How to drink on a diet

Even when maintaining a healthy eating regime, its easy to end up piling on the pounds at uni with a lifestyle built on a foundation of nights out and heavy drinking. So the question remains: how do you drink on a diet?

In a harrowing study on alcohol effects, it was found that one in four people ruin their diet by drinking. Out of 1,000 slimmers, 26% consumed a quarter of their weekly calorie intake in just alcohol. The facts are, ironically, hard to swallow.

But our high calorie intake on nights out isn’t the alcohol alone, remember those drunken burgers, kebabs, cheesy chips with gravy? Basically, your night out is undoing all those salads and avocado-on-toasts you felt so smug about before.

A moment on the lips …

So we’ve done the hard work and out together a guide to distinguishing the good, the bad and the ugly of calorific alcohol.

Drinks to avoid:

Beer and Cider

Just one pint of cider is equal to around 216 calories, which is the equivalent of 0.7 burgers or a 22 minute run to burn off. Plus it makes you bloat pretty badly, so its a no-no for dieters. And one pint of lager adds a hefty 182 calories to your daily intake. Not ideal.

Put that delicious apple juice down

Wine

If you’re favourite tipple is a glass of classy Echo Falls, you may be horrified that both white and red wines are found to be equally calorific. Moreover, most of us are unaware of how much a large glass of wine really is – a 250ml glass of wine contains 228 calories. That means that if you get through a whole bottle, you’re facing a hefty 684 calories.

Cocktails: The baddies

As painful as it is to accept, the truth is that most cocktails are laden with sugar, sugar and more sugar – not as dainty as the tiny umbrellas suggest. Though the fruity flavours mask alcohol perfectly, the combination of fruit juice, sugar syrups and alcohol threatens to landslide any attempt at a healthy diet. A typical piña colada for instance filled with rum, coconut cream, coconut milk and pineapple juice, tots up to a startling 600 calories, which is more than a McDonald’s Big Mac. Other offenders are the long island ice tea and margarita, coming to an estimated 700 + calories.

There’s no denying the lethalness of cocktails

High-calorie mixers 

A few drinks can turn into a diet splurge when you add the wrong mixers. For example, Tiger Works’ infamous ‘Awesome Foursome’ combo of a Jägerbomb, a VK, a shot, and a vodka mixer totals up to a staggering 875 calories when using the calculator on Drinkaware. It’s the addition of energy drinks and full fat fizzy drinks that balloons the calories in your drinks.

Here’s how to get sloshed and slim:

Top diet drinks

Prosecco

While research has shown that champagne is the best for drinking on a diet, we thought it worth adapting to a student budget. A glass of prosecco totals up to a dainty 69 calories, meaning you could swap one cider for just over 3 glasses of prosecco. What’s more, you can faux classiness with a bottle of Sainsburys own brand prosecco at just £5.50.

Pop in a strawberry in you’re feeling indulgent

Spirit and Soda

Vodka, whisky, gin, whatever takes your fancy. The rules here are not to mix more than one spirit, because its harder for your body to break down, and to keep the mixer as light as possible – the best choices are soda or tonic water. A gin and tonic comes to just 120 calories, so yeah, you might feel like your mum, but she’s a smart woman.

Cocktails: The goodies

It’s time to rejoice – cocktails are still on the menu. Though the menu has been made considerably shorter and more refined. The remaining elite cocktails are mojitos (minus sugar syrup), martinis at 73 cals, and bloody Mary’s which are just 90 cals PLUS one of your five-a-day. What’s more, you can replicate a long island iced tea using just tequila and soda for a petite 69 cals. Long live the cocktail.

Diet options

It’s sounds like the obvious advice but we couldn’t miss it out. Many brands do offer diet versions of their classic drinks – if you’re a beer drinker, try Coors light or Corona light – both around 100 cals per pint. Or if you’re partial to using fizzy drinks as a mixer, try a diet coke or lemonade – a single rum and diet coke is only 65 cals compared to 160 cals. Even brands like Pimms do low calorie, canned versions.

There you have it. Equipped with new knowledge on the calorie counts in alcohol you’re free to get absolutely gazebo’d and keep it guilt free.