If you're drinking a case of seltzers every weekend because they are "low carb", I'm sorry to inform you that you have been lied to. If you look at the nutrition label on a seltzer and do the simple math, it clearly does not add up! Most seltzers on the market today claim to have 100 calories and 3-4g of carbs, 0 fat and 0 protein. Millions of people are fooled by this, as I once was.
We know that carbs have 4 calories per gram. The seltzers claim to have 3g of carbs which equals 12 calories. Well, where do the other 88 calories come from? Good question!
If you were to track one of these beverages in MFP or any other tracking app, it would either track 100 calories and 3g of carbs or 12 calories and 3g of carbs. The main issue here is the carbs! There are 88 calories worth of macros unaccounted for! So what do we do? We decide if we want those 88 calories to be considered fat or carbs, not protein of course.
We know fat has 9 calories per gram and carbs have 4 calories per gram, so you decide which macro you are most comfortable giving up a portion of for the day to contribute to your alcohol consumption.
For example- If I wanted to drink 2 hard seltzers and track them as carbs, I would log 50 carbs. Why? 200 calories divided by 4 (4 calories per gram) is 50.
If I decided to track those hard seltzers as fat, I would divide 200 by 9 and log 22g of fat for them.
Want to do half and half? Sure! One seltzer = 25g of carbs and the other 11g of fat!
Be sure you are ALWAYS hitting your daily protein goal, and of course, modify the calculations based on your drink! Simply look up the average calories in your beverage of choice and divide the total calories by 4 or 9.
Pre-planning your drinking is a WIN, log the drinks ahead of time and plan the rest of your day around them to be sure you are not surpassing your daily macro goals!
Good luck, have fun, and enjoy yourself (responsibly)!
