The FastDay Forum

Hi, first post, just beginning and trying to lay out a plan that will work for me.

Purely for non fast days of course I was wondering if I was gonna have a few beers which would be better - low carb or low calorie?

I noticed that low carb beers actually tend to be still highish in calories.

I'm living in Germany at the moment and found a great resource for listing beer nutrition information - Check out this low carb DAB beer - http://fddb.info/db/de/lebensmittel/div ... index.html - Its very low in carbs (about 5 times lower than the average German beer however its calorie count is only 7kcals per 100ml or so less than normal German pilsners (which of course taste a lot better)

I know you are not supposed to worry so much about what you have on non fast days but I think every little helps

so low carb or low calorie?

Thanks

[Betsysgr8]

I'd go for taste and limiting quantity. This WoE wouldn't be sustainable to me if I cut out the 'good' things in life.

agreed! a glass of nice tasing wine has to better than 2 low calorie yucky glasses!!

I'd third that don't waste calories on something you don't like

Hi mikec and welcome to the forum.

Betsysgr8 has a good point. Here is a page by Anheuser-Busch saying that 'lite' beers are all low in sugars and carbs, and about.com's page is here. I think 'Old Peculier' - my particular favourite - is probably rather high in carbs/sugars, and alcohol of course!

There are no requirements about carbs on 5:2 as such, it is just what floats your boat. Nor are there are any formal calorie requirements on non-fast days but of course that is not quite true because we do have to consume 'normally'. Drinking alcohol generally makes us less diet-compliant (it may make us more compliant in other ways!) so drinking is often accompanied or followed by eating too much...

If I was choosing I would go low cal rather than low carb, but in reality I follow Betsysgr8's suggestion and just drink what I like, less often and in lesser quantity than I used to...

Calories = carbs + alcohol

So if a low carb beer is high calorie it probably has more alcohol

Low carb beers are hard to get in the UK, Coors Light is widely available but the only other one I found Marston's Resolution should be renamed Marston's Elusive

As far as I can see, it's not a race to lose weight and it's not a diet. So enjoy the what you want. If you want low carb, drink it - always go for taste.

The best health advice is drink alcohol in moderation

Cheers,
Peter

Thanks guys!

I'd go with enjoy the beer and go entirely for taste.

I'm lucky, I have a microbrewery, the downside is there's a large stock of rather good bottles of beer 10 yards from the house

I would suggest that you simply cut down on quantity and as others have suggested go for quality. You probably already have your favourite beers, stick to those on a Friday/Saturday night and if you fancy a beer on non fasting days OCCASIONALLY, make sure it is just the one. I can't help advise on which commercially produced beers to go for (I don't sell mine commercially).

Shame you don't live near me, I brew beer that I like and can alter the ABV (alcohol content) to suit. Currently have some very nice light beers for summer, which hopefully will arrive soon!

oh Old Nog, I wish I lived near you, and could sample some of your brews!

oh Old Nog, I wish I lived near you, and could sample some of your brews!

Unlucky Mac I'm sure you'd love 'em, the ingredients are malted grain, hops, water and yeast, nothing else added, no chemicals or preservatives
You can get quite drunk on the stuff, as various people have done, but here's the bonus, because its got nothing untoward in it, NO hangover

Keep an eye out in local supermarkets for local/small brewers and give their ales a go, there's some belters out there these days

We don't have alcohol in our supermarkets over here, but there are some pretty decent microbreweries around now. No hangover sounds a bit perfect

You can get quite drunk on the stuff, as various people have done, but here's the bonus, because its got nothing untoward in it, NO hangover

Now here is something I would like to nail down: alcohol on its own does not give hangovers, they come from the other 'bad' stuff in the glass. Surprising truth or urban myth? Phil or anyone else got an answer?

Now here is something I would like to nail down: alcohol on its own does not give hangovers, they come from the other 'bad' stuff in the glass. Surprising truth or urban myth? Phil or anyone else got an answer?

Where would you like me to start .... I'll try and keep it short

In the production of large scale commercial brewing there are a number of things they can legally add to a brew, but for some strange reason they don’t list them!

Like a nice shiny sparkling glass of beer/lager? Fining agents can be mixed into beer during the process to get the beer shiningly bright, casein, isinglass to name but two, these are either filtered out or by leaving the beer to settle and leave the sediment behind.

Like a nice foamy head? A stabiliser such as Propylene glycol alginate, it helps stabilise a beer's head.

Breweries need to get the beer from production to glass as soon as possible, so to speed up the brewing process Betaglucanase, get them pints into punters ASAP!

Where do the likes of me come into this? Well whenever I go out and fancy a beer I’m always on the lookout for either locally produced hand drawn beer or if none available, a bottle!

I brew beer 23 ltrs a time, between 4 & 5 kg of malted grain into the mash tun, hot water added and leave for 90 mins. Sparge water through the mash and collect the wort that comes out of the mash tun. Put this into boiler and boil for 90 mins, during this time add varying varieties of hops at different stages (hops added early give beer bitterness, late hops give aroma). Cool from boiling down to 25 deg and put into fermentation vessel, add brewers yeast and check specific gravity, leave for week to ten days check gravity again to see that fermentation has stopped and work out the Alcohol By Volume. Then bottle the beer, keep in warm for week, then into cool storage for at least 6 weeks. The beer can stay longer in the bottle and it will continue to condition, pour carefully into pint glass, there is a little sediment in the bottom of the bottle, totally harmless (good for your gut actually) but can give you a cloudy pint if you’re not careful.
A pint of my ale takes 2 months from start to being poured and well worth the wait, (I have quite a decent 'stock') the big commercials won't keep it that long, storage is expensive!

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit but I’m rather enthusiastic about my ale

Couple of pics of my own brews, no chemicals in these