People often forget that alcohol is laden with hidden calories
Summer holiday season is well underway and when we go away we like to relax and enjoy ourselves and that usually means not worrying about our waistlines.
We spend the months before the holiday trying to lose weight to look good in our swimsuit, bikinis or board shorts. Yet, as soon as we step off the plane, sometimes even stepping foot into the airport can do it, we forget all that and calories and fat just become other words like the rest of them.
Bit these shocking comparisons may have you thinking differently this summer.
Swanswells warn that a man who drinks a pint and a half of strong lager five days a week will consume the calorific equivalent of four kebabs a week, or 46 cups of lard over a year.
For a woman, having a large glass of wine five nights a week is like eating two pizzas on top of the usual diet. Over 12 months, that's an additional 45,840 calories or the equivalent of around 25 cups of lard.
"There's some pretty shocking statistics here that we hope provide food for thought for anyone who may be drinking too much," says Debbie Bannigan, Swanswell's Chief Executive.
The national chairty, which helps people overcome drug, alcohol and other problem behaviour, is urging people to think more about how much they are drinking on holiday, and how it could affect them.
Debbie continues: "Government guidance about how much we should be drinking is linked to units - most of us would struggle to say what our daily allowance of units should be, let alone calculate how many we've had.
"We've taken a different approach to highlighting how excessive use can affect our bodies - it's hard to find a good argument for putting 46 cups of lard in your body every year, after all."
Research sugggests that drinking one large glass or wine or just over a pint of 5 per cent lager a day on top of your usual diet could lead to an increase of 4lbs in just four weeks or almost three-and-a-half stone over the year.
Femalefirst Taryn Davies