Calories in a Pint of Beer, and Why the ABV Decides
There are 170 calories in a pint of beer, taking an average bitter under 4% ABV, which works out at 30 kcal per 100 ml. A pint of premium lager is 165. Almost none of that comes from what you would think of as sugar. It comes from the alcohol.
You'd need to walk about 34 minutes to burn the 170 calories in a pint of bitter (568 ml).
How long does it take to burn off a pint of beer?
A pint of bitter (568 ml) is 170 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb ml
| Activity | Time to burn 170 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 34 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 21 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 24 min |
| Jogging | 20 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 38 min |
Times are for a 154 lb (11 st) adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (568 ml); change it to what you actually drank. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Beer nutrition at a glance
- Pint, half, can, bottle
- Lager, stout and cider
- How does a pint compare?
- The beer belly, costed out
- Most popular lager brands
- FAQ
- Similar foods
Beer nutrition at a glance
| Nutrient | Per 100 ml | Per pint (568 ml) | %RI* per pint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 30 kcal / 126 kJ | 170 kcal / 711 kJ | 9% |
| Protein | 0.3 g | 1.7 g | 3% |
| Carbohydrate | 2.2 g | 12.5 g | 5% |
| of which sugars | 2.2 g | 12.5 g | 14% |
| Fat | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
*%RI = share of the reference intake for an average adult (2,000 kcal; 70 g fat, 260 g carbohydrate, 90 g sugars, 50 g protein, 6 g salt).
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from CoFID, the UK government’s Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified August 2026. How we verify our data →
Do the arithmetic on that table. Protein and carbohydrate together account for roughly 57 of the 170 calories in the glass. The other two-thirds is alcohol, which carries 7 kcal per gram — not far off the 9 in fat, and well clear of the 4 in carbohydrate. That one fact explains the whole page: strength drives the count, and the malt sugars are the passenger.
Pint, half, can, bottle
The UK pint is 568 ml, which is why our numbers sit above the 500 ml figures you will see on European sites. Same beer, bigger glass.
| Portion | Calories |
|---|---|
| Pint of bitter (568 ml) | 170 kcal |
| Half of bitter (284 ml) | 85 kcal |
| Pint of premium lager (568 ml) | 165 kcal |
| 440 ml can of lager | 128 kcal |
| 330 ml bottle of lager | 96 kcal |
The half is the one worth noticing. At 85 kcal it is the same energy as one medium slice of white bread, which makes a pint of bitter exactly two slices. Hold that ratio and you can price a round without opening anything.
Lager, stout and cider
Premium lager is 29 kcal per 100 ml, so 165 kcal a pint and 128 in a 440 ml can. It edges the bitter by five calories a pint, which is noise.
Stout runs 35 to 37 kcal per 100 ml, giving 199 kcal a pint at the lower end. That is the biggest step here, and it is not the creaminess doing it: stout carries no fat. Full numbers on the Guinness page.
Dry cider is 36 kcal per 100 ml, or 204 kcal a pint — the heaviest of the four, and the one most often ordered as the lighter choice. That is two and a half slices of bread, against two for the bitter.
How does a pint compare?
| Drink | Per 100 ml | Per pint (568 ml) | Per 440 ml can |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitter, average (under 4% ABV) | 30 kcal | 170 kcal | 132 kcal |
| Premium lager | 29 kcal | 165 kcal | 128 kcal |
| Stout | 35 kcal | 199 kcal | 154 kcal |
| Dry cider | 36 kcal | 204 kcal | 158 kcal |
The verdict: if you are counting, ordinary bitter and premium lager are the two cheapest pints on the bar at 170 and 165, and the gap between them is small enough to ignore. Cider is the one to watch: at 204 it costs a fifth more than the lager it usually replaces, and four of them come to 816 calories.
Against food, a pint of bitter is two slices of white bread, a shade under a bagel at 230, and a little under two crumpets. The NHS makes the same point in reverse on its calories in alcohol page.
The beer belly, costed out
"Beer is uniquely fattening." A 170-calorie pint is not remarkable next to most things people eat without a second thought. What makes beer different is that nobody stops at one, and there is no natural brake on a drink. Three pints of bitter is 510 calories, which is a meal, on top of the meal. The pint is innocent; the session is the number.
"It's the sugar in beer." Sugars are 12.5 g a pint on paper, and they are malt sugars rather than anything added. They carry about 50 of the 170 calories. Alcohol carries the rest, which is why a strong lager can run well ahead of an ordinary bitter while the carbohydrate barely moves.
The NHS advises adults to stay under 14 units a week, which it describes as roughly six pints of average-strength beer. At 170 a pint, that ceiling is a little over 1,000 calories of drinking across a week — and the NHS keeps its own tips on cutting down if the count surprises you.
Most popular lager brands in the United Kingdom
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United Kingdom, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each label.
| Product | Calories (per 100 ml) |
|---|---|
| Heineken | 42 kcal |
| Heineken 0.0 | 21 kcal |
| Stella Artois | 41 kcal |
| Corona Extra | 42 kcal |
| BrewDog Punk IPA | 49 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories are in a pint of beer?
A pint of average bitter under 4% ABV is 170 kcal, from 30 kcal per 100 ml. A pint of premium lager is 165 and a pint of stout 199. The strength of the beer moves the figure far more than the style name on the pump does.
How many calories are in a pint of lager?
A pint of premium lager is 165 kcal, working from 29 kcal per 100 ml across the 568 ml UK pint. That is five calories under a pint of ordinary bitter. Stronger lagers climb from there, because the alcohol is what carries most of the energy.
How many calories are in a can of lager?
A 440 ml can of premium lager is 128 kcal. A 330 ml bottle of the same beer is 96 kcal. The can holds about three quarters of a pint, so it saves you roughly 37 calories against ordering the same lager in a glass at the bar.
Is beer fattening?
One pint is 170 kcal, about 9% of a 2,000-calorie day, so a single pint is unremarkable. The count per session is what shows up: three pints is 510 kcal and four is 680, none of it filling, and it usually sits on top of a full day's food rather than replacing any of it.
What is the lowest calorie beer?
Lower ABV means fewer calories, near enough every time, because alcohol supplies about two thirds of the energy in a pint. Session-strength bitters and lagers under 4% land around 165 to 170 kcal a pint, and anything sold as light or low-alcohol falls below that. Check the strength, not the marketing.
Beer or cider: which has fewer calories?
Beer wins. A pint of bitter is 170 kcal and a pint of dry cider is 204, so the cider costs 34 more per pint, or about a fifth. Over a four-pint evening that is 136 calories of difference for what most people order as the lighter drink.
How many calories are in a pint of stout?
A pint of stout is 199 kcal, from 35 to 37 kcal per 100 ml. It is the heaviest of the standard beers here, roughly 29 calories above a pint of bitter, and none of that gap is fat. The full breakdown sits on our Guinness page.
How many calories are in three pints of beer?
Three pints of bitter is 510 kcal, three of premium lager 495, and three of dry cider 612. That puts a normal night out somewhere between a quarter and a third of a 2,000-calorie day, before anything is eaten alongside it.
Similar foods
- Pint of Guinness — 199 kcal a pint
- Cider — 205 kcal a pint of dry
- Corona — 139 kcal a bottle
- Gin and tonic — 100 kcal a single G&T
- Pinot Grigio — 131 kcal a 175 ml glass
- Wine — 133 kcal a 175 ml glass
Count it without the maths
BodyPal logs the pint and the packet of crisps beside it from one photo, so the round you did not count still lands in the day's total.
