How many drinks is my week, really?
Before you ask whether your number is too much, count it by the pour. Tap your drinks onto each night and see your week in real US drinks.
The line on each glass is NIAAA's day line for women, 4 drinks. Tap a drink to take it off.
You counted 6. The pour says 8.1.
- US drinks
- 8.1
- Alcohol
- 113.4 g
- Calories from the alcohol
- 794
- Dry nights
- 4
- Biggest night
- Friday, 4.1
That's at or over NIAAA's line of 8 drinks a week for women, what it counts as heavy drinking. Friday reaches the day line of 4 or more. The 2025-2030 US Dietary Guidelines give no number now. They say: "Consume less alcohol for better overall health."
Calories from the alcohol only, 7 a gram. Your calories a day, on tdee.guide
NIAAA counts 4 or more drinks on any day, or 8 or more a week, as heavy drinking for women. Its one screening question is: "How many times in the past year have you had (4 for women, or 5 for men) or more drinks in a day?" If the answer is once or more, talk with your doctor about it. NIAAA's Rethinking Drinking
With Gyroscope One, snap or tap each drink and see what it did to your resting heart rate and sleep. How it works
For adults of legal drinking age, 21 in the US. If you're pregnant or trying, the CDC says there's no known safe amount of alcohol.
The worked week
A woman has one glass on Wednesday, three on Friday and two on Saturday, all 6 oz pours of 13.5% wine. She'd call it six drinks. It's 8.1 US drinks, at NIAAA's heavy line for women, and Friday alone is 4.1, at the day line. About 790 calories from the alcohol.
NIAAA's lines
| Women | Men | |
|---|---|---|
| Binge drinking, in about two hours | 4 or more | 5 or more |
| Heavy drinking, on any day | 4 or more | 5 or more |
| Heavy drinking, in a week | 8 or more | 15 or more |
So 14 a week is well past the heavy line for a woman and one under it for a man. The 2025-2030 US Dietary Guidelines dropped their old daily number and now say: "Consume less alcohol for better overall health." People who are pregnant, recovering from alcohol use disorder or on medicines that interact with alcohol should avoid it completely.
If you're over a line
NIAAA's one screening question is how many times in the past year you've had 4 (for women) or 5 (for men) or more drinks in a day. Once or more is a reason to talk with your doctor. If you drink heavily every day, talk to a doctor before you stop, because withdrawal can become dangerous.
6 sources
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, What Is A Standard Drink? Updated December 2025niaaa.nih.gov
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Drinking Levels and Patterns, updated January 2026niaaa.nih.gov
- US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030, Limit Alcoholic Beveragescdn.realfood.gov
- MedlinePlus, Alcohol withdrawal, reviewed January 1, 2025medlineplus.gov
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Core Resource on Alcohol, Screen and Assess: Use Quick, Effective Methods, revised May 8, 2025niaaa.nih.gov
- MedlinePlus, Calories in alcoholmedlineplus.gov
