Alcohol and Diet

Alcohol is a diet killer that’s for sure.   As a reminder for _each_ drink, in round numbers:

Beer (12oz):                150 calories          (16oz pint):         200 calories
Light beer (12oz):       100 calories          * best diet choice…tastes so lousy I can’t drink more than 1
Wine (5oz):                 100 calories          (8oz glass):         160 calories    
Vodka (1.5oz)             100 calories          (3oz ‘martini’):     200 calories

and of course, have more than 1 drink, and it all multiples…ouch when you go to enter it into a daily food log

With my non-exercise, sedentary BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) calculated be to be roughly 2,000 calories a day…this is the total number of calories that I need in order to maintain my current weight…2 pints of beer is 20% of my daily calorie ‘budget’…3 pints, 30%…my food diary screams if/when those numbers go in. 

In the ‘season’ when I’m burning an extra 1,000-2,000 exercise calories a day on average…and BIG days, 5-6,000 calories, the impact is more ‘hidden’…although then you take the veil away, and look at the numbers, alcohol…with it’s total lack of any nutrition…is a real waste of a calorie budget…and makes it _really_ tough to get some weight off.