So I love my beer. All kinds of beer. However I am finding it difficult to maintain my svelte physique while enjoying my seemingly endless stream of lovely craft beers. I am unwilling to go to something as nasty as Bud Light or (I almost throw up just thinking about it) Michelob Ultra for the sake of my waistline. I'd rather just spread out the good beer nights. But I wondered if there was another alternative. Is there such a thing as a light craft beer? And so the research began. I delved through blogs, diet pages, and just about anything Google could come up with trying to find that illusive diet friendly taste sensation. It was a very long night. I did find this website which gives a list with some ideas on calories in beer. The list is more about mainstream beer offerings but if you consider the alcohol content listed it will give you an idea of what your more quality beer selection may indeed contain caloricly. Basically what the list boils down to is, with some exceptions, the higher the alcohol content the higher the caloric content. This little factoid was rather tragic for me as I am a serious fan of the high alcohol content brews. I continued digging for some other glimmer of hope, some other answer out there for my skinny jean dreams. While no holy grail of diet beer appeared, I did find some opinions on what the fit minded beer swiller could consider.
Of course the most repeated suggestions include eating right and getting plenty of exercise. Lets delve into this exercise thought for a moment. Now I don't have the most excited of metabolisms so I have to stay active just to keep my already healthy vegetarian food eating habits from taking over my jean size. This means I really have to burn off the extra calories of whatever I drink on top of whatever else I may already do to stay fit. So what does burning off a good beer entail you may ask. Lets take one of my recently reviewed beers from our previously mentioned website's list. A Sierra Nevada Stout has 225 calories. (It's only a 5.8% alcohol beer so I don't even wanna think about some of my favorite beers' caloric content) In order to burn off 200 calories this website advises I would have to spend 18 minutes running at 10 miles per hour. First, I am notorious for saying I don't run unless I'm being chased. Secondly, 10 miles per hour?? Even the kids in The Long Walk only had to go 4 miles an hour to avoid death! I just wanna fit in my favorite jeans!! Of course that 18 minute run for my life wouldn't even burn off the whole beer either. Let's see what else we can come up with.
If we do indeed come up with a lower calorie beer that has at least an acceptable taste, the second part of the problem arises. That problem is the fact that the lower calorie beers have less alcohol (for the most part) and therefore you drink more to get that happy beer buzz which then in turn ruins the whole point of drinking this less caloric beer. Might as well drink the one you really want. The solution I found for this is the chaser system. Looking strictly to get more alcohol in your system, compare that 225 calorie stout to a 1.5 ounce shot of rum or whiskey which has about 125 calories. The idea is you can drink a beer, take a shot, lather, rinse, repeat until blood alcohol level is officially up and caloric intake is reduced. Just don't let yourself start adding coke or other mixers to your whiskey or you're blowing your caloric savings.
Basically there is no magic answer. Good beer isn't created to be healthy. It's created to be good beer. And just like the Ben and Jerry's in the freezer or the Doritos in the pantry it has to be enjoyed in moderation to keep your body from paying the price. I have no intention to quit drinking good beer, but when I plan a whole night of beer enjoyment I may just have to eat extra healthy for the rest of the day and maybe hit the stairs instead of the elevator at work. It's so worth it. Cheers!
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