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?

I think those apps take into account your age, gender etc so 5% of people your age and gender drink more than you, if that makes sense? I could be wrong though.

And if it makes you feel better I drink probably around the same. A glass or two of wine 4/5 nights a week followed by a gin or two on a Friday and Saturday :)

Exactly 35 units a week for last 25 years pretty much. We don't go out drinking, but we share a bottle of wine with our dinner.
Now that there are some more 50cls available we have those instead. Would love there to be more of these available.
Dinner isn't dinner without wine. Perhaps I need hypnosis to get over this.

This is MN. Anything over a thimbleful of sherry at Xmas is dangerous ground.

Lunicorn, you know the wine would keep? You can have half tonight and half tomorrow? If that’s what stopping you that is.

Yes of course Muddy. Drinking a 50cl tho. is easier psychological than making the decision to keep some aside. I presume this is the reason more 50cls are now being sold.

Yes wine keeps for 2, 3 days maximum. No longer than that though. I used to buy half bottles of wine from ALDI, but they stopped selling it. The small bottles of wine you can buy at supermarkets all have pretty poor quality of wine in them.

I hardly drink, last time I drank was 2 months ago and it was maybe 3 glasses of spirit and mixer. Before that was a glass of Prosecco Christmas Day.

I really wouldn't be happy to be around someone who based their entire social life and down time around being able to have a drink. I find it quite sad that a lot of people can't enjoy doing things now unless their is alcohol involved. You shouldn't need a bottle of wine to develop a personality and interests.

“I find it quite sad that a lot of people can't enjoy doing things now unless their is alcohol involved.”

I don’t think it’s sad that people enjoy a drink... I’m finding the, but what do you do?!!! A but weird right enough.

I didn’t think that going to restaurants, concerts, the theatre, the cinema or to someone’s house was so synonymous with alcohol that people assumed if you didn’t drink often you weren’t doing things like that.

It's not 'but what do you do'? No-one is saying anyone else HAS to drink. Some of us are saying that we enjoy the odd half bottle of nice red wine, and that we don't see why we should have to apologize or feel bad for that.

If you take the conversations on here, and you replace alcohol with 'bananas', you quickly realise how much this 'I don't drink' is a moral discourse about virtuous living for a lot of posters.

What I'm saying is that it's fine for those who really enjoy a great bottle of red wine to enjoy it, in moderation. Just as it's fine for those who like bananas to enjoy bananas, and those who don't to avoid them. When someone indicates that they see themselves as a better person, one of the haloed heavenly host, for not eating bananas tends to signal to me that they are probably really quite boring. Not because they don't like bananas, but because they want to see this as a mark of their inherent superiority.

It's not about the drinking so much as the holier-than-thou attitude.

ilovemylurcher, I can remember an awful lot of Men having heart attacks, from 40's onwards.

Wjays changed is our understanding of Heart Disease, Cancer and all the other conditions that drinking can cause.

Drinking too many units, in regards to Cancer is a bigger issue than obesity and on a parr with smoking.

I drink a half bottle of wine, sometimes once a week, at least once a fortnight. I'll have a cider etc over summer and I like seasonal cocktails.

When they compare alcohol to food, as in, three doughnuts to a bottle of wine, or one in an average beer/cider, it helps to see what you are taking in.

You shouldn't need a bottle of wine to develop a personality and interests

I don't drink to make me more interesting, I drink to make others more interesting! Now maybe that just means I need new friends, but I posted this recently on a thread about friendship. I have friends I've met through work mostly. Lovely people, I think the world of them. But all they want to talk about is either work or the latest episode of Strictly/Bake off/etc. I get bored! We have zero common interests it feels like and once we've done the generic catch up then we're just filling time (or so it feels to me). I'll try and introduce other topics but it just falls flat every time.

I still really like these people and want to see them but if I wasn't drinking I'd be yawning by 9pm and wondering how soon I can go home! I know that sounds terrible but I'm being honest.

“Some of us are saying that we enjoy the odd half bottle of nice red wine”

Some are, some actually did ask what I do if I’m not drinking alcohol until April, lol

“you quickly realise how much this 'I don't drink' is a moral discourse about virtuous living for a lot of posters.”

I understand that, but I literally just posted how much and how often I drink alcohol, I didn’t say I don’t drink and I didn’t give any judgement.

I even said, not for any particular reason, I just only drink at certain things.

I drink over 20units probably every other week so I'm up there

Out of interest, those of you that drink a bottle a night / 4 or 5 a week, are you overweight? I know that booze is one of the reasons I'm chubby right now. It's quite scary when you realise just how many calories are in wine and beer.

downcasteyes you expect to be able to eat dessert, drink and not have to apologise for it. Firstly, why on earth do you think anybody would expect that of you? Nobody cares what you do.

Secondly, your assertion that life without alcohol is boring and that restaurant meals are boring without alcohol is something that you are slapping onto other people who don't feel like this. I don't like to drink so I don't do it. I don't care if you do, I'm not judging you or anybody else for it but, if you start flinging insults at non-drinkers I will think that actually, you do have a problem that you're not admitting.

Judgement invites judgement so stop it and get on with your life without looking at what other people are doing and applying it to yourself. You'd be a lot happier and more at peace with yourself.

Lyin - my point is that the judgemental, moralising, Malvolio-no-more-cakes-and-ale attitude is boring!

Since you don't share it, you are possibly not boring .

I fully agree that people can have a great time at a restaurant without drinking or being boring. Same for you tabulah! I'm all for people doing whatever makes them feel joyful. What I don't believe is that there is true, pure joy in being holier-than-thou.

I had two bottles of wine this weekend, is that about 18 units? Too much, and I'm going to try and cut down.

I think 2 bottles is 20 units.

I drink a bottle and a half every weekend, which is 15 units.

And sometimes a glass or two during the week, which brings mind to 20.

I'm going to cut down to one bottle of wine per week.
This thread has been a massive eye opener, the kick up the arse I needed 👍

I did Dry January but have averaged about 20 units a week since then, most of it over a weekend and a glass or 2 midweek. I've just loaded the Drink Less App on my phone so I'll keep a track and will aim to get down to 14 units from this week. I hate low alcohol wine it is far too sweet. Oxford Landing at 10% is about the lowest I can tolerate.

Thinking back to the OP who mentioned bananas, I think it's more analogous to cake on the eating threads. "What? You eat cake every day? Don't you know how much sugar and saturated fat there is in that? No wonder there's an obesity/cancer/diabetes crisis in this country."

I probably drink around 20 units a week and so do most of my friends. I guess that it is just our normal social network. I know one teetotaller amongst my friends and a few who don't drink much, but I don't know many people who don't drink frequently, ie those who don't drink much will have only have one or two glasses of wine but several times a week.

I can easily not drink for days on end and I don't drink alone at home. I don't have any kind of addiction. But I like wine. For me, it's no different to having an ice cream if I fancy one or the aforementioned cake.

I think drinking has become very normalised among the masses. Prosecco or champagne was a rare treat for a celebration but it's drunk just over a lunch with friends on an average weekday.The alcohol hasn't changed, our attitudes have. Although I don't drink Mon to Thurs as a rule, I rarely go all weekend without opening a bottle of red or white. I don't remember my parents doing the same. I think I could reduce from 9/10 units to 5 with a bit of thought. I actually enjoy 0% beer! Sometimes it's just lack of alternative that makes me drink wine/beer.

I’ve noticed recently that suddenly the majority of my friends have stopped drinking or become very infrequent drinkers. I’ve gradually stopped drinking the levels I would have done when I was younger and child free. I do think it’s weird though the number of people on here who don’t really believe the posters saying they don’t drink much.

In my hayday the champers was brought out by the traders working away (relied on us to bring them out, yup ) while they tried to take us home to their hotel.
Alcohol is very much a part of English life and certain professions.
If you work with traders/banking, the usual thing Wed - Fri is drinks (copious amounts thereof) after work.
They're the best fun to be out with as they are wild (I'm Irish) and get totally mad when in Dublin for e.g.

The dudes I work with are complete stiffs.

I work with very. serious.... building...... control.. surveyors....
Yes, they are as interesting as it sounds.

I don't know anyone who would drink prosecco for a weekday lunch. Most people I know have cut right back, we had a night out recently with 6 of us, none driving we only drank two alcoholic drinks between us, even though none are teetotal.

None. But ask me 5 years ago and I'd probably have averaged 50 units a week - so glad I escaped it!