Alcohol and fat loss

What a drink actually contains

Calories vary with strength and size, but rough figures help:

• Pint of 4% lager or bitter: about 2.3 units and roughly 180 to 200 kcal.
• Pint of 5% lager: about 2.8 units and often around 220 to 250 kcal.
• Large (250 ml) glass of 13% wine: about 3.3 units and around 200 to 230 kcal.
• Standard (175 ml) glass of 13% wine: about 2.3 units and around 160 kcal.
• Single 25 ml measure of 40% spirits: 1 unit and around 55 kcal, plus whatever mixer you add.

A Friday of four pints is around 800 kcal before any food. A bottle of wine shared between two is roughly 300 kcal each. Our guide to calories in drinks covers more options, including soft drinks and coffee shop orders.

The UK low-risk guidelines

The UK Chief Medical Officers advise that to keep health risks low, men and women should not regularly drink more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days, with several drink-free days each week. That is roughly six pints of average-strength beer or six medium glasses of wine across the whole week. There is no completely safe level, and less is better for health.

For fat loss, staying within 14 units makes life much more manageable. Drinking all 14 in one or two sessions is harder on your body, your sleep and your food choices than a smaller amount spread across the week.

If you are unsure how many units you drink, count honestly for two normal weeks. Many people are surprised, especially by how much bigger a home-poured glass of wine is than a pub's 175 ml measure.

Sleep, recovery and training

Alcohol may help you drop off faster, but it disrupts the second half of the night. You wake more, sleep less deeply and feel worse the next day, even after only a few drinks. Poor sleep then increases hunger and cravings, as our guide on sleep and fat loss explains.

Heavier drinking also affects training. It dehydrates you, can blunt muscle repair after a session and reduces performance the following day. A Saturday morning session after a big Friday night is rarely a good one. Alcohol and training goes into the detail.

Drinking less without quitting

• Set a number before you start. Decide on two drinks, not a few.
• Alternate with water or soft drinks. It slows the pace and helps the next day.
• Go lower strength. Alcohol-free and low-alcohol beers have improved a lot and are easy to find in pubs and supermarkets.
• Choose smaller measures. A half instead of a pint, a small glass instead of a large one, a spritzer instead of straight wine.
• Use zero-calorie mixers. Diet tonic or soda water rather than full-sugar mixers.
• Plan alcohol-free days. Aim for at least three or four nights a week without a drink.
• Eat before, and plan the food after. Have a protein-rich meal before you go out and decide now what you will eat at the end of the night.

The food that comes with it

For many people, the drinks are not the biggest problem. It is the crisps and nuts at the bar, the kebab on the way home, and the fry-up and full-sugar drinks the morning after. Add those up and a night out can easily cost 2,000 kcal or more on top of normal eating.

Plan the food as carefully as the drinks. Eat a proper meal first, decide in advance that you will not order food after a certain point in the night, and have a decent protein-rich breakfast ready for the next morning. Our guide on stopping the weekend undoing your week covers the whole pattern. Next-day hunger is real, partly because of poor sleep, so plan an easy, protein-rich lunch and a walk rather than relying on willpower.

When to look at your drinking more closely

If you find it hard to stick to limits, drink to cope with stress, feel you need a drink to relax most evenings, or people close to you have raised concerns, it is worth speaking to your GP. The NHS website also has tools to check your drinking and information about local support services.

Many people who cut back notice better sleep, more energy and faster progress within a few weeks. A regular evening session helps too, because a 6pm class is a good reason not to start the evening in the pub. Lycan Strength's class timetable has evening Full Body, Upper, Lower and Engine sessions through the week.