[tomtom]

Quite a simple calculator here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/12254668

Tells you all the usual shizzle about how many units you've drunk but for the diet concious it also tells you how many calories were in your drinks..

[SA Chris]

Even if you puke it all up again?

[tomtom]

Even if you puke it all up again?

Good point, and what if you also gip up the pizza/kebab/curry you ate, it could even LOSE you calories!!

[GCW]

1000 calories.  No wonder I'm fat.   

[slackline]

Simple more booze == more calories, don't need no stinkin' calculator to tell me that.

These sorts of things aren't really useful at all, the main reason being that the "safe" alcohol limits were "plucked from the air" as the Surgeon General at the time admits in that article.  These fancy flash tools only serve to perpetuate this myth in the general populace when what is really required is more research into what is actually a sensible amount to drink (but still with the BBC having some £34million cut from their web-budget they won't have the funds to knock up such nonsense tools in the future).

[tomtom]

Actually I think it's quite useful. I don't know how many calories are in different beers wines and spirits.. My point (hence in the dieting thread) was about the calories not the units, which as you point out is a rather (plucked from thin air) oddly calculated number..

[slackline]

Still not great, different calories in ales, stout, lager, pilsner. Very crude at best.

You'd be better off reading the labels on the bottles/cans if drinking at home and totting them up that way.  The calculator and presenting the total as calories is just an alternative attempt to "scare" people into drinking less because "units" are pretty incomprehensible, but more people understand and can relate to calories.

[magpie]

My friends were posting their results on Facebook after a night out over the weekend, a couple of them were up around 16-1800 calories for one night boozing.  ??? 

[slackline]

My friends were posting their results on Facebook after a night out over the weekend, a couple of them were up around 16-1800 calories for one night boozing.  ???

The one who drank 16 calories of booze must of been on slim-line G&T's 

[GCW]

The who drank 16 calories of booze must of been on slim-line G&T's 

I doubt Pete Townshend would like SlimLine.

[nai]

I found it quite interesting, surprised to see that eating out last week I drank 1200 Kcals, so probably as many calories from alcohol as from food? 

[iain_cbr]

I don't drink much these days but it said that my average night out from days gone by was the equivalent of eating 2 burgers, a jaffa cake, 2 hotdogs 3 onion bhajis and a donut or two. Thing is, I used to eat that on the way home usually.

[tomtom]

Still not great, different calories in ales, stout, lager, pilsner. Very crude at best.

You'd be better off reading the labels on the bottles/cans if drinking at home and totting them up that way.  The calculator and presenting the total as calories is just an alternative attempt to "scare" people into drinking less because "units" are pretty incomprehensible, but more people understand and can relate to calories.

Last time I checked (last night from memory) they dont put the calorific content on booze - only the units... which *again* we're not talking about here 

 

actual calories would be useful - shame they dont put them on there... Might make me switch from my Pink Lambrini to slimline G&T... 

[iain_cbr]

True. I was looking for units on ale but to no avail. I was also wondering if alcohol free has any less calories, is it the alcohol or the beer that's got all the calories in?

[tomtom]

not SCIENCE but one website...

How many calories in Beer and Lager?

1 Pint/568ml:

Lager, Low Alcohol 57
Beer, Bitter, Low Alcohol 74
Cider, Low Alcohol 97
Lager  163
Guinness, Stout 170
Beer, Bitter 182
Cider, Dry  202
Lager 230
Cider, Sweet 240
 
How many calories in a glass of wine?
     
Red wine(125ml) 85
Dry white wine 85
Rose wine, medium 90
Sparkling white wine ( Champagne, cava ) 95
Medium white wine 95
Sweet white wine 120
     
Large glass:
Large white wine 150
Large red wine 160
Large rose wine 170
Large sparkling wine 180
 

How many calories in Spirits?

1 Shot/25ml Spirits, 37.5% Volume, 48
1 Shot/25ml Spirits, 40% Volume, 52
1 Glass/50ml Sherry, Sweet ,68
1 Glass/50ml Sherry, Dry, 58
     
A double(50ml):
whisky, gin, vodka etc 120
premium whisky, gin, vodka 140
liquers, brandy 150

1 Bottle/275ml Alcopops (Calculated Estimate) 200

and

How many calories in a mixer ?

tonic water(100ml) 40
cola 45
caffeine based energy drink 45
tonic, cola etc (slimline) 0
Fruit juice mixer 50

Nb see impact of fizzy drinks

How many calories in soft drinks?

1 Glass/250ml :
     
Diet Lemonade 3
Lime Cordial 28
Lemonade 53
Orange Juice, Unsweetened 72
Tonic Water 83
Cola, Coca Cola 105
Coke, Coca Cola 1 Can/330ml 139

[slackline]

True. I was looking for units on ale but to no avail. I was also wondering if alcohol free has any less calories, is it the alcohol or the beer that's got all the calories in?

Its the unfermented sugar that holds the calories.  Alcohol is alcohol and the type you drink is ethanol C₂H₅OH and doesn't have calories in it (unless you're on some cheap boot-legged import that contains methanol which will ultimately turn you blind)..

Last time I checked (last night from memory) they dont put the calorific content on booze - only the units... which *again* we're not talking about here 

 

actual calories would be useful - shame they dont put them on there... Might make me switch from my Pink Lambrini to slimline G&T... 

Fair enough, the calculator is and you are talking about calories, and it would be sensible to have it on drinks (the can of Irn-Bru I just drank has this on it, why exclude things just because they have alcohol).

Its still a thinly veiled attempt to encourage a change in drinking patterns, and regardless everyone (at least posting on here) knows that its a very simple equation of calories in v's calories out with regards to weight.

[chris05]

not SCIENCE but one website...

How many calories in Spirits?
1 Shot/25ml Spirits, 37.5% Volume, 48
1 Shot/25ml Spirits, 40% Volume, 52
1 Glass/50ml Sherry, Sweet ,68
1 Glass/50ml Sherry, Dry, 58
     
A double(50ml):
whisky, gin, vodka etc 120
premium whisky, gin, vodka 140
liquers, brandy 150

Is it just me or do these not add up? How do the doubles work out at way over twice the calories of singles?

[tomtom]

Yes  it could all be hocus-pocus! was just the first place I found with a quick googlrama...

[andybfreeman]

I read that alcohol contains 7 calories per gram but that was on a weight loss website and so might not be based on SCIENCE 

Some wine has calories in the label, but it only seems to be at the crap end if the wine spectrum (seen on bottles at the coop), certainly the good stuff at home only gives ABV and not calories.

[slackline]

I read that alcohol contains 7 calories per gram but that was on a weight loss website and so might not be based on SCIENCE 

As above it depends on how much of the sugar has been fermented to alcohol, if there's lots left over then the calorie content is higher.  This is in part why spirits have less calories than lager, so if you want to continue enjoying a tipple but reduce your calorie intake, switch to spirits (without mixers obviously which negates this).

[Fultonius]

I had always thought that when metabolised, acohol "turned into sugar", but nothing on a quick google search seems to back this up - urban myth? 

[slackline]

I had always thought that when metabolised, acohol "turned into sugar", but nothing on a quick google search seems to back this up - urban myth? 

See figure 1 for details of the catabolism of alcohol in humans.

[webbo]

0
 
How many calories in a glass of wine?
     
Red wine(125ml) 85
Dry white wine 85
Rose wine, medium 90
Sparkling white wine ( Champagne, cava ) 95
Medium white wine 95
Sweet white wine 120
     
Large glass:
Large white wine 150
Large red wine 160
Large rose wine 170
Large sparkling wine 180

come on who drinks wine by the glass,haven't you got some proper measures i.e. one and bottles etc.how come rose is higher in cals shirley its just red and white mixed.

[slackline]

how come rose is higher in cals shirley its just red and white mixed.

Because its "medium" and "sweeter" than the Dry white and presumably the red, and that means.......its got more sugar in it. 

[Jaspersharpe]

What a load of shit.

Aside from the "recommended weekly units" thing which shit churnalists love to quote despite it being completely discredited years ago (as slackers pointed out), the idea of comparing what you drink to eating stuff like burgers and cakes doesn't make any sense.

It might from a purely calorific point of view but what about the fat etc in the food?

I can assure you that if I swapped my calorific intake from booze for McDonalds then I would be a fat cunt make no mistake. And that's SCIENCE!

Aside from that tomtom I'm surprised at a science geek like yourself quoting shit off the "newsbeat" website. Quite possibly the most dumbed down, least accurate and most sensationalist wing of the BBCs news output (it is for Radio 1 after all). As I have to listen to their output at work, I'm an expert on how fucking useless the majority it is and how they like to make sure the facts never get in the way of a good soundbite.