Work While Drunk

I like a good drink, you can probably guess that from the name of the site. I’m by no means an alchoholic, but alcohol is probably my largest vice. When I put on weight, the first place that grows, quite obviously to me, is my gut. Problem is its also a hard place to loose weight from.

I was trying to work out how true the phrase ‘beer gut’ was, so here’s a handy table I compiled as a guide. (most figures from http://www.nutracheck.co.uk/calories/calories_in_alcohol/Alcohol.html).

Drink	Calories
Ale (London Pride, pint)	200*
Beer (Corona Extra, bottle)	147
Stout (Guinness, pint)	210
Red Wine (175ml glass)	119

’*’ – the figures ranged from 180 to 250 generally, for real ales on the whole.

That table is in my order of preference of drinks that I choose to drink. Its slightly misleading since on average I’d probably drink 3-5 pints in an evening – the equivalent would be 4-6 bottles or 3-5 glasses of wine. So in total that would be:

Drink	Total Calories
Ale (London Pride, pint)	600-1000
Beer (Corona Extra, bottle)	588-882
Stout (Guinness, pint)	630-1050
Red Wine (175ml glass)	357-595

So its clear that my love of real ale isn’t doing me any favours. I’m swearing of the Guinness either way. I never have a good night’s sleep after drinking Guinness – even 1 pint will have that effect on me. I have three choices here:

1. Drink less
2. Eat less carbs (as the beer contains carbs)
3. choose wine and spirits over beer

So I’ll probably end up doing a bit of all of those. There are two more options, which I don’t want to consider right now. I could stop drinking, or I could carry on and just put up with the fat gut. Neither of those appeal to me though.

Here’s some useful reading if you are interested:

• NutraCheck on Alcohol: http://www.nutracheck.co.uk/calories/calories_in_alcohol/Alcohol.html
• WeightLossResources on Alcohol: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/logout/news_features/alcohol.htm