scandalise) them. Maybe vodka and tap water isn't such a good idea after all

rediguana

olaola wrote:

One thing about the demon drink... it is the bag of chips* on the way home!
I have to put on the blinkers on the way home of a Saturday night.
Otherwise I'll be elbow deep in a Zaytoon as fast as you can say 5-clicks-on-a-treadmill.



* chips, battered sausage, onion rings & garlic sauce

This is true. Because I can rarely get a taxi after a club, I'm left wandering Stevens Green / Baggot Street / Leeson Street in the dead of night doing the kebab shop equivalent of a pub crawl. How can so much donor and chicken go into one man?

The cab is the secret. If you can hop straight in one you're laughing. I sometimes leave out good quality fresh pasta and sauce to have once I get home. It's not far from breakfast time anyway and I'm going to miss that. No point scaring my metabolism.

Frankiestylee

olaola wrote:

No - the 'light' products are defo lighter in calories.
They have about 100 cals per 330ml bottle, regular beer is about 150.

Y'know yer right

"Light beer is popular not because of how it’s made, but because it delivers on its promise of “lightness.” Light beer does have fewer calories than premium beer; maybe not that many fewer, but fewer. It does have less alcohol, so it won’t impair you as quickly as premium beer. (So does Guinness Stout, but that’s a whole other story.) And if it tastes a little less robust, well, premium beer isn’t exactly overwhelming in the taste category anyway. What the hell, who cares? Open another"

...off some beer experts lil diary.

I still can't dig the water and vodka... surely you'd drink for enjoyment not just for the sake of drinking? I don't think I could hack the flavourless brau. :cool:

olaola

rediguana wrote:

I sometimes leave out good quality fresh pasta and sauce to have once I get home. It's not far from breakfast time anyway and I'm going to miss that. No point scaring my metabolism.

That does actually help! If I know I have something at home to eat... I can get focused on that and walk right past Zaytoon
I usually have a poached egg on a waffle with a slice of plastic cheese in between. About 200 cals. Not too shabby for a drunken snarf!

Duckjob

BossArky wrote:

Drink about 4 pints of water before you head out. You'll be so bloated it will take a few hours before you get into your stride downing pints. By that time everyone else will be locked, you'll clean up on the dance floor, and possibly just possibly have a clearer head in the morning / heavier wallet / lighter belly.

Thats if you make it from your home to whatever pub your going to without píssing your cacks.

OT, whiskey straight for me if i'm trying to get the weight down.

dannyd20

Frankiestylee wrote:

I went into a whiskey drinking mode for a year in order to lose some weight

how did that work out for ya?

Frankiestylee

dannyd20 wrote:

how did that work out for ya?

I lost some weight but not a huge amount, at the time I was eating healtier etc so I reckon it was more due to that. I found I danced less when I was on the whiskey as it's something to be sipped rather then gulped back and it really didn't put me in the dancing mood. Normally once I hit the dance floor I never leave unless the music turns ****ty... after a good night of dancing I'll wake up in the morning feeling like I've played a weekend of rugby or something!

CerebralCortex

There's more to life than worrying about alcohol's affects. I'm outta here.

Dudess

But I thought that alcohol itself contained a high number of calories, thus, any drink will be fattening - just some moreso than others.

failurebydesign

I'd worry more about alcohols effect on your metabolism than how many calories it contains.

A couple links worth reading..
http://skwigg.com/id54.html
http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson194.htm

Diamondmaker

Thats interesting and makes me feel better.:)

I have been off drink since after Paddys w/e and had one session for a stag last week. Apart from the crap I ate I did nothing that w/e.
Those articles make it even easier for me to stay sober now its not just the obvious reasons Im off the stuff.

Next drink down in the calendar is the damn wedding this Sat:mad: damn friend getting married. what sort of friend does he call himself?!

failurebydesign

I know right? Makes me happy that I'm not as partial to drink as I once was.
It really bugs me when my friends go on "diets" to lose weight, where they'll cut out all junk food but still go binge drinking two or three night a week. Just a pet peeve I guess.

dudara

failurebydesign wrote:

I know right? Makes me happy that I'm not as partial to drink as I once was.
It really bugs me when my friends go on "diets" to lose weight, where they'll cut out all junk food but still go binge drinking two or three night a week. Just a pet peeve I guess.

I suppose that a lot of people just don't associate alcohol with weight. Even though its fairly obvious. Personally, I'm a fan of Bulmer's Light, which I think tastes nicer than regular Bulmers. It also comes in longneck bottle, so you drink less of it than people on pints etc, and I'm of the opinion that hangovers are a lot less worse because of it.

nesf

dudara wrote:

...and I'm of the opinion that hangovers are a lot less worse because of it.

Because you are drinking less or because you are drinking Bulmer's Light?

rubadub

dudara wrote:

Bulmers. It also comes in longneck bottle, so you drink less of it than people on pints etc, and I'm of the opinion that hangovers are a lot less worse because of it.

I dont get this? is it because you drink in rounds?
My drink intake would not have anything to do with receptacles.

This is another factor not mentioned so far- hangovers. Cider is one of the worst drinks you can have for hangovers. The alcohol you are trying to drink is ethanol. Unfermented apple juice naturally contains methanol. It contains pectin too and when fermented you get even more methanol. There are lots of byproducts when brewing alcohol. Distilling can help separate these out, with beer or wine you get them all.

If you make your own vodka you can choose how much crap you leave in or take out. Properly made vodka has no taste or odour and needs no filtering. The vodka companies that boast about charcoal filtering are really admitting that they make such crap that it must be filtered & treated to be palatable. The filtering can remove some dodgy by products, sometime it just removes the smell and not the bad alcohols & cogeners (hangover inducing chemicals).

Home distillers have sent their product off for lab testing and it was massively superior to commercial vodkas tested by the same lab (and these distillers did not make very good stuff!). Rather than throw money down the drain the companies charge you for it.

The "cleanest" product to distill is pure sugar at a low controlled temperature. Rum is sugar/molasses based and is probably the cleanest commercial spirit you can find. Some vodkas are also particularly clean, I would recommend Skyy, absolut (flavoured ones, not original), smirnoff black, finlandia. Sugar brews contain only bare trace amounts of methanol, the main culprit. A glass of unfermented apple juice could have 1000 times the methanol as a properly distilled rum

The sign of a good spirit is the lack of hangover. Home distillers know this and it is amazing how much you can drink with no hangover at all.

Many on these forums are very concerned about what they eat, ditching processed foods, yet many never consider what they drink, I suppose if they are that health concious they just dont drink.

Sleepy

rubadub, would the spiced rum's (particularly Morgan's) fall into the category of good/bad? If bad, can you recommend one of the better ones that's widely available in pubs etc?