Exactly How Much Alcohol You Need to Drink to Gain 1lb of Fat

As the holiday season draws closer, with festive events every week, it can be all too easy to overindulge and drink more alcohol than you normally would.

It may be fun in the moment, but it usually leads to a guilty feeling the next day because you dread to think of how many calories were in each drink. But to save you the fear after each night, Nicole Beard, 32, has worked out how much of each alcoholic drink you'd really need to consume to see the weight start piling on.

"In order to gain 1 pound of fat, the average person needs to consume 3,500 calories more than their maintenance calories," Beard told Newsweek. This is a longstanding theory that dates back to a scientist by the name of Max Wishnofsky in 1958, and it still holds precedence today.

After calculating how many of each drink it would take to hit the 3,500 mark, the content creator from Cambridgeshire, U.K., was shocked to learn how many calories are in some of her favorite beverages.

She said: "I wasn't surprised by the calories in drinks like beer or cider, but definitely didn't expect cocktails to be so calorie heavy, simply because they're so small. My favorite drink is a passionfruit martini, so I will be more mindful of those in the future or might swap out for a gin and tonic.

"I think that everything should be in moderation when trying to lose weight. Regardless of whether that is wine or chocolate. The purpose of the video was to show that you can still have 2 or 3 of your favorite drinks, without ruining your weight loss progress."

She shared her insights on TikTok (@nicoleswellnessjourney) on November 3, not to scare people into sobriety, but rather, to show that a few drinks every now and then aren't going to derail your fitness or weight loss.

Regardless of what time of year it may be, or how busy your social calendar appears, drinking should only be done in moderation. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommend no more than two alcoholic drinks a day for men, and no more than one a day for women, but less is always better.

However, the report suggests that 60 percent of adults consumed alcohol in the previous month, 30 percent of whom indulged in binge drinking. This is defined by five or more drinks for men, or four or more drinks for women in the space of about two hours, according to the DGA.

Newsweek spoke to Kat Best, the co-founder and head of nutrition at Alta, who explained that while alcohol can be very calorie heavy, there are other factors which explain why it leads to weight gain.

"Gaining a single pound of fat requires consuming about 3,500 calories more than you burn off," she said. "Factors that influence this include metabolism, age, overall health, lifestyle, and the quality of calories consumed.

"Alcohol is technically the fourth macronutrient and is more calorically dense than protein and carbohydrates. These calories offer no nutritional value in the form of minerals, vitamins or fiber."

Not only that, but Best added that alcohol can impact sleep, hydration, metabolism, and blood sugar, all of which need to be working sufficiently for weight regulation.

"The kicker is, alcohol can take 36 hours to clear your system. So the food you ate while drinking and within the time frame your body is processing the alcohol, will be stored as excess energy. This is why weight fluctuations occur for up to 3 days after drinking," Best continued.

How Did Social Media React?

As Beard herself is working towards a weight loss target, having lost 35 pounds so far, she wanted to show that a few beverages here and there are acceptable, as long as they're balanced out. She said: "I'm still eating all my favorite foods, just in moderation. One thing that people need to consider is how alcohol affects the way in which the body metabolizes food.

"I am working within a calorie deficit, cooking delicious meals, but being mindful of my portions. I'm going to the gym twice a week and lifting weights, with a small amount of cardio mixed in."

Beard has loved seeing the positive reaction her video has received online, as it's already got more than 511,500 views and 32,000 likes on TikTok. It has also enabled her to connect with other people who have their own ways of factoring alcohol into their weight loss.

With more than 400 comments on the TikTok post so far, many people were quick to share their thoughts, or the problems they often encounter. One commenter wrote: "It's the dehydration and water retention after a heavy weekend that makes the scales shoot up."

Another person responded: "Haha this makes me feel so much better about drinking wine this weekend!"

"It's definitely not the alcohol that gets me, it's the food that comes with it," joked another TikTok user.

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