Craft Beer and weight gain

So I have been pounding the craft beer hard for the last 3 months as I have started my home brewing. I have tasted as many craft beers as I can find. Looking for the type of beer that I want to brew all the time.

Anyways I have gained about 12 lbs in 3 months. I really love 22 ounce bombers.

Anyone know what a avg craft beer calorie count is?

Depends on the beer. Anywhere from 150 cal - 600 cal per 12 oz.

BenS said:

Depends on the beer. Anywhere from 150 cal - 600 cal per 12 oz.

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What type of beers are at the 150 mark?

Heh Heh Heh Heh Heh

Between my quitting smoking and newfound love of craft beer about four years ago I gained 40 lbs.
I've worked hard to loose about 20 pounds since but it is an ongoing struggle

You need to know OG and FG to get an exact number, but this chart should get you in the ballpark. Keep in mind these values are for 12 ounces... so if you are downing a bomber multiply by 1.83 to get to the calories you are consuming.

http://www.simplybeer.com/how-many-calories-are-in-my-beer/

calories are for women. the beer just made you more manly, thats all

Between not working out, getting married, devouring wings and beer weekly, home brewing, kicking BMC's, Ive got a solid 50 in a year and half. Now I'm dieting, running, and back to lifting weights, we shall see.

The caloric content of beer depends on the abv and residual sugar. Most session level beers are around 150-200 but craft beers tend to push the limit and can be over 1000 per pint for high alcohol beer.

Drinking a lot is definitely the fast track to weight gain

I feel your pain. I've come to the conclusion that counting my beer calories ruins my beer enjoyment so I just don't count them any longer I just eat less.....

I've tried to run and exercise more since I began drinking more craft beers. Thus far its worked pretty well.

rycov said:

calories are for women. the beer just made you more manly, thats all

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Nice!!!!

OP, check out beer100.com, they have a list of nutritional info on alot of common beers.

you can figure a 5.5% micro has about 200 cals, 7.5% is going to be around ~250 and just keeps going up until you have a 500 calorie 13% beer with a lot of residual sugar

rocketk455 said:

I've tried to run and exercise more since I began drinking more craft beers. Thus far its worked pretty well.

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I've done the same thing. Although any sort of exercise was more than the none I was getting up until about a year ago.

Iffyg thanks for the chart.

Looks like I will be getting back into the gym because I am not giving up these tasty beverages.

Right around the time I finally got a little pipeline going I started to feel the weight gain I had to change my habits and keep the drinking to the week end and special occasions to keep from continuing to gain. I'm still trying to get in more of a work out so I can drop off what i picked up

when I'm counting calories I put down 200 for normal gravity beers and 300 for normal high gravity beer, more for really high gravity.

Eat less, run more and drink as much as you want is the way I'm doing it now.

count_dookie said:

Eat less, run more and drink as much as you want is the way I'm doing it now.

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This is the plan that has kept me at my perfect fighting weight!

Damn...I need to drink more I guess.

I have been drinking craft beer pretty much since I was 21 (never been a fan of the run of the mill stuff). I have been making my own beer for about the past 10 years...now I am 35, 6'1", and still weigh only 155lbs. My last checkup, my doctor said that I couldn't be healthier. This on top of my daily fast-food diet, one would think I would be a crazy overweight person who would need a crane to hoist my gelatinous self out of bed.

+1 for having a crazy fast metabolism

I know the OP was asking about craft beers but for your own stock, BYO had an article on a rough guide on how much your home brew would tip the scales at calorie wise. It was based on Alcohol and residual sugar as a previous poster said the formula was listed in the article on Session Beers (sorry I don't know how to find their articles on line, google was not helping me.)

Clem

I asked my wife what she'd say if I started packing on the pounds and her first response was "get you to drink light beer." After I finished laughing I told her I'd make sure it didn't happen so we wouldn't have to cross that bridge.

Outside of consuming what the medical officials would call "alarming" volumes of good beer, I eat pretty much only healthy food, workout like a crazed maniac, and have no intent on even caring how many calories are in a beer as long as I'm enjoying it. The stress of worrying about it is going to cause you more issues than just enjoying what's in the glass.

rycov said:

calories are for women. the beer just made you more manly, thats all

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That actually made me LOL!

I noticed a weight gain myself about 5 years ago. I attributed it to aging, NOT beer drinking!

It's hard, because the closer I get to 50 the more the weight seems to try to pack on to me. I drink about 3 beers per evening- that's alot of calories on a 135 pound frame, so I am forced to watch what I eat and to exercise.

I put on about 10 lbs when I first started drinking craft beer, so I'm hovering right around 200 right now. A lot of that is me not working out as much as I normally do over the summer (me lifting doesn't really burn that many calories compared to swimming or running). Given I'm 6'3", that's not too bad, but I could do for dropping that weight back off. One more year of college swimming should do that just fine, I'm just worried what's going to happen to my motivation to work out once I graduate.

I'm just glad my wife's nice enuff to lie and say she likes my beer belly. All this talk of working out and drinking less is making me thirsty. :fro: