Exactly how much exercise you need to burn off each alcoholic drink

If you’re a Jägerbomb fan, it’s not good news


Few of us can escape the lure of cheap cider and kebabs, but even worse than the smell of the greasy leftovers is the damage excess alcohol and food consumption does to our bodies.

New research published by PureGym has shown that 45 per cent of students gained weight during their first year of university, with 80 per cent of students underestimating the amount of calories in a takeaway pizza. Luckily, though, the researchers have worked out exactly how much exercise you’ll need to do to burn off those calories.

While the research acknowledges that the occasional takeaway or pint is an ordinary part of student life, it warns about the damages of overindulging. So, want to know your own damage? Here’s how much exercise you’ll need to do to burn off all those Refreshers’ calories.

The booze

A single vodka and Red Bull contains 112 calories. To burn these calories would take 25 minutes of weightlifting, 15 minutes on an exercise bike, or 12 minutes of swimming at a moderate pace, not to mention the consequences of mixing stimulants and depressants.

Even worse is a Jägerbomb, which contains 140 calories. It would take half an hour of pilates or 15 minutes of playing football to burn the energy from drinking just one.

Other alcohol focused on by the study includes lager (a pint contains 250 calories on average), and cider (over 300 calories in a 500ml bottle). Assuming a student drinks six bottles of cider on a night out, they will have to jog for approximately two hours the next day to reverse the damage to their body. Which, let’s be honest, you’re probably not going to do on a hangover.

The least calorific alcohol to drink is red wine, with a 125ml glass containing just 70 calories. However, assuming you drink a whole bottle (are you a student if you don’t?), it’ll take over an hour of walking or 45 minutes of playing lacrosse to burn.

The food

Moving onto fast food, a generic large takeaway pizza contains approximately 2,000 calories, which is 80 per cent of the daily calorie count for a man. Burning this amount of calories would take four hours of Sunday League football, or almost three hours of rugby.

A small portion of cheesy chips contains 350 calories – add a burger to this and you’re likely to consume 900 calories. This would take over an hour of playing squash, or three hours of aerobics to burn.

Most assume that Indian and Chinese takeaways aren’t as unhealthy, but the study suggests that an average portion of both can contain between 1200-1500 calories.

If you were to go out for a curry and drink five pints of lager in the process, you could consume almost 3,000 calories, which would require running a marathon in approximately two and a half hours to burn.

Better get your running shoes on.