How can I be in the top 5% of drinkers at 20 units a week?!

[Pooshy]

I've been tracking how much alcohol I drink since the start of the year in an effort to cut down

It's working and I think I probably drink about half as much as I used to, around 20 units a week on average. Still over the women's recommended limit of 14, but this is better than I was

However the app I'm using says I'm in the top 5% of drinker so that means only 5 people out of 100 drink more than me

Surely that can't be right... how many unit do you drink a week usually?

My DP, about 4 units a year. Me between 5 and 30 units a week.
All the research shows that moderate alcohol drinkers live longer than teetotallers.

Probably 10ish. 2 x sharing a bottle of wine + 1 or 2 beers at most.

Much less than i used to.

20 units is 2 bottles of wine a week. So while it’s over the government recommendations it’s hardly a “hell of a lot”. Jeezo drinking that on a daily basis would be a problem but less so over a week.

OP I’ve drunk way more than that and now do try to stick to 14. I have read that the gov guidelines are plucked from thin air really and not based on anything scientific and the risk of damage caused by alcohol starts really at double the 14 units. If you can get it to 14 or below that would be great but I wouldn’t beat yourself up about drinking the equivalent of 2 bottles of wine a week.

The replies are probably slightly skewed on here because lots of mumsnetters will be either pregnant, TTC, breastfeeding, or up with small children through the night or early in the morning and therefore not wanting to be incapacitated by alcohol. I havent't drunk for four years because of the above reasons, but if you had asked me in my teens and early 20s it would have been more like 30-50 units a week.

Is it the drink less app? If so it’s based on research not just app users.

I am within the limit and still in a similarly high %

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe

I agree with you, but I’ve been kicking around MN for about a year now under various names and someone will say, for example “my DH drank a whole bottle of wine last night” and it’s met with “oh he clearly has alcohol issues etc etc”. Yes to a teetotaller, drinking a bottle of wine in one night is a lot. But if you are a drinker, not so much. I actually just checked on google and one bottle is 3 large glasses. Over the course of a 4-5 hour evening that’s hardly guzzling it down. So I do feel there’s a lot of judgement on here.

All the research shows that moderate alcohol drinkers live longer than teetotallers

The consensus is not quite that clear. There are problems with many of those studies.

Moderate Drinking Has No Health Benefits, Large Review of Studies Concludes

One major problem in most these studies, the researchers found, was that the researchers on these past studies compared moderate drinkers (people who have up to two drinks per day) to people who don't drink, or abstainers, without sufficiently accounting for the differences between them.

For example, many abstainers stay away from alcohol because of existing health issues, or because they had problems with excessive drinking in the past. Therefore, if moderate drinkers appear to have a health advantage, it could be because they are generally healthier than abstainers, and not because of they drink alcohol. (Only 13 of the 87 studies defined abstainers as people who had never drunk in their lifetime.)

When the researchers accounted for these differences, moderate drinkers lost their apparent tendency to live healthier, longer lives. "Compared with nondrinkers, so-called moderate drinkers had no survival advantage," Naimi said.

6-9 units a week. I don’t drink wine though because my head can’t take it. One bottle of wine is equal in units to 9 or 10 single gin and tonics, so I can see how wine drinkers’ units mount up quicker.

I had 12 units one night at the end of January... and I’ve a night out planned in April.

I don’t have young children either, so it’s nothing to do with that, I just only drink if I’m out to certain things.

I drink 0 on a weekly basis, though have maybe a bottle of wine once every two months. Having children has made me go from regular drinking to this. I’m happy being sober and love having hardly any hangovers.
I drank enough in my 20s to see me through.

I drink none and have done since I was about 18

None don't like the effect it has on my body , think l may be sensitive to alcohol tbh it makes me feel boiling hot, really tired and bright red in the face .

Mumsnet seems to be full of people who only have a sweet sherry every second Christmas. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but I certainly don’t think it’s typical of most people - at least not the ones I know!

None- well, maybe 2 units on the rare (and I mean maybe every 2-3 years) I find myself in a pub.

Asta19, I've been kicking around here for quite a few years now and I've come to the conclusion that MN is a melting pot for some very judgemental people. It's almost a national sport here, I think.

I don't think anybody can comment really on what's a lot of alcohol and what isn't and it's personal choice. If you're (general) happy with your consumption then never mind what other people think.

In my experience, I find that it's best to have a sparkling water with lots of ice to clink around so that it looks like a G&T. I never make a thing of what I'm drinking but some people do react in a way that says that they feel that I'm judging them. I'm not. If I had my way, every bar would have a little teapot, just for me... but I know I'd be judged heavily then.

Another 0 here for an average week.

I went out 2 weeks ago and had two pints of shandy. Previous to that I haven't drunk since Xmas.

20 units sounds like an awful amount. Is that a bottle of wine a day? Because I would genuinely think that someone who drinks a bottle of wine a day has a problem with alcohol.

Not drank alcohol in over a year. Before that i would have a 750ml of port each month. 🤷‍♀️

Oh ok, 2bottles a week doesn't sound as bad! 😁. I'd still be worried about the calories as I struggle with my weight and would rather have chocolate!

20 units sounds like an awful amount. Is that a bottle of wine a day? Because I would genuinely think that someone who drinks a bottle of wine a day has a problem with alcohol.

A bottle of wine is about 10 units so 20 is about 2 bottles.

Well done on cutting down. I used to drink around 10 units a week but now I'm on medication so I don't really get out as much now. I might have a few drinks at the weekend, or a glass of wine at dinner. I never have more than 3 units a week now.

I guess I am asking because of two things.

• one person maybe two said ‘high functioning alcoholism’ as the answer but none of the ppl drinking 3 glasses of wine would probably label themselves as such? Or even those drinking considerably more? Right? So partly what I am getting at is a question about what we see as ‘normal.’ Is 2-3 glasses of wine a night so ingrained that people see it as par for the course? And does that then indicate a wider problem than perhaps binge drinking statistics show up.
• Or not. Which was my second part because it’s a stage of life thing. I drank way more in my 20s (and certainly had higher tolerance then) but between pregnancy and breastfeeding and toddlers I have drunk a lot less in my 30s. I was asking (without obvious identifying detail) to get a sense of the demographic of those who would fall into the 2-3 glasses of wine a day orlrr category. Maybe with more grown up kids and a bit more head space I will drink more in my 50s. I don’t know! I am a social scientist so this stuff interests me. The break up and nitty gritty of the answer interests me especially since my guess is that MN largely involves across age ranges those with some semblance of a family life. I apologise if that’s irritating.

As a nitty gritty my parents drank a lot more post retirement. Then they cut down a lot. But my dad drinks 1-2 small glasses of whiskey a night. But I have noticed that if he DOESN’T get that glass of whiskey (because we are out, or something has cropped up) he is a lot lot less pleasant to be around because he absolutely needs his whiskey. My dad would be outraged if you suggested he was dependent on it. But then is it any different from DH who is almost catatonic in the morning till he’s had a large glass of coffee?

Probably 10 on average? Used to drink a lot more before I had DC. Maybe 27 or so. And used to smoke with it too. I haven’t had a hangover in over two years.

I drink none. Have been teetotal all my life.

I drink zero units,Nadda,none.
Don’t smoke either
I do drink a lot of coffee,that’s it

20 units a week means you have a drink problem

Utter bollocks.