Everyone loves a beer or a glass of wine from time to time. That’s entirely cool – there’s no reason to feel guilty or for you to have to potentially sabotage your progress, however it’s important to align your expectations accordingly.
Reality check - calories that come from alcohol aren’t really going to assist your body in anyway.
BUT...
That doesn't mean it shouldn't be a part of your life every so often.
It does mean though that you'd do well to understand the consequences of your decisions.
If you’re going to track your alcohol intake then you are essentially taking away from calories that could be assisting you with training & your weight loss efforts (if that's your thing), whereas choosing to have a big night out on the sauce (and not tracking at all) is likely going to mean you’ll be consuming far too many calories for the day.
Again, either way it’s cool – it’s your progress at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, simply entering a beer from MyFitnessPal straight into your diary won't account for any calories that come directly from the alcohol itself. It might track any carbs or fats in the drink you're consuming, but as alcohol isn't really a macronutrient tracked too frequently, there's a better way to go about things.
Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, however if you wish to account for the calories you’re drinking & fit a beer or glass of wine into your macros, simply apply either of the following:
- Use your fat macros – divide the total calories of the drink you’re consuming (total calories, not just the calories from any carbs or fats in the drink) by 9 & simply use as grams of fat.
- Use your carb macros – divide the total calories of the drink you’re consuming (total calories, not just the calories from any carbs or fats in the drink) by 4 & simply use as grams of carbs.
As an example, a 144 calorie beer could be calculated as either 36g of carbs (144 / 4) or 16g of fat (144 / 9).
As a general rule of thumb, or if you genuinely care about building/ maintaining muscle mass, protein should not be subbed for booze.
Feel free to share this with an alcoholic mate & enjoy.
Cheers!