all your macros in for the day.

Satisfied with the immense willpower you showed throughout the week in maintaining your diet,

you sit on the couch and prepare to go on a TV marathon binge, but before you can get

comfortable, you get a text from your best friend asking to come out to a bar tonight

and have some fun.

Your first reaction was "heck yea!"

With the diet you've been trying to stick to, you haven't been able to spend time to

hang out, have some fun, and go out there looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right, or Right for

the Night, whatever your preference is.

Does this picture sound familiar?

You've probably put aside a lot of fun nights and outings in order to keep up with your

diet, but sometimes you just have to get out there and enjoy yourself.

Well, the next best thing you can do is be mindful of your drink choices.

Without going into too much of the science behind alcohol metabolism, the most important

takeaway is that alcohol does indeed add calories and also affect the metabolic pathway, which

adds to your waistline, so making wise decisions can help you enjoy your night and also do

as little damage to your diet as possible.

Now, did you know that beer is the third most popular drink in the world, after water and

tea?

As popular as it may be, it's not exactly calorie-friendly.

Some of the heaviest beers you can get at a bar are the darker varieties such as stouts,

porters, and pale ales, netting on average 225 calories per glass.

Your best bet for diet-friendly beers are the lighter variety of lagers.

But with lowered calories comes lowered alcohol content as well.

That same light lager, where at 100 calories, only has roughly 4% alcohol by volume.

A 225 calorie pale ale on the other hand, can be as high as 8%.

Now, when you do the math, the lighter beer will still win out on an alcohol per calorie

basis, granted if you're willing to down more glasses.

If you're the type to just sip mostly on one glass throughout your night, you might be

better off getting just one of the lighter type of pale ales.

Things you definitely want to avoid are the extremely light beers that runs around 60

calories per bottle since you're basically drinking dirty water with very little alcohol

and also avoid high-calorie ciders.

Not a beer fan?

How about cocktails?

Well, cocktails are a bit tricky but the general rule of thumb for cocktails is the less sugar

added, the better.

Things like the heavy cream in a white Russian, sugary syrup in a whiskey sour and the tonic

in a gin and tonic, are the biggest players in bumping up calories and bumping up your

belly.

Usually the best diet-conscious choices are the ones with the least ingredients added.

An old fashioned, which only has a single sugar cube and some bitters added, will get

the vast majority of its calories from the whiskey itself.

A red bull and vodka, on the other hand, gets most of its calories from the added energy

drink which pushes its calorie total quite high.

Other solid tips are to go for drinks with more lime ingredients such as a mojito or

a marguerita since lime adds very little in calories, and choose to swap out soda ingredients

for its sugar free alternative if your bar allows it.

Oh, and for you AMF lovers, you might want to tone down your party mode just a little

bit...

If you're just looking for getting that buzz as quick as you can, by far the biggest alcohol

bang for your calorie buck is straight hard liquor.

And the positive note is that all hard liquors, be it vodka, rum, whiskey, gin, or tequila,

they all have pretty much the same amount of calories.

The only factor is the proof, or alcohol content divided in half, in the hard liquor.

The most typical hard liquor is 80 proof, or 40% alcohol by volume, and contains 96

calories per shot or jigger.

A 100 proof, 50% alcohol by volume, increases the calorie total to 123.

Although you're getting more calories in higher proof liquor, the relatively small increase

in calories might be worth the trade-off, that's if you're willing to take the shot

in the first place.

Whatever your drinking choice might be, please be sure to diet and drink responsibly and

always have a designated sober driver for your group.

And if you're really trying to stick to that diet, maybe your best option is to be that

DD yourself!

Have any other curious health questions?

Please leave your comments below!

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