How to Track Alcohol Correctly
One of the most frequently asked questions I get about the FASTer Way is “Can I still have my wine??” And the answer is yes! I would never join-let alone coach-a program that begins and ends with restriction. I do not believe in deprivation, and deprivation diets simply do not work.
What I DO tell my clients about alcohol is:
1. You need to learn how to track it correctly
2. You should choose your drinks wisely (i.e. skinny margarita vs. sugary one)
3. You should be aware that too much alcohol will take your body out of fat burning mode for several hours
4. You should be clear about your relationship with alcohol. Is it simply something you simply enjoy? Has it become a habit? Is it something you “need” to feel calm and stable?
These are all things to consider!
First, how do we track alcohol? It can be confusing! While alcohol is its own macro at 7 calories per gram (often called “the fourth macro”), it is not listed on the nutrition label.
In order to track the alcohol, you first need to figure out the leftover calories that need to be tracked. Since each gram of carbs is 4 calories, and in this example there are 3g of carbs, only 12 calories are actually accounted for on the nutrition label.
90 - 12 = 78 leftover calories.
You need to divide 78 (leftover calories) by 4 and ADD that amount of carbs or fats (or a combo of the two!) to your food log. In this case, the total macros would be:
90 calories
23g carbs (20g + 3g)
0g fat
0g protein
You can also choose to track your alcohol as fat if you'd like. If you wanted to track the extra calories as fat, which has 9 calories per gram, you would divide the 78 leftover calories by 9. It would look like this:
90 calories
3g carbs
9g fat
0g protein
Now, if that math completely threw you for a loop, here’s a fantastic chart to help you out! I also use an app called WAG Alcohol calculator to help when I want to split between the two.
As I said earlier, when you are choosing your beverage, make sure it is not full of extra junk! We all know that consuming a sugary drink not only makes you feel bad, but it can really mess with your macros! So if you’re going to indulge, let’s make it count!
One of the companies that I really like purchasing wine from is Scout & Cellar because they only produce clean-crafted wines. They partner with small farmers around the country to create wines that are completely free of pesticides and other yucky stuff. The grapes are picked by hand (at night or in the early morning - because the time of day when grapes are picked matters!) and then sorted by hand and carefully fermented. They are able to ship them all over the country in a clean and sustainable way. In my mind, it's such a great solution when you're trying to be conscientious about what you're putting into your body, trying to protect our environment and support small farmers. Click here to check them out!