Find out how many units and calories you're actually drinking per week - and what it's costing you.
| Drink | Units | Calories |
|---|
One UK alcohol unit equals 10ml (or 8g) of pure alcohol. The formula is simple:
Units = (ml x ABV%) / 1,000
So a pint (568ml) of 4.5% lager is 568 x 4.5 / 1,000 = 2.6 units. A large glass of wine (250ml at 12.5%) is 3.1 units. A double gin (50ml at 40%) is 2 units.
The numbers add up faster than most people expect. Two pints after work is already 5.2 units. A bottle of wine on a Friday is 9.4 units. By Sunday evening you've blown through 14 without really trying.
The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend no more than 14 units per week, spread over 3 or more days. That's roughly 6 pints of average-strength lager or 6 medium glasses of wine. Per week, not per night.
There's no "safe" level of drinking - the guidelines are about keeping health risks low, not eliminating them. If you regularly drink above 14 units, you're increasing your risk of liver disease, heart problems, and several types of cancer.
| Drink | Typical ABV | Volume | Units | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pint of lager | 4.5% | 568ml | 2.6 | ~182 |
| Pint of IPA | 5.5% | 568ml | 3.1 | ~215 |
| Medium glass of wine | 12.5% | 175ml | 2.2 | ~119 |
| Large glass of wine | 12.5% | 250ml | 3.1 | ~170 |
| Single spirit (25ml) | 40% | 25ml | 1.0 | ~56 |
| Double spirit (50ml) | 40% | 50ml | 2.0 | ~112 |
| Bottle of wine | 12.5% | 750ml | 9.4 | ~510 |
| Pint of cider | 4.5% | 568ml | 2.6 | ~210 |
Alcohol has 7 calories per gram - almost as calorie-dense as fat (9 cal/g) and nearly double carbs (4 cal/g). But because it's liquid, it doesn't fill you up. Nobody stops eating because they've had three pints. If anything, booze makes you eat more.
A bottle of wine is around 510 calories. That's equivalent to a McDonald's cheeseburger and fries. Three pints of lager is roughly 550 calories - about the same as a Domino's pizza slice for each pint. And that's before the post-pub kebab.
Over a year, drinking 20 units a week adds up to roughly 52,000 extra calories. That's about 15 pounds of body fat, just from booze.
At current UK pub prices (averaging around £5.50 a pint), a moderate drinker spending 10 drinks a week is looking at roughly £2,860 per year. That's a decent holiday. Or a year's gym membership twelve times over.
The cost calculator above uses your actual drink choices and local prices to give you a more accurate number. Most people are surprised by the annual total.
I built this because I wanted to know my own numbers. Turns out I was drinking about 22 units a week and pretending it was 14. The calories were the real shock - I was basically drinking an extra day's food every weekend. I've been cutting back lately, swapping a few of those pints for AF beers. Still figuring out which ones don't taste like sadness. If you're curious, I wrote up a comparison of every AF beer I've tried - some of them are genuinely decent, some of them are drain-pour awful.