I've been counting macros and in doing so staying away from beer and wine, which is very difficult- see username. How do I count beer and wine in terms of macros? Obviously the carbs, but I've read that I need to somehow also take the alcohol into account as well. What should I do?

Yes, alcohol does change your metabolism and the priority that nutrients are metabolised. But at moderate levels, it's not enough to worry about. The side effects, satiety and drunk eating, are more concerning.

I follow Martin's advice on planning ahead. For food - hit your protein macro, low carbs from veggies and little fats. Reserve enough carb macros and calories for booze. But I don't always plan ahead - those days I track intake to maintenance calories, shut-it-down and move on.

IF helps because I can reserve cals/carbs for dinner. I also lift heavy on Friday to coincide with the high carb cycle of IF. Plenty of carb macros left over for going out.

Sure, cut beer and wine for a few weeks to make a weight goal. But it's more important to find a way to work beer and wine, and ugh - Shipley's, into a sustainable diet to maintain your goals. Most of us aren't models and bodybuilders. We workout to enjoy life and I'm not enjoying life without donut holes and Manhattans.

I seem to recall alcohol is about 7 calories per gram. So you'd have to figure out how many grams of alcohol you're drinking.

Also, the liver prioritizes metabolizing alcohol over just about anything else. What that means in relation to your specific diet, not sure.

I personally like to track it by trading in carbs or fats. I use MyFitnessPal to track and if I want a glass of red wine, I usually search for "Red wine macro" and I choose if I want to count it as carbs or fat. As RangerRick stated above, the recommendation is to always hit your protein levels. Carbs and fats are a little more interchangeable

Here's some more info
IIFYM Alcohol Tracking

Looking at this stuff makes me understand how Michelob Ultra stays on shelves. I like porters and stouts and don't even want to think about the calories in a bottle of Founders oatmeal stout.

That's why I just don't worry about alcohol macros. I drink too much dark/heavy beer.

It's really not that bad on IF/IIFYM. We're coming into recomp season and if I plan right on a carb cycle day, I can roll into dinner with +2k cals banked. That's a bomber of Pumpkinator and half a Domino's medium pizza left in my macros. Aka, leg day dinner.

mrsbeer05 said:

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Looking at this stuff makes me understand how Michelob Ultra stays on shelves. I like porters and stouts and don't even want to think about the calories in a bottle of Founders oatmeal stout.

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Ultra is like water, if I want a beer I will get something that taste good

BAT2007 said:

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I personally like to track it by trading in carbs or fats. I use MyFitnessPal to track and if I want a glass of red wine, I usually search for "Red wine macro" and I choose if I want to count it as carbs or fat. As RangerRick stated above, the recommendation is to always hit your protein levels. Carbs and fats are a little more interchangeable

Here's some more info
IIFYM Alcohol Tracking

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So I'm in similar boat as the OP, just started macros and using MyFitnessPal to track them. So if I use the MyFitnessPal "miller lite" entry, for example, it counts as 3.2g of carbs (straight from the nut. Label), but using the iifym method it would be 96 calories/4= 24g carbs. So am I supposed to creat my own entry with 24g carbs vs using the one in the app?

My philosophy on those discrepancies is to go with the bigger number.

Yeah I plan on using the iifym method, and I understand that alcohol is generally bad for your diet, but can someone explain the physiology behind the discrepancy in actual content vs tracking macros for a newb?

Tracking by the nutrition label is basically doing calorie counting. You are accounting for the calories of the alcohol macro-nutrient which is 7 calories per gram and myfitnesspal will have the carb info of the beer from the nutrition label. There is nothing wrong with doing it this way and it will still make you aware of the calories that you are consuming.

When people are utilizing IIFYM, they are solely looking at protein, carbs and fat and counting those in grams.

Therefore to answer your question, you would create your own entry being 24g of carbs. The idea behind it is that you would consume at least 24 grams of carbs in your meals. This way you are still in a deficit calorie-wise even with the beer.

My daily goals are 135g of protein, 180g of carbs and 60g of fat. Each day I do my best to hit my protein goal then I interchange carbs and fat depending on what I'm eating...I'm not as strict on those. If I happen to eat more carbs one day and I want to have a glass of red wine that night, then I exchange the alcohol calories in the glass for the fat calories, if that's where I have room. Therefore, using the example below, I would eat about 14 less grams of fat.

RED WINE 5 OZ.

• 5oz. red wine = 129 calories
• 129 / 4 = 32g carb
• 129 / 9 = 14g fat
• You could decide to record it and as 16g carb and 7g fat

Another suggestion for macro counting is to change your tracking window. For example, I wasn't very good at pre-planning by entering everything a day before and following that strictly. So instead I changed my 24 hour tracking window from about 6pm-6pm, meaning I will input what I eat for dinner tonight on tomorrow's dinner entry, then I just plan tomorrow's breakfast, lunch, snack, etc around what I have eaten for dinner. It helps me with having a little more flexibility in case I go out to dinner, for example.

Thanks, that's precisely the explanation I was looking for.

And I like the tip about setting your 24 hr window. I already realized that part of my challenge was going to be going thru the day as per plan, then showing up at home and hoping what my wife was preparing for dinner was going to fit. I'm going low on carbs and higher on protein and fat in an attempt to lean my middle age body up a little bit, and she likes rice and pasta, so that part is going to be a challenge.

I also really like your 24 hour cycle.