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From 3 episodes and 2 videos

How many calories are in alcohol?

Answered by Nikkiey Stott and her guests · Updated

The short answer

Alcohol has seven calories per gram, nearly as much as fat at nine and almost double carbs and protein at four. Nikkiey explains that it's a macronutrient most people don't track, its calories are empty, and drink labels often hide them, so even a few drinks can quietly add up fast.

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  1. Nikkiey compares alcohol's 7 calories per gram to fat, carbs and protein

    Plays from 5:27 · Ep. 107: Does Alcohol Stop Fat Loss and Muscle Gain After 40?

  2. How to track a drink's calories as carbs or as fat in your macros

    Plays from 5:41 · Ep. 166: How Alcohol Affects Fat Loss and Muscle After 40

  3. Why alcohol is an untracked macro and how its calories add up fast

    Plays from 2:25 · Ep. 12: Does Alcohol Stop Fat Loss and Muscle Growth?

  4. A quick rundown of alcohol's calories and why they're considered empty

    Plays from 1:13 · Video: 5 Ways Drinking Hurts Muscle Recovery and Fat Loss

The full answer

Nikkiey points out that the label is where most women get caught. On Ep. 107 and Ep. 166 she uses a 100-calorie can of Truly that lists only two grams of carbs. Two grams of carbs can't account for 100 calories, and she says the label and the marketing leave out the calories coming from the alcohol itself. You see two grams of carbs and think you're fine, but the can is still 100 calories.

Her fix on Ep. 166 is the way WarriorBabe recommends women track alcohol in their macros: assign the calories to carbs or to fat.

Four cans at that rate is 100 grams of carbs, which puts a casual night out into perspective.

  • Carbs: divide the calories by 4. A 100-calorie can counts as about 25 grams of carbs.
  • Fat: divide by 9. That same can counts as roughly 11 grams of fat.

The calories are only part of it. On Ep. 12 and in her videos, Nikkiey calls alcohol empty calories with little to no nutritional value. It pushes out the protein, carbs and fats that help you build muscle and lose fat. It also lowers your inhibitions, so the drinks often come with late-night food that you wouldn't normally eat, which makes a calorie deficit much harder to hold.

She isn't saying you can never drink. On Ep. 12 she says the occasional drink every few months is fine, and that drinking on a regular basis is what makes the goal harder to reach. If your progress has stalled and you aren't counting your drinks, the plan may be missing those calories. That doesn't mean you lack willpower.

From Nikkiey Stott and WarriorBabe's coaching. For education, not medical advice: talk to your doctor about your own health.

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