Alcohol is for many part of their social life and is enjoyed by millions around the world. It can however be very dangerous and in some cases fatal, so make sure you’re being safe and watching your drinks. Alcohol can also have an adverse affect on your fitness progress which is less than ideal when you’ve spent hours working on it. Therefore we’ve put together this guide to help guide you to make the best choices to have a social life but also keep on top of your progress. Heres our guide to alcohol for Fit Girls!!

Knowing Your Alcohol

Alcohol is free from any macronutrients (carbs, fats, proteins) but they still contain calories. 1 gram of alcohol contains 7 calories, so the higher the alcohol percentage, the more calories. Different alcoholic drinks have different calorie contents based on the ingredients they are made with.

The average calorie content for a medium (175ml) glass of White wine is 130 cals, 119 for Red and 124 for Rose and 133 for Champagne.
The average pint of Lager contains 200 calories per pint.
On average a pint Cider has approx 239 calories.
The calorie content between clear and dark spirits is minimal and the quality of your drink depends on what you’re mixing your spirit with. 1 shot of vodka contains approx 64 calories, 1 shot of rum contains approx 64, gin – 73, whiskey – 70, Tequila – 66.

Easy Substitutions To Make

✓ Swap Soft Drinks for soda water. Add fresh Lemon or Lime for some flavour.

✓ Instead of beer, go for Wine. Sardinian and Spanish reds contain decent levels of Resevatrol, a potent powerful anti-oxidant with anti-ageing properties, therefore Red is always the winner. If you prefer a white or a rose, its still a better choice than Lager. Lager is brewed with hops, which can boost the female hormone – oestrogen, this is responsible for stubborn weight around the thighs and hips and in men is linked to man boobs!

✓ Only drink cocktails you’ve made from home. When you’re out in the club, you don’t know whats going into your drinks. Mojitos are laced with added sugars and its easy to stack up the calories fast! When you’re out stick with a spirit and soda with fresh lime or a glass of wine.

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Water

Alcohol is a natural diuretic which means that you lose water when you drink it, mainly though needing the toilet more but also through sweat and other perspiration methods, therefore its important to stay hydrated by having a large glass of water in between every drink. Water is not for the weak, water is for the smart girls. Drink it up and encourage all your friends to drink it up too! You’ll thank yourself later. Make sure you drink water when you get home, a carton of coconut water is also never a bad idea, if you drink one of those when you get home you’ll feel much better in the morning.

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Know Your Alcohol Limits

Our governments Department Of Health have put together some pretty solid guidelines when it comes to being “drink aware”. If you like to read you can view them here, if not then heres them in a nutshell. You should not drink more than 14 units per week and these units should be split up over at least 3 days, so no saving all your units up over the week and going on a binge drinking bender at the weekend. The units differ depending on the size and strength of your drink but at as rule of thumb, 14 units equivocates to about 6 glasses of wine, 8 shots of 17% spirit.

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Don’t drink on an empty stomach

Alcohol entered your blood stream faster on an empty stomach so make sure you get something decent to eat before you drink. If you don’t want to look bloated then you need to find out what foods bloat you, you may be intolerant to them so thats worth looking into. Stay away from those foods and have something else. Going out on an empty stomach is just going to lead to disaster further down the line.

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Don’t mix different alcohols

Different drinks hit you differently and mixing different drinks together can lead to disaster and you going way over your limits. Decide on one drink and stick with it. Don’t forget to mix your drinks with water though!! Make sure you give your drinks time to hit you! Sometimes you will feel sober so carry on drinking and then it all hits you at once and you’re a mess! Just relax and enjoy the moment drunk or sober.