How Long Does Alcohol Stay in Your Body?

Alcohol is a beverage that contains ethanol, and is broken up into wine, beer, and spirits. It’s a depressant and can thus affect your behavior. Since alcohol has an effect on behavior, you may want to know a little more about it. For example, exactly how long does it stay in your body?

The way in which alcohol metabolizes in your body depends on your blood alcohol content level (also known as your BAC).

Your blood alcohol content level depends on a variety of different factors. For example, your sex and your weight might affect your blood alcohol content level.

• An individual who weights one hundred pounds might have a blood alcohol content level of .058 after two drinks in an hour.

• On the other hand, an individual who weighs two hundred pounds might have a blood alcohol content level of .020 after two drinks in an hour.

However, everyone metabolizes alcohol at the same rate. This rate is about .015 of blood alcohol content level for every sixty minutes.

This means that if your blood alcohol level is .10, then after a little more than six hours, the alcohol has left your body.

If your blood alcohol content level is .08, then after a little more than five hours, the alcohol has left your body. If your blood alcohol level is .05, then after a little more than three hours, the alcohol has left your body. If your blood alcohol content level is .02, then after a little more than an hour, the alcohol has left your body.

Metabolizing Alcohol

You should understand that even after you stop drinking, your blood alcohol level can continue to rise. This is because the alcohol is still being absorbed into your bloodstream. However, there are ways to control your blood alcohol levels and the rate at which your blood alcohol level rises.

• For example, you shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach.
• You should eat food as you drink because it will slow the absorption process down. Foods that are high in protein, such as meats and cheese, especially help slow the process down.
• You should sip your drinks instead of gulping them. This will slow you down as you drink, and you can appreciate the drink even more.
• If you have more than one or two alcoholic drinks in a night, you should alternate water between them. This will help lower your blood alcohol content level. Furthermore, this will also space your drinks out, which help lower the rate of absorption in your body.

You should also be aware of what you’re drinking, and understand that wines and beers can sometimes have as much alcohol as a mixed drink. Understand that just because you cannot taste the alcohol in the drink does not mean that it’s not present.

Importantly, although the above suggestions can help limit your blood alcohol content level from rising, you cannot increase the rate at which alcohol metabolizes in your body. For example, things such as drinking coffee, exercising, or taking showers have no effect on how fast alcohol metabolizes in your body. The only variable that affects when alcohol is gone from your system is time.

What Happens When You Drink?

When you first drink alcohol, you swallow it, and eventually it is absorbed into your bloodstream. After it is absorbed into your bloodstream, it can then exit your body in two different ways:

• Approximately ten percent of the alcohol you consume leaves your body through your breath, your urine, or your perspiration.
• About ninety percent of the alcohol exits the body is the process known as metabolism.