How To Get Drunk Without Ruining Your Diet or Ending Up In The Emergency Room.

What you’re about to get into?

3000 words, 30-minute read.

Key Points

Alcohol contains 7 kcals per gram.
If you want to keep on track with your diet, you will need to plan your alcohol consumption. This involves cutting back on calories throughout the day so that they can be used for alcohol consumption.
A great tool for learning the calorie and alcohol content of your drink is the website and app http://www.getdrunknotfat.com/
Alternate between periods of alcohol and glasses of ice cold water during a night out to keep on top of your hydration.
Be mindful of dietary choices and food environment when drunk.
You don’t have to live like a monk. Getting drunk once in a while in good company can make you happy, improve your social life and help with dietary adherence in the long run.

First things first.

This article does not encourage you to go out and get drunk. Getting drunk is not healthy and will increase your likelihood of injuring yourself, pissing people off, running your blood glucose levels all over the place, and possibly dying sooner than expected.

In saying that, we’ve all been there. Whether it’s a family do, get-together with an old friend or a full-blown night on the town when many of us enjoy a drink (or two).

In this article, I want to address how you can drink alcohol without ruining your diet, causing unwanted fat gain, and still manage your diabetes safely.

Go Out, or Stay in and ‘Be Good.’?

Judging by the fact you’re reading this article you’ve probably asked yourself that question many times before.

You’ve maybe started a diet or training regime and can’t quite get your head around what to do when one of the following circumstances occurs,

Your best friend is back for the weekend and wants to hook up for a drink?
You have a family wedding where everyone will be drinking?
Your best mates are looking to go out and get loose?

But, you’re stuck at home pulling your hair out pondering about what to do, stuck between “being healthy” and suffering that feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out)

Should I go for one or two drinks?

You could, but you’re worried about breaking your diet. Plus 1-2 drinks is never a true story.

Should I just let loose?

You could, but you’ll feel guilty because you’re going off the plan.

Netflix and chill?

Maybe the safest option, but the most boring? Maybe…

Here’s the thing.

There is no reason you can’t adhere to your diet whilst still having a night out and enjoying yourself.

If you’ve read my book or watched any of the execution plans on how to build your own diet, you’ll know by now that a successful diet for fat loss and muscle gain is grounded on principles, not a fixed hard plan.

Principles give flexibility, with flexibility comes enjoyment and, most importantly, adherence – the most important building block of any diet.

When it comes to including alcohol in your diet and continuing to make good progress in the gym, there are a number of factors you need to consider.

Total caloric intake of alcohol consumed.
Managing blood glucose levels when drinking.
How often you feel the need to drink.
Dietary choices while drinking.

Let’s talk through each of them with respect to enjoying alcohol as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Total caloric intake of alcohol consumed.

Ideally choose alcoholic drinks that contain very few calories in the form of carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Do you know the calorie and alcohol content of your usual tipple?

A great tool for doing this is the website and app http://www.getdrunknotfat.com/

Get Drunk Not Fat is a site that lists and ranks alcohol based on the amount of included alcohol % versus calorie content. The tool is supported by beer, wine, and liquor manufacturers to bring you the most accurate calorie and carbohydrate information. Knowing the carbohydrate content of your drinks is vital information to understand the impact it will have on your glucose level. Use this tool the next time you plan your drinking escapades.

Spirits and diet mixers score best over higher calorie options like beer, creamed liquor, and wines.

If you want to keep on track with your diet, you will need to plan your alcohol consumption. This involves cutting back on calories throughout the day so that they can be used for alcohol consumption.

For example, let’s consider a man who is planning a night out with mates, where he drink 8 units of alcohol (classed as a binge), whose total daily macronutrient targets are:

200 Protein,
100g Fat
250g Carbohydrate
Totalling = 2700 kcals.

A simple way of going about things would be to cut back his fat intake by 50 grams and protein by 40g, leaving 450kcal (50g x 9kcal/g) from fat and 160 kcal (40g x 4kcal/g) from protein to go towards alcohol. Respectively, that’s 610kcals left in the bank for his night out. 610 / 7kcals/g alcohol = 87g Alcohol to play with.

Of course, this is only an example, you could cut more calories and drink more alcohol if you wanted. Do bear in mind the more calories you cut in favour of alcohol, the greater risk you run of falling short on key nutrients. Don’t do this.

Carbs are left untouched as a preventative measure for hypoglycaemia during drinking.

Protein requirements are already above his essential needs, so there is wiggle room to cut.

What do we get for 85g Alcohol (610 kcals)?

When it comes to working this out, I like to go with straight spirits and diet soft drinks since they are zero calorie

Most spirits contain around 40% alcohol. If we multiply an average spirit shot of 25ml by 40%, each 25ml shot provides 10g of alcohol. Each gram of alcohol contains 7kcal. So 70kcals per shot.

So giving up 50g fat and 40g protein (610 kcals) gives us approximately 8.5 shots (85g alcohol).

Combine this with diet mixers and you’re good to go.

However, alcohol has a higher thermic effect of feeding (costs more energy to process), you’re usually more active on a night out (boogie) and the fact that you won’t be drinking every night of the week – the calorie intake from alcohol doesn’t do as much damage as people think.

If you don’t like spirits…

Whilst using the alcohol exchange system above is a better way of getting drunk for fewer calories, if you really don’t like spirits, then using the website/app above will allow you to search for your favourite beer or wine and work out its calories. So instead of doing the carb-alcohol swap, you’d just be filling in the calories you’ve saved with your favourite alcoholic drink.

Managing blood glucose levels when drinking.

This is often one of the most challenging aspects of diabetes management because you have a lot of variables to contend with. Have you ever been bemused by what happens to your glucose level, and its lack of consistency when drinking alcohol? Is it any wonder when you consider:

Do you keep to spirits, or do you mix drinks?
Did the bartender give me a diet or full sugar mixer?
What drink did my friend just buy me?
Have I had five or seven drinks now?
Am I going to a dance club?

The main impact of alcoholic drinks on your blood glucose level is mainly determined by two factors.

Do your drinks contain carbohydrate?

How much are you going to drink?

Do your drinks contain carbohydrate?

If you choose non-carbohydrate drinks, such as spirits and diet mixers and dry wine, your big risk is hypoglycaemia. Why? When you drink alcohol, your liver goes into overtime detoxifying the alcohol and forgets to pump out its usual supply of glucose. If you do not reduce your background insulin or have small amounts of additional carbohydrate, say the occasional full sugar mixer, you will most likely go hypo.

If you choose carbohydrate based drinks, such as beer, lager, ale, cider, cocktails – it is common to consume from 50-100g of carbohydrate after just five drinks. You better believe you will have a glucose level through the roof. The DAFNE program teaches to give half the usual insulin for the carbohydrate in alcoholic drinks to prevent massive hyperglycaemia; but then to reduce background insulin overnight to prevent the hypo.

How many units of alcohol will you drink?

A good rule of thumb is that your liver takes one hour to detoxify one unit of alcohol. So for people with diabetes, that means one hour of hypo risk. If you are only having one medium glass of wine that is two units of alcohol, your risk is very small. However, if you get carried away and end up on a bender with shots, you can easily consume 20+ units. This means your risk of hypo lasts until the next evening.

Have you ever gone hypo after eating breakfast and giving your usual insulin following a big night? Well, that’s because your liver has not resumed its usual service of pumping out glucose.

I personally recommend eating a proportion of your daily calories in and around your drinking activities so you at least have some carbohydrate and nutrients to help keep your blood glucose levels stable.

To keep it simple and safe, you may be best served going for non-carbohydrate based drinks, because you only have to prevent going hypo, and you keep your calorie count down. Also take note of how many units of alcohol your drink, because that’s the number of hours you are at hypo risk for.

Even though alcohol is a liquid, it is a diuretic and promotes fluid loss. Your chances of dehydration will increase the more alcohol you consume.

You also need to be mindful of other factors that will accelerate the onset of dehydration.

These include,

Pre-drinking hydration status. What have you drunk prior to your first sip? If you haven’t drunk much all day you may be at increased risk of dehydration.

The hotter the climate the greater risk of dehydration. Think holiday time.

The proximity of your alcohol fuelled activities to your last training session.

Use of certain medications that promote fluid loss (diuretics etc.)

Alternate between periods of alcohol and glasses of ice cold water during a night out to keep on top of your hydration. Also, remember to rehydrate with at least 1-2 litres of ice cold water when you get back in the door after your night out.

How often you feel the need to drink?

The strategies outlined in this article are for casual drinking sessions.

If you feel the need to go out and get drunk every single night of the week, you run the risk of developing various alcohol-related health issues and nutrient deficiencies that will jeopardize your quality of life and efforts in the gym.

Dietary choices while drinking

Dietary choices while drinking are probably one of the biggest factors you need to be aware of , since, while counting your calories and planning your drinking intake can be a great way to keep on track with your diet, circumstances can change (quickly) when your ‘half cut’ (Irish for drunk) and intoxicated.

Sensory awareness drops and everything seems to taste good. The problem is, after 12 pm most of your food options boil down to pizza, kebabs, Mc Flurries and a 24-hour garage.

This opens up the possibility of doing a lot of damage to your fat loss efforts and diabetes management. It also renders all that time and effort you spent planning your alcohol intake, a complete waste of time

This is why I advocate drinking alongside a mixed macronutrient meal at the start of a drinking ‘session’ rather than hitting the spirits on an empty stomach. People with more experience of drinking with diabetes, who know their body inside out, may wish to opt for a lower carb meal to prevent bloating. However, I do feel it is important to have carbohydrate on board if you plan to get drunk.

If you do feel the need to eat after you stumble out of a nightclub, then some great worldwide available calorie controlled ‘take away’ options include,

A 6” Subway sandwich, stacked with chicken breast and a tonne of veg + light salad dressing if you feel like it.

Grilled tikka or paprika chicken kebab on its own or wrapped in naan bread with salad. Pretty much all kebab houses across the world will cook this for you when asked.

Pack of rice cakes and some pre-cooked chicken or ham with an apple. Every 24-hour convenience shop will sell this kind of stuff. Only 2-5 rice cakes mind you.

If you do screw up and end up eating double your bodyweight in pizza, don’t panic you can always trim off the excess calories over the next few days or compensate with extra physical activity.

On a blood glucose management note, you may have to reduce your usual insulin dose for this late night feast if you have had a lot of alcohol. Remember, your liver is not back to pumping out glucose until the last drop of alcohol has been detoxified.

Take Home

Getting drunk once in a while can complement your muscle building and fat loss progress – not from the empty nutrition alcohol provides, but from having the flexibility to socialize and enjoy yourself from time to time. This does great things for the mind and long-term dietary adherence.

When you’re given an inch, don’t take a mile. Getting drunk every once in a while is not every other night of the week or every single weekend. Keep your heavier drinking sessions to once every month or more.

Being drunk all the time has no place in any healthy lifestyle, least of all in a person with diabetes who trains hard to be in great shape.

Written by Phil Graham

Founder of Diabetic Muscle and Fitness

Sports Nutritionist, Strength Coach, and Fitness Educator

Type 1 Diabetic for 12 years