When we eat a snack in the afternoon or grab a big lunch, we’re usually pretty good at making up for that by eating less food later in the day. However, we rarely consider how many calories our favorite Starbucks drink, happy hour cocktail or even glass of juice is adding to our diets. One of the biggest liquid calorie culprits is alcoholic drinks, with carb and calorie-heavy beer leading the way.
At HealthGrove, we translated all those beer calories into popular fast food items like doughnuts, pizza and french fries. This comparison will likely shock you more than the numeric facts on the can.
Note: The caloric value we used for a standard 12 oz. beer was 148 calories. All nutrition values for food items were sourced from the manufacturers’ websites.
Subway Meatball Marinara
You may not be hungry for a meal after dinner, but drinking a couple of beers will deliver the same amount of calories as eating a Subway sandwich. Coming in at just under 300 calories per sandwich, two beers is equivalent to a single 6″ Subway Meatball Marinara.
Coca-Cola
A standard 8 oz. Coke has a pretty similar number of calories to the average beer. Drinking three beers is the same as drinking just over three cans of Coke.
The key here is that you never drink three cans of Coke in one sitting—but beer? Pretty much every weekend.
French Fries
Notorious for their greasiness and addictive salty crunch, one serving of McDonald’s french fries carries as many calories as a small meal. With a single basket coming in at nearly 350 calories, your five-beer night is the same as eating two full baskets of fries.
Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Ice Cream
With a single scoop coming in at a whopping 230 calories, you might be shocked to find out that drinking five beers is the equivalent of eating about three scoops of ice cream.
Taco Bell
Drinking four beers is the caloric equivalent to wolfing down almost three full Taco Bell beef tacos. You might want to think twice about the beers if you’re going to end up at Taco Bell later in the night anyway.
Hamburgers
The standard burger from In-N-Out packs a whopping 243 calories each. Going out for happy hour after work? If you grab three beers, you may as well have just eaten about two hamburgers.
Doughnuts
Having six beers on a Saturday night gives you as many calories as eating nearly five deep-fried, sugar-glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Doing either is probably equally likely to make you throw up, though.
Popcorn
Drinking three beers is the same as eating nearly eight cups of Orville Redenbacher’s buttered popcorn. If you’re trying to watch your weight, you may want to stick with the popcorn—it’s way easier to accidentally drink three beers than to eat so much popcorn you want to cry.
Oreos
Getting just a couple of beers with the gals translates to nearly eight Oreo cookies. Having a wilder night? Drinking six beers gives you the same number of calories as eating more than 22 Oreos.
Pizza
A slice of Domino’s pizza comes in at about the same number of calories as a beer. That might not sound too bad, but think about it this way: if you eat at Domino’s for dinner before hitting up the bars, you could end up consuming the equivalent of a full pizza before the night is through.
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