How many drinks a week is safe for men in Canada?

Canada's 2023 Guidance on Alcohol and Health describes two standard drinks or fewer a week as low risk, three to six as moderate risk, and seven or more as increasingly high risk.

What counts as a standard drink in Canada?

A 341 ml bottle of 5% beer, cider or cooler, a 142 ml glass of 12% wine, or a 43 ml shot of 40% spirits.

Will drinking less help me lose weight?

Often, yes. Alcohol adds calories and tends to increase food intake, so cutting back usually reduces total calories and improves sleep, which also supports fat loss.

Field notes · Drinking less · The guide

Drinking less after 40: a plain guide for dads

I am not here to tell you to quit. I am here to tell you what the drinks are costing you after forty, so you can decide how many of them are worth it.

Dai Manuel · Coach Moose · Vancouver

What the guidance now says

Canada's Guidance on Alcohol and Health, published in 2023, describes risk as a continuum. Two standard drinks or fewer a week is low risk. Three to six drinks a week is moderate risk. Seven or more a week carries increasingly high risk. A standard drink in Canada is a 341 ml bottle of 5% beer, a 142 ml glass of 12% wine, or 43 ml of spirits.

Most men I talk to are surprised by those numbers. A couple of beers most nights is fourteen a week, and a pour of wine at home is often more than one standard glass.

What it costs you after 40

Sleep: alcohol helps you fall asleep and then wrecks the second half of the night. Weight: drinks carry calories, lower your guard around food and usually come with a snack. Energy and training: a poor night and a dry mouth make the morning session the first thing to go.

None of that is dramatic on one night. Over a year it adds up to a lot of lost mornings.

Ways to cut back that actually work

Pick your drinking days in advance instead of deciding in the moment. Keep none in the fridge on the other days. Alternate every drink with water. Try a good alcohol-free beer, which have become genuinely decent. Set a number before you go out and tell someone.

Small rules made once beat willpower used every evening.

Track it for two weeks

Before changing anything, write down every drink for two weeks. No judgment, just a count. Most men find the number alone changes their behaviour, and it gives you a real starting point.

When to get help

If you find you cannot cut back when you want to, need a drink to relax most days, or people close to you have raised it, talk to your doctor. That is not failure. It is the same as seeing someone about a sore knee.

Common questions

How many drinks a week is safe for men in Canada?: Canada's 2023 Guidance on Alcohol and Health describes two standard drinks or fewer a week as low risk, three to six as moderate risk, and seven or more as increasingly high risk.
What counts as a standard drink in Canada?: A 341 ml bottle of 5% beer, cider or cooler, a 142 ml glass of 12% wine, or a 43 ml shot of 40% spirits.
Will drinking less help me lose weight?: Often, yes. Alcohol adds calories and tends to increase food intake, so cutting back usually reduces total calories and improves sleep, which also supports fat loss.

This is coaching, not medical advice. If something here sounds like you, talk to your doctor.

Sources

Canada's Guidance on Alcohol and Health: Final Report. Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, 2023.
Alcohol and obesity: a review. Traversy and Chaput, Current Obesity Reports, 2015.
Alcohol and the sleeping brain. Colrain, Nicholas and Baker, Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 2014.