How much do you drink, honestly?

[magooagain]

I am not an everyday drinker and have kept a reasonably high level of fitness mainly due to hard physical work and playing football.

I have access to a lot of cheap or free drink. Mainly wine,Pinaue and cognac.
I've managed to keep a good discipline and now rarely drink the stuff.

My big problem is binge drinking and a lot of it. 5 pints an hour is easy for for me and if not checked I can just drink till I fall down.

The past six months has seen me remove myself from social events in a bid to be rid of it.

I immerse myself into projects and work. Although I have been laid up for a couple of months due to a knee op. That in its self has seen me using all my will power to not break out.

[PorkInsider]

An average week for me:

Mon - nothing
Tues - nothing
Wed - 2 or 3 pints
Thur - nothing
Fri - 3 pints, 1 bottle of beer
Sat - 5 pints plus 2 or 3 large spirits, or perhaps 7 or 8 pints if no spirits involved.
Sun - nothing

Too much on Saturdays, for sure. Probably 1 or 2 Saturdays per month I’ll have nothing at all, though.

[Robertj21a]

PorkInsider said:

An average week for me:

Mon - nothing
Tues - nothing
Wed - 2 or 3 pints
Thur - nothing
Fri - 3 pints, 1 bottle of beer
Sat - 5 pints plus 2 or 3 large spirits, or perhaps 7 or 8 pints if no spirits involved.
Sun - nothing

Too much on Saturdays, for sure. Probably 1 or 2 Saturdays per month I’ll have nothing at all, though.

Just interested.......

Is the Saturday figure usually related to sports fixtures, or evenings in a social atmosphere ?

[PorkInsider]

magooagain said:

My big problem is binge drinking and a lot of it. 5 pints an hour is easy for for me and if not checked I can just drink till I fall down.

Interesting.

That’s something I’ve never been able to do, which is no bad thing.

I tend to average around 1.5-2 pph, as do most of my friends who I’d be drinking with. One of them is closer to your rate but tries to pace himself to be in rounds with the rest of us which I think helps him cut back a bit.

If I could drink at 5 pph I know I’d also just keep going until I fell over. I think it’s only the ‘relatively’ steady pace that means I get to a point where I don’t want anymore.

Probably the case for most people - if you go at it pretty quickly, you’re less likely to stop?

[PorkInsider]

Robertj21a said:

Just interested.......

Is the Saturday figure usually related to sports fixtures, or evenings in a social atmosphere ?

Social things usually.

Probably at someone’s house with a few people for food and a drink in the afternoon/evening (wives, families, etc) and the blokes just keep drinking longer.

Or it would be something like The Six Nations where again it will be at someone’s house rather than at a pub.

I/we don’t tend to drink so much in pubs - maybe 3 pints if out for the evening and not driving (which would be Wed and Fri in my example week).

Edited by PorkInsider on Wednesday 3rd January 17:38

[Davey S2]

There seems to be a lot of cross over on this thread with the 'How much do you really drink' thread and the 'Giving up Booze for 365 days thread'

This isn't aimed at those who have admitted that they have a serious problem with alcohol, just those who want to do Dry January to 'detox' after overdoing it over Christmas and New Year.

Interesting article in Decanter by Dr Michael Apstein here http://www.decanter.com/learn/is-dry-january-benef...

Here's the conclusion but the rest of the article is very interesting and worth a read:


So can a dry January help?

Some people believe that ‘giving your liver a rest’ by abstaining from alcohol for a month or so is beneficial. In fact, there’s no science to support this practice, nor does it make sense physiologically. The liver can metabolise a small and steady amount of alcohol without difficulty.


If you think you need to take a month off, you’re either drinking too much during the rest of the year or you have a guilty conscience.

But giving up alcohol will, all other things being equal, result in a modest weight loss. Foregoing one 175ml glass of wine a day for a month will save you the caloric equivalent of 0.5kg of weight.

[Greys0n]

I can drink a lot and it depends on the company

[TameRacingDriver]

PorkInsider said:

magooagain said:

My big problem is binge drinking and a lot of it. 5 pints an hour is easy for for me and if not checked I can just drink till I fall down.

Interesting.

That’s something I’ve never been able to do, which is no bad thing.

I tend to average around 1.5-2 pph, as do most of my friends who I’d be drinking with. One of them is closer to your rate but tries to pace himself to be in rounds with the rest of us which I think helps him cut back a bit.

If I could drink at 5 pph I know I’d also just keep going until I fell over. I think it’s only the ‘relatively’ steady pace that means I get to a point where I don’t want anymore.

Probably the case for most people - if you go at it pretty quickly, you’re less likely to stop?

Funnily enough, I do have a friend who drinks at a pace probably not far off 5 pints an hour. The guy is approaching his 60s now, and often comes out with us on a Friday night. He drinks probably at that pace to start with, before tailing off to maybe 2 - 3 pints an hour. He's lucky if he lasts more than 3 hours before he's ready to go home - usually by then, he's pretty hammered whereas we're just getting warmed up.

Not sure if related, but the guy now has some serious heart problems. Anyway, I know from past experience that drinking that rapidly is not good for me.

Davey S2 said:

So can a dry January help?

Some people believe that ‘giving your liver a rest’ by abstaining from alcohol for a month or so is beneficial. In fact, there’s no science to support this practice, nor does it make sense physiologically. The liver can metabolise a small and steady amount of alcohol without difficulty.


If you think you need to take a month off, you’re either drinking too much during the rest of the year or you have a guilty conscience.

But giving up alcohol will, all other things being equal, result in a modest weight loss. Foregoing one 175ml glass of wine a day for a month will save you the caloric equivalent of 0.5kg of weight.

I pretty much refuse to do Dry January on the basis that its herd mentality and nothing more than a fad.

I'm sure that you will do your body some good by being dry for a month, I mean, how can it not? In some respects, some people will probably go on to reduce their drinking, which isn't a bad thing. However, others will just see it as something they "need to do" before getting back on it just as heavily as before.

I plan on having at least 3 dry days a week (ideally 4), but doing this indefinitely. This has to be better than a fad like dry January. Say for example that you did DJ, but then drank every day after that (which isn't unusual for a proper drinker) then sure, you'd have 30 / 31 days off the drink in a year, all concentrated at the start of the year. On the other hand, even 2 days a week off the drink done over the course of a year would mean 104 drink free days a year; if you can do 3 days, that increases to 156 days, and if you can do 4, then that raises once more to 208 days. Even if you get 3-4 most weeks, then thats 6 drink free months.

That absolutely has to be better than doing a faddy thing like DJ, with the bonus that I still get to enjoy a weekend on what is undoubtedly the bleakest month of the year.

Each to their own, but I'd much rather make a permanent lifestyle change than a token gesture at giving up once a year.

The weight loss thing is interesting, and surely makes an even more compelling case for moderation all year around. For the sake of argument, if I can manage 150 days this year where I don't have 1,000 calories of wine a night, then that is 150,000 calories saved, or 41.6 lbs of fat (3 stone) in a year without making any other changes.

[PorkInsider]

I agree re: Dry January.

I would expect that some people will do it and then see it as being all they need to do to look after themselves. They’ve had a month off the booze so feel they can happily go at it hard again, which has got to be much worse than if they managed to cut out an extra day per week, every week, instead.

[BlueHave]

Compared with what a lot of people in the third decade of life drink I'd say I'm fairly sensible boardering on teetotal.

I have about four pint bottles of the finest craft ale a week usually on a Sat, Sun, Tues and Thurs and that about it.

Bit boring I know but I find quality over quantity works well.

[HTP99]

PorkInsider said:

I agree re: Dry January.

I would expect that some people will do it and then see it as being all they need to do to look after themselves. They’ve had a month off the booze so feel they can happily go at it hard again, which has got to be much worse than if they managed to cut out an extra day per week, every week, instead.

I do dry January as a kind of detox and to prove to myself that I don't need alcohol, every time I've done it I've lost a decent amount of weight (half a stone last January), and I do it with the intention of cutting down but not cutting it out completely (drinking just at the weekend), however it soon creeps back up to a pretty much daily thing.

Edited by HTP99 on Thursday 4th January 17:58

[rossub]

Well I’m glad things are back to normal anyway. I was off for 12 days and probably averaged about 12 units a day over the period - no real benders, but a couple of half day hangovers.

I’m quite lucky in that my body tells me it’s had enough through increasingly bad heartburn and IBS though. Those are easing off again now that the normal routine is restored.

[hairyben]

TameRacingDriver said:

I pretty much refuse to do Dry January on the basis that its herd mentality and nothing more than a fad.

I'm sure that you will do your body some good by being dry for a month, I mean, how can it not? In some respects, some people will probably go on to reduce their drinking, which isn't a bad thing. However, others will just see it as something they "need to do" before getting back on it just as heavily as before.

I plan on having at least 3 dry days a week (ideally 4), but doing this indefinitely. This has to be better than a fad like dry January. Say for example that you did DJ, but then drank every day after that (which isn't unusual for a proper drinker) then sure, you'd have 30 / 31 days off the drink in a year, all concentrated at the start of the year. On the other hand, even 2 days a week off the drink done over the course of a year would mean 104 drink free days a year; if you can do 3 days, that increases to 156 days, and if you can do 4, then that raises once more to 208 days. Even if you get 3-4 most weeks, then thats 6 drink free months.

That absolutely has to be better than doing a faddy thing like DJ, with the bonus that I still get to enjoy a weekend on what is undoubtedly the bleakest month of the year.

Each to their own, but I'd much rather make a permanent lifestyle change than a token gesture at giving up once a year.

The weight loss thing is interesting, and surely makes an even more compelling case for moderation all year around. For the sake of argument, if I can manage 150 days this year where I don't have 1,000 calories of wine a night, then that is 150,000 calories saved, or 41.6 lbs of fat (3 stone) in a year without making any other changes.

with the 31 days/ 102 days you're assuming daily drinkers... I had dry jan down as more of a weekender/social drinker kind of a thing

But yeah we're trying to get back to the 3 or 4 days off in the week, find even at the capacity I have for the drink that a little abstaining in the week might manifest itself as a couple less on the weekend, maybe one less generous malt before bed on a post pub Friday night.

[br d]

Had to have a Liver/Gall bladder/Kidney scan today for an ongoing condition I have so had a chat to the consultant. He said I have a slightly fatty liver (he called it "bright"), no real damage but it's clear I drink alcohol and it's what he would expect from a man of my age (53) who's been a regular drinker.

For many years now I've only really been a Saturday nighter, a very occasional Sunday and rarely ever during the week, maybe once every 3 months if it's a proper social event. Last year I stopped altogether for about 12 weeks and though I was a bit bored I didn't find it that difficult. I do binge though, don't drink to relax or unwind, drink to get pissed basically, I find relieves my work stress.

I asked him should I stop? He said you don't have to but just keep it sensible and you'll be fine.

My BIL has 2 or 3 beers every night, never gets bladdered, doesn't get a hangover but really struggles not to have those few, he told me in confidence it's been years since he had any break from it as it relaxes him and he feels on edge without them. He will only drink 2 or 3 even at a party or big event, it's just his thing and he has no interest in being drunk.

[acer12]

Some good points about going cold turkey / having a dry January is not going to work for everyone.

Setting such a specific and challenging target for a lot of people is setting themselves up for failure, one fall of the wagon and where is the incentive to get back on the wagon? Much better / more realistic to have goals that are achievable / not so harsh especially ones which are on a more long term path (eg 2 dry weeks in Jan then continue this for the rest of the year / reduce consumption from x units to y units)

[Turn7]

br d said:

Had to have a Liver/Gall bladder/Kidney scan today for an ongoing condition I have so had a chat to the consultant. He said I have a slightly fatty liver (he called it "bright"), no real damage but it's clear I drink alcohol and it's what he would expect from a man of my age (53) who's been a regular drinker.

For many years now I've only really been a Saturday nighter, a very occasional Sunday and rarely ever during the week, maybe once every 3 months if it's a proper social event. Last year I stopped altogether for about 12 weeks and though I was a bit bored I didn't find it that difficult. I do binge though, don't drink to relax or unwind] drink to get pissed basically, I find relieves my work stress.

Are you me ?

[Turn7]

"dry January......"


Yeah...about that......


Have failed almost immediatly... ;(

[marksx]

Turn7 said:

"dry January......"


Yeah...about that......


Have failed almost immediatly... ;(

I lasted until Tuesday. Haven't had a drink since mind.

[so called]

I just calculated my intake at about 100 a week.

[HTP99]

so called said:

I just calculated my intake at about 100 a week.

I'm around 80, I think it went up in December though, quite shocking really, the amount of calories too, 3-4 Henry Westons; 280 calories per bottle!!!!!!!