Tracking Alcohol with Marcos

We spoke with Earn Your Booze to learn about alcohol calorie counting, and here’s what they had to say:

No alcohol has zero calories or zero carbs.

There is a lot of misinformation thrown around about tracking alcohol macros and we are going through what this actually means, and what is actually necessary.

Alcohol absolutely has calories, but it is unlike any of the other macronutrients in that it has 7 calories per gram where protein and carbs have 4, and fat has 9 calories per gram. What we want to teach you is how to convert those calories into something you can track, so you can feel better about what you are drinking, while still enjoying your booze!

The method: Take the calorie amount for 1 drink, which is roughly around 150-200 calories (per 1 oz pour of spirit or 5 oz glass of wine), and look at your day to see where you have more room to take from (often its carbs, but some people are on a high-fat diet and in that case, should take from fats). Therefore, using this example, take 120 calories and divide it by 4 (the number of calories in a gram of carbs), and you will get your carb number, which would be 30g carbs. Then subtract that from your total amount of carbs for the day. Therefore, if you want that end-of-the-day cocktail, it’s worth roughly 30g carbs. If this is too much and you want to use an app, try My Fitness Pal where you can use the 'quick add' feature and enter it as 0 protein, 30 carbs, and 0 fat.

To make things even easier, here is a little cheat sheet for you!

• Beer: 12 oz. = 153 calories
• Light beer: 12 oz. = 103 calories
• Hard cider: 12 oz. = 199 calories
• Red wine: 5 oz. = 125 calories
• White wine: 5 oz. = 121 calories
• Champagne: 5 oz. = 105 calories
• Vodka (80 proof): 1.5 oz. = 97 calories
• Tequila (80 proof): 1.5 oz. = 97 calories
• Whiskey (80 proof): 1.5 oz. = 97 calories
• Gin (80 proof) & tonic: 8 oz. = 216 calories
• Rum (80 proof) & Coke: 8 oz. = 271 calories
• Martini: 3 oz. = 179 calories
• Manhattan: 3 oz. = 189 calories
• Cosmopolitan: 3 oz. = 157 calories
• Piña colada: 4.5 oz. = 245 calories
• Daiquiri: 4.5 oz. = 252 calories
• Margarita: 4.5 oz. = 189 calories

 Now go enjoy!