It is finally Friday: Cheers to the Freakin’ Weekend!
And just like the song says, many college kids will “drink to that.” Why not, right?
Once Friday night hits, a large portion of college students across the nation – whether they’re underage freshmen or almost graduated seniors – will drink into the early hours of Saturday morning.
We’ve all heard, numerous times, alcohol is empty calories. But how empty? One reason the ‘Freshman 15’ exists is because when freshman go to college, they often consume much more alcohol than they did in high school.
So let’s figure out how many calories you may be consuming on your Friday night out (even though you may not want to know). Of course, the number of calories you consume while drinking alcohol differs from night to night and depends on your body type, but we can still try to figure out how many calories the “average” college girl may be consuming on a Friday night.
Ready or not, here we go!
Meet ‘Lisa,’ she is going to be our average college girl. She is 5’5″ and weighs 130 pounds.
She starts the night with a shot of Raspberry Smirnoff at 9:00 p.m. After the shot, she mixes another shot into a solo cup with Ocean Spray Cranberry juice cocktail. Lisa finishes the drink in about an hour and makes another one again, pouring one shot of vodka and filling the rest of the solo cup with the cranberry juice. Before heading out to a party on Mission Hill at 11:00 p.m., she takes one more shot of vodka.
Once she gets to the party, Lisa grabs a can of Bud Light and uses it in a couple rounds of flip cup and eventually finishes it by 12:00 a.m. She grabs another can and finishes it right before she and her friends leave at 1:00 a.m.
On the way back to their place, Lisa and her friends cannot battle off the “drunchies” anymore. They stop at the ever-favorite BHOP and the girls scarf down two pieces of cheese pizza. With their drunken hunger satisfied, they all head back to their place and pass out.
Seem like a relatively standard Friday night? Now, let’s count how many calories our friend consumed in her outing.
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A shot of Smirnoff raspberry (1.0 oz) is 69 calories. In total, she took two straight shots and mixed two shots into her drinks, so she consumed (69 x 4 shots) 276 calories in vodka alone. Lisa mixed her vodka with cranberry juice cocktail and filled the solo cup to the 12 ounce line meaning she mixed 11 ounces of cranberry juice in each mixed drink. 22 ounces of cranberry juice cocktail is an impressive 330 calories.
So even before leaving her place, Lisa consumed 606 calories. (330 + 276 = 606)
At the party, Lisa has two Bud Lights. Each Bud Light has 110 calories. So in total, Lisa consumed 606 calories at her place and 220 calories at the party, or 826 calories in alcohol and mixers alone.
Yet, what really gets her calorie count high are the dreaded “drunchies,” the uncontrollable desire to eat greasy, carb packed food while intoxicated. Although it is hard to know the exact amount of calories in a slice of BHOP pizza, we are going to estimate and say each slice has 300 calories. So Lisa drank 826 calories and ate 600 calories.
That is a whopping 1,426 calories.
There are 15 weeks in the fall semester at Northeastern. If Lisa drank and, inspired by her alcohol consumption, ate at this rate every Friday and Saturday night, she would be consuming approximately 2,800 calories extra a weekend. 15 weeks multiplied by 2,800 calories is 42,000 calories over the course of the semester. There are 3,500 calories in a pound so 42,000 calories divided by 3,500 calories in a pound equals 12 pounds.
Lisa would be drinking and “drunchie” eating 12 pounds in total over the semester. Even though she may not gain all those twelve pounds, consuming those excess calories is not helping her waistline.
With about 60-75 calories in an ounce shot of vodka, approximately 150 calories in a glass of wine, and 100 calories in light beer, you are destined to consume a great deal of calories on your Friday or Saturday night bingers. Binge drinking is certainly not healthy, but it unfortunately is somewhat of a college reality. While drinking may be an inevitable college recreation, the “drunchies” do not have to automatically follow. Make sure you have healthy snack options in your place for when you stumble back at 2:00 A.M., and only eat if you are truly hungry. Realistically, you are not going to reach for an apple or a celery stick after a long night out. Perfect options for late night snacks you are likely to eat include a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread. It is something that is simple to make and will give you the carbs you crave. Other options include a whole wheat English muffin toasted with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese (perfect alternative to BHOP pizza). Other foods like pretzels and microwaveable popcorn are also perfect alternatives to chips and other greasy foods.
While partying, a way to slow down your alcohol consumption, and therefore, cut back on calories is to drink water between alcoholic beverages. Not only will you be cutting back on calories by filling up and staying hydrated with water, you will also be doing your body a favor. Staying hydrated is a main way to prevent hangovers, so you can avoid the dreaded Saturday morning nausea and headaches. Furthermore, the prevention of a hangover will reduce the temptation of eating junk food to try to make your hung over stomach feel better. For your mixed drinks, try mixers like flavored seltzer water! You are avoiding the calories but still getting the flavor you want. Definitely avoid sugary drinks like hard lemonades which are packed with calories and have enough sugar to make you cringe (one Mike’s Hard Lemonade has 220 calories and 30.4 grams of sugar!).
If you are trying to lose weight or at least trying to continue to fit into your favorite jeans, consuming 1,400 calories during your Friday night binger is probably equivalent to the number of calories you should be eating in an entire day, and we all know that no one can go entire day without eating and then binge drink without truly unfortunate consequences. So if you really are serious about dropping the pounds, restrict your alcohol consumption as much as possible and resist the temptation to absorb the excess alcohol with greasy junk food.
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