Over past weeks I’ve been asked constantly about the effects of alcohol on the body, and whenever I explain how bad it is I always get the same answer “Sure one night a week can’t be bad”. Well let’s work it out…
Below I have put a list of a few alcoholic beverages with their Calorie amount per serving. What I want you to do is be truthful with yourself and add up one night’s worth of drinking for me.
Calories in a glass of Baileys (37ml): 121kcal
Calories in a pint of beer: 182 kcal
Calories in a pint of Guinness: 170 kcal
Calories in a glass of Champagne (120ml): 91.2 kcal
Calories in a shot of Gin (25ml): 56 kcal
Calories in a can (550ml) of lager: 247.5 kcal
Calories in a glass (50ml) of sherry: 68 kcal
Calories in a glass (120ml) of White wine: 89 kcal
Calories in a shot (25ml) of Vodka: 55 kcal
Calories in a bottle (275ml) of Bacardi Breezer: 154 kcal
Calories in a bottle (275ml) of Smirnoff ice: 157 kcal
Calories in a bottle (275ml) of WKD: 184 kcal
Calories in a pint of Magners: 233 kcal
Calories in a bottle (750ml) of Lambrini: 263 kcal
Calories in a bottle (750ml) of Blossom hill rose: 533 kcal
Calories in a bottle (750ml) of Jacobs creek red: 510 kcal
Right, now that we have that done, let’s move on. At the end of a night out I would say that 99% of people would end up in the nearest Chippy or Chinese, so let’s be truthful again and work this out.
(If you can’t find what you would usually eat, choose the nearest thing to it)
1 Chicken Sandwich, Burger King* 659 kcal
1 Quarter Pounder with Cheese, McDonald’s* 515 kcal
1 Big Mac, McDonald’s* 492 kcal
1 McChicken Sandwich, McDonald’s* 376 kcal
1 Cheeseburger, McDonald’s* 300 kcal
1 Hamburger, McDonald’s* 254 kcal
1 Fries, McDonald’s* 224 kcal
1 Extra Crispy Chicken Drumstick, KFC* 195 kcal
1 Hash Brown McDonald’s* 127 kcals
Cheese & Tomato Pizza, 10″, Domino’s Pizza*1 Slice125 kcal
1 Garlic Bread, Pizza Hut* 1 Slice 101 kcal
1 Regular chip shop chip* 956 kcal
1 Cod in Batter* Large 556/ Medium 444/ Small 296 kcal
1 chip shop battered sausage* 450 kcal
1 Chip shop Sausage* 330 kcal
1 Chip shop Gravy chip* 986 kcal
1 Chip shop burger* 555 kcal
1 Chip shop fried Chicken breast* 950 kcal
1 small Donner Kebab* 850 kcal
1 small Chicken Kebab Meat and Chips* 498 kcal
Prawn crackers – per portion* 385 kcal
Sesame prawn toasts – per portion* 560 kcal
1 Meat spring roll* 125 kcal
Spare ribs – per portion* 875 kcal
Small Sweet and sour sauce* 235 kcal
Boiled rice* 410 kcal
Egg fried rice* 550 kcal
Chicken fried rice* 490 kcal
Lemon Chicken* 488 kcal
Crispy chilli beef* 380 kcal
Chicken with cashew nuts* 530 kcal
Stir-fried vegetables* 185
Sweet and sour chicken* 585 kcal
Sweet and sour pork* 715 kcal
Chicken Chow Mein* 515 kcal
So you have got you’re “only one night worth of calorie intake” added together… Surprised yet??? Well we still haven’t finished 
Now you wake up the next day with a splitting headache and a dorty Hangover, What are you most likely to do??
Option 1:
Stay in bed all day dyeing. Not being able to stomach food, your body’s sugar levels drop and hunger sets in. As your body needs food for energy to survive it goes on its own instincts and starts eating on primarily free fatty acids from its own fat stores. After a prolonged period of starvation the body has depleted its body fat and begins to burn lean tissue and muscle as a fuel source instead. So for those of you that have spent the week in the gym toning or bulking your muscles, say bye bye . Also watch as your metabolism suffers as having a good % of lean muscle naturally boosts your metabolism which then leads to greater fat loss. So for those of you looking to lose weight as well, you are off to a bad start.
Option 2:
You go the total other way and spend all day eating pure fatty and greasy food, as you are dyeing and feel sorry for yourselves and need that little bit of comfort, lol. If so go back up to the list above and start adding on the extra calories for the day along with any other wee treats you may be taking such as:
Fry Up* 597 kcals
Celebrations – 1 sweet: 41 kcals
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk: 520 kcals
Creme Egg (39g): 173.6 kcals
1 Jelly Baby (6g): 20 kcals
Kit Kat (21g): 107.0 kcals
Maltesers: 186.8 kcals
Mars Bars (62.5g): 280.6 kcals
Milky Way: 118.3 kcals
Minstrels: 211.3 kcals
Snickers: 319.0 kcals
Twix (58g): 284 kcals
And the list just keeps going on and on
Hopefully by now you have got the calculator out and have done the calculations and equations and have got over the shock of just what one night out on the drink can do to your body.
Remember guy’s this isn’t even taking into account how you feel on the Monday morning having died all day Sunday, for allot of people they still won’t be 100% and it will just be like Sunday all over again. It’s also definitely not taking into account all you weekend warriors out there that will wake up after a nights out and head for the cure (wolly toms) if so, head straight back up to the top list and start adding on, lol.
Now after you have totalled you’re final amount, take into account what training if any you would complete in a week. I’d say that for the vast amount of people that I speak to they would train between once to three times per week. Now I know that everyone’s bodies are different and that we all burn off calories at different rates but we will just make an average list of calories burned per 30 minute workout to make life easy.
Jogging – 30 minutes: Approximately 340 kcal
Running – 30 minutes: Approximately 560 kcal
Pilates – 30 minutes: Approximately 140 kcal
Rowing machine – 30 minutes: Approximately 370 kcal
Aerobics class – 30 minutes: Approximately 150-360 kcal
Spin – 30 minutes: Approximately 350-500 (lower body) kcal
Swimming – 30 minutes: Approximately 150-250 kcal
Weight training – 30 minutes: Approximately 150-275 kcal
Yoga – 30 minutes: Approximately 200-300 kcal
Cpt MMA Conditioning – 30 minutes: Approximately 400 kcal
AKA Kettlebell class – 30 minutes: Approximately 400 – 600 kcal
Now that we have finally got all of our calculations complete, If possible take away you’re total week’s worth of calories from training from your total intake of calories on a night out.
Now sit back and truly ask yourself “is that one night out a week really worth it”???
Thanks for reading, hope you all got something out of this article. Remember train hard fight harder.
Cheers Kev
