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Comment by ShardPhoenix | Hacker News Reader

If you want to drink less, can't you just do it however you want?

Pretty easy to say, harder to do. It's best to set up barriers like this to prevent overeating. Another barrier is eating foods with low calorie density. The barrier here is the harshness of the drink - it is very hard to chug scotch. It is not very hard to chug a beer.

When I don't want to eat a lot, I set up barriers. I have literally no food in my apartment. 0. I am a former fat person, who has gotten into shape purely by avoiding the need for willpower. I like this hack - I'll try it this weekend.

I suppose it makes a certain amount of psychological sense.

Just ordering Scotch wouldn't work for me: I love the stuff and, corrected for the alcohol content, I will consume it faster than beer. If you have the same 'problem', what may work is ordering water on the side.

I have/used to have this problem - which is why I gave up drinking. In fact as I read this, I thought to myself "yeah, that's fine if you have the will-power not drink the scotch very quickly and order 2 more in the course of your friends single bottle of beer.

I find spirits much easier to drink in rapid quantities without realising I'm doing it. Quite apart from the lower volume, the lack of carbonation makes the onset of drunkenness less evident

so you eat out every day? Do you live in a developed country?

I go to the store every day; it's only a half-mile walk, and a nice way to switch from "working at home" to "evening at home."

Also you need to drink beer faster, because it gets warm and stale pretty fast. With scotch (and other strong alcohols) you can take as much time as you want.

Not beer, lager. Ale you can take your time over.

I think many alcohol drinkers would find it easier to drink 1.5 oz of liquor, than 12 oz of beer or a 6 oz of wine, especially if the beer is in a bottle. I think the main benefit here is that holding a different drink separates you from the people who are heavy drinkers. It would work the same if the group were taking shots, and you chose a sip on a beer.

true, but he's talking more from a social point of view.

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