ALCOHOL & CALORIES

There are many benefits to reducing your alcohol use including weight loss. Use our unit and calorie calculator via the Alcohol Test to work out the calories in your typical drink.

High in calories…

Yes it is true, alcohol is highly calorific in content, but the bad news doesn’t end there. Firstly in terms of calorie content, alcohol contains roughly 7 calories per gram which is nearly the same calories in a gram of fat. And with one unit of alcohol containing 8 grams of pure alcohol, the calories can quickly add up especially when you consider the additional calories from mixer drinks.

Fat storage…

Secondly, your body is unable to store calories from alcohol to process for later, the way it does with food calories. Consuming alcohol means that your metabolic system must stop what it's doing to get rid of the alcohol. Essentially what is happening is that alcohol breakdown is prioritised and as a result whatever you recently ate could get stored as fat.

The kebab shop beckons…

Thirdly, when intoxicated or hungover there can be an increased desire for fatty foods and/or a break in healthy eating rules. So that late night trip to the kebab shop or greasy spoon breakfast all adds to the calorie count.