St. Patrick's Day and Beer Consumption

Yesterday's blog covered drinking "green" beer and St. Patrick's Day. And as I mentioned, even though St. Patrick's Day isn’t really until Monday many of you might be celebrating on different days. Here are some thoughts that will hopefully help moderate your calorie expenditure if you are celebrating tonight or tomorrow.  Ask yourself will the night of fun be worth the calories?

Think of this: A 12 ounce beer or mug typically has about 150 calories (bigger mugs will have more calories of course). Most men might typically drink six or more beers throughout the evening. Ladies may drink less. That equals about 900 calories of empty calories. Let's do some math with the calories and activity.

• If you weigh 130 pounds you will have to walk moderately for about 4.35 hours to burn the extra 900 calories.
• At 150 pounds you will have to walk 3.65 hours to burn the 900 calories.
• At 190 pounds you will have to walk 3 hours to burn the additional 900 calories.

(Refer to http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist4.htm for other calorie burning activities). This all translates into a lot of exercise and calorie cutting and it isn’t even considering any other extra calories you may have consumed in your celebration.  You might want to consider the mantra of moderation. And that's not blarney!