August is here, the beautiful weather continues in Estonia, and beach and barbecue season is in full swing. The midsummer beach and holiday season also means drinking alcohol more often than usual.
Bodybuilding is ultimately all about looking good physically. But lifting weights alone is not enough to give you a muscular, athletic, well-trained physique. Your overall nutrition matters a great deal: calorie intake, food choices, meal timing and so on. Today, though, I wanted to talk about something other than these much-discussed topics. I will be talking about calories, but not directly in the context of nutrition.
Even athletes want to feel human now and then, and naturally, even the most dedicated among us go to summer parties and have a few drinks.
Let’s get to the point. I often worry about the 1–2 bars of chocolate I have eaten and the calories they contain. But I have never really stopped to consider how many calories a heavy drinking session might add up to, both in its own right and compared with other foods—perhaps even that same “dreaded” chocolate.
A closer look and a few simple calculations can reveal some pretty startling results. Again, my point is that we count calories when we eat, yet fail to realize just how much heavy, frequent drinking can contribute to the extra kilos we carry under our skin.
So, let’s look at the numbers. I have done some calculations and will share them with you, along with a few comparisons. 100 grams of 40% vodka contains an average of 230 kcal. Half a liter, or 0.5 liters (500 g), of 40% vodka provides a total of 1150 kcal. What would that amount to in food?
0.5 liters of vodka (1150 kcal) = a large 500-gram loaf of “Perenaise” white bread (1300 kcal) = two 100-gram bars of chocolate (1100 kcal)…
Pretty sobering, isn’t it?
And I am talking about just 0.5 liters, or only half a liter, of vodka. Big men weighing 90 kg and over will not even feel the effects of that amount. 1 liter of straight vodka already contains 2300 kcal (400 g of chocolate), and big men have no trouble drinking that much. Nor should we forget that people do not drink vodka on its own. They usually chase it with juice or mix the vodka with juice, and of course they eat plenty alongside it—all evening long. All told, one heavy drinking session can easily mean 3000-5000 kcal of energy, which alone is a full day’s calorie intake for a large, 100-kilogram man. Parties typically take place in the evening, when a long day is drawing to a close, but you have probably already eaten plenty that day before the party. You may even have consumed as much beforehand (2500-3000 kcal) as you will during the party that evening. Ultimately, this means that if you are a seriously hardcore partygoer, 1-2 days of partying (the day leading up to the party, the party itself and the following day) could add 1 extra kilogram of fat to your body if you also get very little physical activity. 2500-3000 kcal (your usual food intake during the day leading up to the party) + 3000-5000 kcal (energy consumed during the party) = 5500-8000 kcal. 1 kg of fat = 9000 kcal. And this is no fantasy. I have done the calculations based on my own partying, and the total energy intake over the 1-2 days before and after a party evening can be enormous.
What is more, I also calculated how many 0.33-liter bottles of Kiss, Fizz and similar drinks would match the calorie content of 0.5 liters of straight vodka. In calorie terms, 0.5 liters (500 g) of vodka is equivalent to 7 bottles of low-alcohol cider (0.33 l each). 1 bottle = 162 kcal. 7*162 = 1134 kcal. But would those 7 bottles get you as drunk as half a liter of vodka? Hardly. So the conclusion is clear: in terms of calories, drinking straight vodka is the better option. Move around a lot while you are at it (so you are at least burning some energy) and choose very low-calorie snacks to go with it (raw vegetable salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, tomato juice).
In practice, however, people usually start by downing 3-5 bottles of low-alcohol cider (486-810 kcal) as a “warm-up” before moving on to vodka. And for big men, an average of 0.7 l (1610 kcal) per person is nothing unusual. That already adds up to 2420 kcal from the alcohol alone. But, as I said, add the calories from fatty grilled foods eaten throughout the evening/night, along with the calories consumed during the day leading up to the party, and the final total can be quite shocking.
Let’s think about these numbers and keep this information in mind when partying, especially if you care about your body weight and appearance!
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
