If you are anything like my husband you started tracking your macros and with a wishful ignorance, figured that your delicious red wine was a \u201ccalorie-free\u201d food.\u00a0 Aw, you really should have seen his face when I broke the news to him.\u00a0 I then began to lovingly explain that yes indeed alcohol DOES have calories and DOES need to be tracked.\u00a0 BUT\u2026it’s super easy and there are plenty of \u201cmacro friendly\u201d drinks that make it super easy to add to your meal.\u00a0 I’m going to give you all the info you need on how to calculate and track your favorite alcoholic beverage.\u00a0 Flexible dieting and tracking macros are ALL about balance, and let\u2019s face it\u2014some days we just need to have a good drink!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The first step is to determine how many total calories are in your drink of choice.\u00a0 If you want to keep it simple you can choose a glass of red or white wine.\u00a0 A typical glass of wine is 5 oz.\u00a0 Red wine has about 125 calories and white wine has about 120 calories.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re more of a beer kind of person a can of beer (or 330 ml) can vary from 140-190 total calories.\u00a0 There are a number of different factors that contribute to the difference in calories for beer.\u00a0 Most notable are the variable carbohydrate and alcohol content in different types of beer.\u00a0 The best thing to do would be to look at the can or bottle you’re drinking.\u00a0 If you got it from the tap you could also look it up online.\u00a0 If you still can’t find the calories online then you could just use an average of 165 calories.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Another choice would be to drink liquor.\u00a0 If you\u2019re more of a straight up or neat kind of person then you would simply use the total number of calories for one serving (or shot) of your particular choice of drink.\u00a0 Each type of liquor varies a bit in total calories per shot (1.5 fl oz).\u00a0 You can easily look it up but I have listed below the total calorie content per 1 shot for the most common drinks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Vodka \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 93<\/p>\n
Whiskey \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 96<\/p>\n
Gin \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 110<\/p>\n
Rum \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 86<\/p>\n
Tequila \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 96<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Things can get more complicated when you start to go for the cocktail options.\u00a0 Many of these have simple syrups in them which will significantly increase the carbohydrate content.\u00a0 Therefore, unless you make it yourself cocktails can be really hard to track.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like your liquor straight up an alternative option would be to choose something simpler like mixing with your favorite diet soda and maybe a splash of lime.\u00a0 This is will be easier to track because you can better estimate the amount of soda in the drink and add those calories to the shot calories to get your total.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now that you know the total calories in your drink you will then decide how you want to divvy up those calories in your macros.\u00a0 For tracking purposes, you will be taking the total number of calories and tracking them as either carbs or fats.\u00a0 You never want to substitute alcohol for protein.\u00a0 You can choose to track your alcohol calories as either all carbs, all fat, or do a 50\/50 split.\u00a0 So let\u2019s break this down a little further.<\/p>\n
Remember that 1g of carbohydrate is 4 calories and 1g of fat is 9 calories.\u00a0 Let\u2019s use red wine as an example.\u00a0 The total calories in a glass of red wine are about 125.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All carb option:<\/p>\n
125 \u00f7 4 = 31.25 so we will round that to 31g of carbs<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All fat option:<\/p>\n
125 \u00f7 9 = 13.8 so we will round that to 14g of fat<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
50\/50 split option:<\/p>\n
125 \u00f7 2 = 62.5 to get the number of calories to evenly disperse between carbs and fats<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
62.5 \u00f7 4 (carb) = 15.6 rounds to 16g carbs<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
62.5 \u00f7 9 (fat) =6.9 rounds to 7g fat<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is no right or wrong as far as how you split up your calories between carbs and fats.\u00a0 It really just depends on what best suits your individual macro needs.\u00a0 Some might have a lot of fat left for the day and not many carbs so you may choose to track your beverage as all fats.\u00a0 Someone else might have an even amount of both available for the day so they would choose the 50\/50 option.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You can really tailor it to whatever macros you have available for the day to replace with alcohol.\u00a0 To input this into MyFitnessPal you can go to \u201cMeals, Recipes, &Food\u201d in the \u201cmore\u201d section then just create a new food.\u00a0 You\u2019ll then name your \u201cfood\u201d something like \u201cRed Wine-all carbs\u201d or \u201cRed Wine- 50\/50\u201d then input the appropriate macros and BOOM\u2026 you\u2019ve got it there to input every time you have a glass of red wine\u2026YOU\u2019RE WELCOME!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Just because you are working on losing weight and focusing on eating more nutrient-dense foods doesn\u2019t mean you have to always say no to enjoying your favorite beverage.\u00a0 I always promote living a healthy lifestyle and part of that is learning how to work in things like going out for a drink with your girlfriends!\u00a0 Success with weight loss is found through having the flexibility to make choices and learning how to make that work for your goals.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t happen through severe restriction and saying no to foods or occasions that you would enjoy.\u00a0 You might see some short-term success with a highly restrictive diet but it does not make for healthy long-term maintenance and happiness.\u00a0 So, grab your drink my friend and toast to enjoying your life and being the happiest healthiest version of YOU!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Until next time…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xx<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Allison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you are anything like my husband you started tracking your macros and with a wishful ignorance, figured that your delicious red wine was a \u201ccalorie-free\u201d food.\u00a0 Aw, you really should have seen his face when I broke the news to him.\u00a0 I then began to lovingly explain that yes indeed alcohol DOES have calories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food"],"yoast_head":"\n