How to Track Alcohol Macros

You know how to track macros in your meal-prepped dinner, right? The chicken breast is mostly protein, the serving of brown rice is counted primarily as a carbohydrate, and the pat of butter you added on top is fat. But what if you have a glass of wine with your meal? Or what if you have a beer, or a cocktail before dinner? Do you know how to count alcohol calories on the macro diet?

Calories in alcohol

Alcohol is often referred to as the “fourth macro.” Like the other three macros, protein, fat, and carbohydrate, alcohol provides calories. But calories from alcohol are a little bit different.

Protein and carbohydrates each provide four calories per gram. Fat provides nine calories per gram. Alcohol, on the other hand, provides 7 calories per gram.

Calories provide energy to help your body move and function properly. But protein, fat, and carbohydrates play other roles in your body, like building muscle or keeping cells healthy. Your body has no use for alcohol.

Since alcohol serves no purpose in the body, your body works to get rid of it as soon as possible. As a result, it sets aside the metabolism of other nutrients in your body and prioritizes the processing and elimination of alcohol. That is, it uses calories from alcohol first and sets aside the other calories you’ve consumed to be used later. In many cases, those other calories will be stored as fat.

Tracking alcohol macros

When you track your macros, there is usually no fourth category where you can account for the calories or the grams of alcohol in the drinks you consume. Most tracking apps don’t account for alcohol calories. Instead, they are most often counted as carbs.

The thinking behind this approach is that since many alcoholic beverages contain carbs in addition to alcohol, counting the whole drink in the carb category makes sense. For instance, a beer or a mixed drink made with a sugary mixture is going to provide substantial carbohydrates as well as some calories from the alcohol. So, the tracking app you use is likely to put all of those calories in the carbs column.

However, I prefer to count my alcohol calories as fat. Here’s why: I don’t want to shortchange myself out of important carbohydrates, especially because I pair my macro diet with an exercise program. I need the energy provided by those carbs! If I get into the habit of replacing carbs with empty alcohol calories, my workouts may suffer.

In Macro Diet for Dummies, I give you the option of counting alcohol calories as carbs or as fat. We walk through the whole process (for those not using a tracking app) and I explain what your body does with alcohol in greater detail so you can make the best decisions for yourself.

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Should You Drink Alcohol on the Macro Diet?

The macro diet you set up for yourself needs to be sustainable. If you create a meal plan for yourself that is unrealistic or too restrictive, you won’t stick to it for long enough to make a difference. So if you enjoy alcohol in moderation, then continue to do so when tracking your macros. But keep moderation in mind.

According to the National Institutes of Health, moderate drinking is defined as one drink per day or less for women or up to seven drinks per week. For men, moderate drinking is defined as two drinks per day or less or up to 14 drinks per week.