Tracking Alcohol by Whitney Vaughan
It’s that time of year when most of us like to enjoy more time spent on a patio, around a pool or you may be attending more social gatherings like cookouts and celebrations. Often times, we like to enjoy an alcoholic beverage while we socialize with friends and family. Now is a great time for me to share with you some information on how to track alcohol if you’re counting macros.
How to Track the Macros from Alcohol
Alcohol does not include any type of protein, so you’re only going to track the carbs or fats from you alcoholic beverage of choice. Most people track the carbs from alcohol over the fats. Carbs account for 4g of calories and fats account for 9 grams. To determine the amount in your drink, you only have to look at the total calories per serving in your drink. For example, if you’re having a 5oz glass of red wine that has 100 calories then you’re getting 25g of carbs or 11g of fats from one glass.
Some other examples include 1.5oz of 80-proof vodka at 100 calories per serving would be 25g carbs. A light beer that has 105 calories would include 26g of carbs.
If you can’t find the calories in your alcoholic beverage, don’t stress. Most drinks are similar, so you could get close by tracking a similar drink. If you only drink occasionally, then don’t stress about it & enjoy!
To help keep your caloric intake low, try choosing low calorie, less sugary mixers like water with a wedge of lemon or lime or club soda for your liquor mixers.
How can Alcohol affect Your Weight loss Goals
Unfortunately, when we enjoy drinks they tend to make us hungry. That can be where your extra calories are coming from. Usually the foods we crave while drinking are salty and greasy foods. Salt can cause water retention and greasy foods are high in calories due to the fat. Both can cause the scale to go up.
Also, alcohol is used as a fuel. Our bodies will burn the alcohol in our system for energy first before attacking the carbs and leave the fat cells for last.
Finally, alcohol can decrease the digestive secretions & slow down the movement of food due to the stress it puts on our stomach and intestines. This can cause your weight loss goals to move at a slower pace.
The Confusion with Alcohol Nutrition Labels
So you may have noticed before that your seltzer of choice says 0g of carbs but has 100 calories. How can that be if calories are made up of carbs and other macros?
Alcohol is considered the 4th macronutrient. Alone, it has 7 calories/gram, so companies can get away with saying 0g of carbs or fats. That’s why it’s important to look at the calories of the drink.
By Whitney Vaughan
The purpose of this article is not to restrict you from enjoying social events and your summer, but just to inform you on how to track alcohol.
