Don’t Drink Light Beer

You’ve seen the commercials I’m sure. Fit endurance athletes, grinding out tough bike rides, swims, and runs then cracking open a nice cold… Michelob Ultra. No. Sorry. That just isn’t what the runners I know do, and the reason why isn’t just taste (but still it is mostly taste.)

Let’s consider what these commercials are suggesting. A runner does a grueling race or workout burning 700 or more calories in the process (not to mention the 200-300 post workout calorie burn) and then in the spirit of healthiness drinks a Michelob Ultra, a 95 calorie beer. That’s right, after all that hard work, the runner is going to reach for a tasteless bottle of carbonated light yellow water with a bit of alcohol.

Maybe that seems to make sense at first blush, after all, runners are a skinny bunch. But lets consider the value of drinking an ultra light beer compared to a nice robust lager. The most popular light or ultra light beers like Michelob Ultra or Miller Lite have 95 calories per 12 oz bottle. Really great lagers like Eliot Ness from Great lakes Brewing or Brooklyn Lager from Brooklyn Brewery have 170-190 calories per bottle. So you can see right away, the light beer has way fewer calories than the real beer, almost half as many. But here is where it all goes wrong for the light beer. We are talking about a 95 calorie difference. When you factor in post workout calorie burn, that 95 calories equates to about 10 minutes of running. Who wouldn’t run another 10 minutes to avoid having to drink crappy beer? To put it another way, an hour long run is the calorie equivalent of 5 really good beers or 10 truly awful beers.

Who the hell wants to drink 10 really awful beers?

So here’s to not worry about the calories in your post run refreshment.