Category: Entrepreneurship, Theory

The Beer Diet

I love optimizing things and one of my new favorite things is my body. Yay! Sexy Noah time. Anyways, I wanted to highlight beer optimization or “de” optimizing it. For some reason people don’t realize the big fat ugly things they can cut in business / life to make things better but neglect for some reason.


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Let’s say you are on the beer diet, ie. you like drinking beer. You go out with friends and have a beer, oh the foam is so good and the Ale is delicious. Okay, 5 beers later (6 total) you are now out 720 calories. DAMN! I know. Guess what? Let’s go work that off at the gym, that’s about 1.25 hours of running to match that. Oh wait, you remember those late night munchies you had afterwards. Damn #2. That’s another 1000 calories from those tasty nachos that aren’t so tasty in your stomach this morning.


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What’s the point of this article? We spend way too much time changing pointless things when shifting small things can make large impacts. What’s easier: Running for 3.5 hours to match your 2 hours of fun the night before or just drinking less beer and eating an apple instead of the nachos?


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18 Responses to “The Beer Diet”

  • Paul Stamatiou
    April 4th, 2008
    3:06 pm

    Just as I was planning a big night to relieve the crazy work week I had and now you gotta guilt trip me about not drinking too much beer. Thanks Noah haha.

  • Noah Kagan
    April 4th, 2008
    3:11 pm

    my pleasure:)

  • Boris
    April 4th, 2008
    3:57 pm

    Hey!! Are you calling me fat?!!

    did you know that an apple has 110 calories, almost as much as that beer! (beer has 120, according to your above calculations) so if you eat 6 apples instead of drinking 6 beers, you’re still gonna be running for over an hour!

  • Noah Kagan
    April 4th, 2008
    4:05 pm

    Boris,

    You sneaky jew you;) Anyways, it’s the type of calories that each one is that differs among other things.

  • Boris
    April 4th, 2008
    4:09 pm

    I wonder how many calories I will burn by commenting on your blog…and are these okdork-comment calories the same as apple-calories or beer-calories…

    what would you call this sort of experimental inquiry, nutritionblogology?

  • Zach Hale
    April 4th, 2008
    4:50 pm

    Thanks for ruining the fun. Lucky for me I’m out after 3 drinks anyways. :)

  • Jason
    April 4th, 2008
    5:08 pm

    I read this while enjoying a cold one. Don’t mess with my morale.

  • Atish
    April 4th, 2008
    6:03 pm

    Switch to hard A

  • Sean Tierney
    April 4th, 2008
    6:20 pm

    dude, you would have to post a pic of a beer sampler right at HH. I wasn’t planning on going but now i need to – way to backfire on this one ;-)

    sean

  • Chip
    April 4th, 2008
    8:38 pm

    Drink Heineken Ultra Light, tastes great and like 90 cals/beer

  • 0kd0rk
    April 4th, 2008
    10:01 pm

    worth noting that digesting food burns calories. so, although some fruits have X calories, they often net negative calories. that’s right, eating fruits and vegetables can theoretically put in the negative calorie zone.

    beer (carbs) however are easily synthesized thus the body does not have to work hard to burn them off.

    -
    0kd0rk

  • Juan Trouilh
    April 5th, 2008
    9:02 am

    Totally agree Noah!!! Keep on posting =)

  • Sheamus
    April 8th, 2008
    6:49 pm

    Six pints of beer – as per your picture – of 4-5 per cent lager/ale is about 1200 calories.

    This can be burned off at 7.0kph walking pace (about 4.4mph) on a treadmill, by setting the unit to maximum level (typically 20) and steep(ish) hills (or the ‘random’ setting), in about 70-90 minutes, depending on your bodyweight.

    Yes, it’s a bit of effort, but going out once in a while with friends and making a night of it is rewarding in and of itself. If you do it on a daily basis, then sure, you should expect to pay the price. As a one-off (or rarely), it’s absolutely fine. You could even split the workout over a few days or just cut back on your calorie intake for 72 hours.

    It’s a much better life if we can enjoy the odd brownie, as opposed to none at all. Excess on either side is a bad thing. People, oddly, tend to reject the ‘middle ground’ as being the safer, or boring path, but more often than not it’s the right one for most people. Everything in moderation, and all that.

  • Nicole Price
    April 9th, 2008
    11:38 pm

    Ah! if only we were so able to resist temptation! It is all very well to say but when temptation comes, i find myself give right in :)

  • Ross Hill
    April 11th, 2008
    2:41 am

    Well the physical ‘benefits’ might be lacking, but the social benefits make it all worthwhile :) It’s 7pm Friday night here in Australia – I’m gonna go practice now.

  • Monchster
    April 22nd, 2008
    7:08 pm

    Give me a Guiness and a juicy steak any day….

    I’m over 30 and I feel like it takes 10 times as much to burn a calorie than it did when I was 16.

    I’m so fat!

  • John Walters
    May 4th, 2008
    7:23 am

    I’d go for Nachos and Beer!
    It’s a lot more fun!

    Fun post!

    John

  • Nat @ Best Fat Burning Diets
    March 9th, 2010
    3:36 pm

    The Beer Diet. Looks awesome. 6 Pack Abs here I come.

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