Light Beer Battle: Beer, Calories and Weight Gain

You can’t have a beer gut unless you drink beer, right?

Wrong.

Among the physical characteristics generally associated with beer lovers – aside from beards, of course – is the beer gut. The rotund, sagging mass of flab gravity mocks and terrifies gym rats. But wouldn’t you know it … you can get a “beer gut” from drinking just about anything and not taking care of yourself.

A recent study showed that orange juice or wine could cause weight gain just like beer. Here’s what nutritionist Dr. Kathryn O’Sullivan had to say about it:

“If you are a massive consumer of beer you will of course put on weight,” but, she added: “if you are a massive consumer of wine the same would be true.”

It’s a matter of perspective. Drink lots of alcoholic beverages and sit on your butt all day, things aren’t going to turn out well for your waist. That’s why exercise is such an important part of my routine.

With all this in mind, I was inspired this week by Friend of the Program, Glen, of Beer is Your Friend. Hailing from Australia, he looked at the calorie count of several of that country’s popular brews. I decided, why not do a comparison of sorts for drinkers here in the good ol’ U S of A?

First, I pulled the top selling light beers in America, according to a January 2013 article from the Dayton Business Journal. Nutritional info sourced from the calorie guide at Beer100.com:

Brand	Brewery	Alcohol (ABV)	Calories/12 oz	Carbs (grams)	Rank in US sales (2012)
Bud Light	Budweiser	4.2%	110	6.6 g	1
Bud Light Platinum	Budweiser	6%	137	4.4 g	15
Bud Light Lime	Budweiser	4.2%	116	8 g	16
Miller Lite	MillerCoors	4.2%	96	3.2 g	4
Coors Light	MillerCoors	4.15%	104	5.3 g	2
Keystone Light	Adolph Coors	4.13%	103	5 g	12
Natural Light	Anheuser Busch	4.2%	95	3.2 g	5
Michelob Light	Anheuser Busch	4.3%	113	6.7 g	9
Busch Light	Anheuser Busch	4.1%	95	3.2 g	7

Looking at that list, perhaps it’s easy to see why Bud Light Platinum is performing so well at roughly 1 percent market share. It has the ABV that may or may not be attractive to people nowadays, but an easily manageable amount of calories. Perfect for frat bros looking to get trashed but maintain those six-pack abs.

Next, I looked at the top-five trending beers on Untappd this week. I sourced the nutritional facts from various websites, but mostly MyFitnessPal.com:

Brand	Brewery	Alcohol (ABV)	Calories/12 oz	Carbs (g)/12 oz	Sourced
Summer Ale	Boston Beer	5.3%	166	10	http://bit.ly/16gBbop
Enjoy by 5/17/13 IPA	Stone	9.4%	282	N/A	http://bit.ly/R9EtU5
Traditional Lager	Yuengling	4.4%	128	10 g	http://bit.ly/16gBteX
Two Hearted Ale	Bell’s	7%	210	5 g	http://bit.ly/10pnw7g
Pale Ale	Sierra Nevada	5.6%	168	N/A	http://bit.ly/18KETmJ

Assuming the majority of Untappd users are craft beer fans, we start to see the caloric intake difference between what sells best t0 Americans at-large (light beers) and what sells best to the craft beer market.

As you may expect, higher ABV beers offer higher calorie count. Generally speaking,  calories in a beer come from two sources:

1) the starches (cereal grains and barley), and 2) the alcohol.  To reduce the number of calories, the brewing time is increased.  This allows a greater amount of the starches (carbohydrates) to be converted into fermentable sugars.  Fewer starches mean fewer calories.

There’s also all sorts of biochemistry to consider, but I’m not perfectly adept to comment on that.

Finally, I took a look at five recent beers I checked into on Untappd. Again, nutritional facts from various websites, but mostly MyFitnessPal.com:

Brand	Brewery	Alcohol (ABV)	Calories/12 oz	Carbs (g)/12 oz	Sourced
Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale	Lagunitas	9.7%	292	N/A	http://bit.ly/15pas9C
Imperial Biscotti Break	Evil Twin (via Westbrook)	11.5%	345	35 g	http://bit.ly/16XCOaM
Rye of the Tiger	Great Lakes Brewing	7.5%	225	N/A	http://bit.ly/12dhSZ6
Up the Creek Extreme IPA	Thomas Creek	12.5%	375	N/A	http://bit.ly/djU0eY
Nugget Nectar	Troegs	7.5%	240	20 g	http://bit.ly/Yu2dnr

As with many craft beer lovers, I tend to shy away from run-of-the-mill options and usually end up with higher ABV brews. Typically speaking, I feel like 6 to 7 percent is my wheelhouse, as opposed to roughly 5 percent for average beers. It’s not an alcohol thing, it’s just I find the flavorful, enjoyable beers also happen to be a bit higher in ABV.

What does it mean?

So yes, there seems to be a difference between commonly purchased light beers and other craft beer options. But is it significant? It depends.

The 56 calorie difference from Bud Light to a Sam Adams Summer Ale is somewhat negligible. You can combat that by going for a brisk seven or eight-minute walk. That bottle of Imperial Biscotti Break, however, is an entirely different story at 345 calories per 12 ounces. Next stop my thighs.

Then again, I don’t feel that bad about it because I don’t drink light beer. I drink what’s good and what intrigues me, calories be damned.

But what this does tell me is that while you can get a beer gut from eating or drinking too much, it’s still important to consider moderation and balance if you’re concerned about your weight. Those calories do add up, so it might make sense to switch up your beer choices from time-to-time. I had never truly thought about the calories in my beer, so it was interesting to do this comparison. Then again, I probably won’t be thinking about it again.

Most important, looking through Untappd shows that light beer isn’t the brew of choice for craft beer lovers anyway. Calories aren’t at the forefront of what we care about.

Our taste buds are.

What do you think? Do you care about the calories in your beer?