Best and worst beers for fitness-oriented people
I call myself normiefitness because of the fact that although fitness is a very big part of my life I have a lot of vices that prevent me now, and always will prevent me from reaching peak performance. My biggest vice is booze and it has been for decades. Especially in my 30's, beer was almost exclusively responsible for my immense weight gain that saw me reach 60 lbs heavier than I promised myself I would ever reach.
I'm not trying to blame the product, because nobody made me drink these things.... I just enjoy it.
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I am very aware of the fact that if I were to stop drinking, I would be absolutely shredded given the amount of exercise and weight-lifting that I do on a daily basis. I will not stop drinking though because I believe life is about balance and while for some people reaching peak performance might be their "high" and I admire that, I get a lot of enjoyment out of being drunk and hanging out with pals. This doesn't mean that you can't be sensible about it though and one of the major things that I changed in my life was the KIND of beer that I drink rather than writing it off and pretending as though I am going to have a booze-free life.
While it might not be exactly what you are looking for, there are some wise and very unwise decisions that you can make regarding your suds of choice while training. Keep in mind that this will be told from an American perspective since I am American. You can go ahead and attack me for not knowing shit about beer because of my nationality.... I don't mind.
The best: San Miguel Light
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A regular size bottle of San Mig Light is 330ml or 12oz or so. In this bottle of very drinkable lager there is 100 calories and the best part is that it only has 3g of carbohydrates. Now if you are drinking this you will notice that something weird happens when you pour it into a glass in that the foam / head doesn't go away. Who knows what sort of chemical wizardry makes this happen and just like most things is probably causes cancer that we'll find out about 20 years from now. In the meantime though, this very low carb beer is my go to and even though there are times that I will have 10 of them at a party or pub, I don't really feel very guilty about it because this is less carbs than i would get from a sandwich.
The Worst: Samuel Adams Boston Lager
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For reasons that probably had something to do with people wanting to appear posh when I was in college, this lager gained some traction amongst hipsters and people I knew that wanted to feel high and mighty over their Miller Lite drinking counterparts. Many would say that this lager has a lot more flavor than low carb drinks and they would be absolutely correct, but it comes at a very hefty price.
The same size bottle contains 180 calories but that isn't the worst part. It also contains 18 grams of carbohydrates per bottle. While I do not feel bad about drinking 10 bottles of San Mig Light I have to think for a while to see how many carbs I would be getting from 10 bottles of this stuff. Each bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Lager is like eating a cheeseburger as far as carbs and calories is concerned and while 10 beers is nothing to me, I would need to be in some sort of contest to even attempt to eat 10 burgers. 180 grams of carbs is no joke, and it is because of the fact that I paid no attention to carbs in my 30's that I ended up weighing nearly 260 lbs at one point.
The Worst: Basically any "craft beer"
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The craft beer industry is an extremely competitive one and it is always evolving. The real danger of dabbling in this industry is that for the most part, you can't even find out what the nutritional information is on these things. Generally speaking, the craft beers have the highest levels of calories and carbohydrates of almost any beverage on the market. I don't know how they get away with it in the USA where it seems that almost all restaurants and food items are forced to put very specific nutritional information on their products but beers get away with not doing this. Even one of the most up to date databases online can't even obtain the caloric and carb information on lower-sales beers but a good rule of thumb is that if it is a craft beer, it is probably the highest in carbs and calories.
The Best: Any of the low-carb marketed beers in USA
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I can't speak for the rest of the world, but there is a real movement in avoiding carbs in USA and I think this is a very good thing. I don't recall who did it first, it might have been Michelob Ultra, but when sales of that rather tasteless beverage skyrocketed, everyone else jumped on board. There are a myriad of choices from every major brewery in the US these days and I'll be honest, most of them taste about the same which is to say, they don't taste very good. I make sure mine is served extra cold and has a lime in it.
Perhaps this seems counter-intuitive to drink something that you don't necessarily enjoy for the sake of saving calories but people do it with diets as far as food is concerned all the time and therefore I see no reason to do it differently for beverages. I like to have a good time and even though this is the opposite of fitness, I like to be drunk with friends as well.
One downside is that it has been my experience that these low carb drinks seem to pack a much meaner hangover than their full-flavored counterparts and I have no idea why that is. It probably has something to do with the magic chemicals that they put in there in lieu of carbs.
Life is a tradeoff and I will continue to enjoy mine even at the expense of a little bit of flavor and fitness. While I do think it is important to look after your health, it is also probably even more important to enjoy life. So if you are a drinker like I am, you don't have to feel guilty about your consumption during or after a bender simply by making better drink choices.
from 170 in my 20's to 260 in my 30's to 200 (and strong) in my 40's. I did it all by just tweaking a few bad habits in my life and picking up some good ones at the same time. It worked for me and I believe it can for many others out there as well