Keto Diet Alcohol Guide

If you’re a boozy babe, you’re likely to ask the million dollar question: “Can I drink alcohol on the keto diet?” This keto diet alcohol guide will point you in the right direction.

First, to answer your question: yes, you most certainly can have alcohol on the keto diet.

That’s right, not all booze has carbohydrates in it!

Most spirits have 0 carbs. Take a shot or four two of vodka, tequila, or gin and you’re still sitting well below your daily carb limit.

A glass of white wine, like pinot or sauvignon blanc, only has about 3 net carbohydrates per serving.

For the most part, you’re SOL with beer due to the gluten and high carb count. You’ll see in the table below that you can technically make some light beers fit your macros (IIFYM-style), but I’m going to go ahead and give beer a big thumbs down as a keto-approved beverage.

In fact, I have a whole comprehensive list of alcoholic beverages sorted by carb count at the bottom of this post if you want to jump to the nitty gritty details of alcohol nutrition data. (CLICK HERE TO SKIP STRAIGHT TO THE KETO ALCOHOL LIST)

But before you run off and get white girl wasted with celebratory low carb drinks, there’s a few things you should know about drinking alcohol while you’re in ketosis.

I will admit right here and now that alcohol is by far my biggest vice. While my days of telling strangers I love them, sobbing uncontrollably over nothing, and woo-ing too loudly at concerts are over, I do still enjoy a good cocktail (Exhibit A: Vodka Mojito Recipe and Exhibit B: Kamikaze Shot Recipe, two of the keto diet alcohol drink recipes you’ll find on this site). This is a judgement-free zone. The upcoming lecture is just as much for myself as it is for you.

The Obligatory Buzz-Kill

Alcohol is not a nutrient.

Booze provides nothing of nutritional value.

Remember when you took the time to figure out your macros? Your energy intake was divided into three categories of macronutrients to support nutritional ketosis and your body composition goals. I guarantee that alcohol was not included in the equation regardless of which keto calculator you chose to use.

No vitamins, no minerals, nada. Just empty calories. And we should all know by now that calories totally matter, even when your carbs are low.

And speaking of calories…

Alcohol is a calorie bomb.

Not only are these empty calories, there’s a whole lot of them. Clocking in at 7 calories per gram, alcohol is almost as calorically dense as fat. It adds up quickly. If you are meticulously tracking your macros and not accounting for the calories floating around in your rum & diet coke, you’re playing yourself. C’mon.

Temporarily alters metabolism in a way that promotes fat storage.

When alcohol is metabolized, the byproducts created are used up by the body before other nutrients.

The products of alcohol metabolism include:

• acetaldehyde
• acetate
• fatty acid ethyl esthers
• phosphatidyl ethanol

Note that none of the above are sugars, making alcohol technically “allowed” for a standard keto diet. But while these byproducts don’t necessarily spike your blood sugar, they contribute to cell and tissue damage and inhibit important biochemical pathways throughout the body. As a result, the body places high priority on burning these up or removing them from the body – same it would treat a poisonous substance. This means that glucose, lipid, and amino acid (carbs, fat, and protein, respectively) take a backseat as an immediate source of fuel and head down the path to stored energy (body fat, glycogen, etc).

In plain English: while your body is dealing with the alcohol you just drank, it delays burning the food you ate and the fat on your body. Depending on how much you’ve had to drink or eat, and how frequently you indulge in booze, your alcoholic beverages may be promoting fat storage. Last I checked, that’s the complete opposite of what most people visiting this website are interested in.

Alcohol tolerance on the keto diet plummets

Keto really lowers your alcohol tolerance. Sure you’re a cheap date now, but you’ll also have the worst hangover of your life if you don’t play it cool.

Crap decisions

I’m not talking about drunk texting your ex, I’m talking about food choices. Are you going to stick to your guns once you’ve had a couple of drinks or are you going to order Uber Eats to tour your city for a drunken binge? Honest questions deserve honest answers.

So instead of asking if you can drink alcohol on the keto diet, maybe you should ask “does this support my goals?” It may help you put things into perspective a little bit.

Keto responsibly.

Now on to the keto diet alcohol list!

All nutrition information was obtained from the USDA nutrient database.