how much alcohol in 1-2 hours is safe?

I have it as a rule of thumb to not drink more than about 10 alcohol units (roughly what you would get in a bottle of wine) in a single drinking season to avoid hangovers.

But I was wondering, what is the safest amount that can be consumed within a fairly short time period, like say 1 hour? Or 2 hours at most? It speaks for itself that drinking too much in general is bad for you and will end badly, but it's less obvious how much you can drink within a short period of time and still be ok.

Obviously this can be different for different individuals, so I will just ask for your own personal limit. If given only 1 single hour to drink as much as you could, how many units of alcohol (according to the UK system, a single pint of beer that contains 5% ABV has 3 units, while 500ml of vodka that is 40% contains about 20) do you think you could consume within 1 hour without getting sick? And what would you drink to accomplish your level of drunkness?

As a 5 foot 6 inch 120 pound guy I can tell you that drinking two 25 oz bottles of wine over the course of 4 hours by yourself will put you into the hospital.

Jaws In Space said:

As a 5 foot 6 inch 120 pound guy I can tell you that drinking two 25 oz bottles of wine over the course of 4 hours by yourself will put you into the hospital.

For stupid reasons I once did that too, didn't go to the hospital but I was a really irrational incoherent drunk. I'm quite short, 160cm but have a lot of mass though (73kg).

If there's a good rule of thumb, 2 drinks per hour is reasonable. 4 per hour is starting to push it.

As you guys said, it depends a lot on the individual, but there are a couple of more reasons. First, let me tell you that I had a very serious drinking problem for a lot of years (still have it, but it's not that serious anymore), which means I developed a high tolerance for alcohol. At one point I had no problem in drinking up to 1 or 2 liters of mezcal or vodka in one day (with a very, very gross hangover following the next day, of course). But there are some issues here:

-First, despite being a heavy drinker, I could never stand drinking for more than a couple of days (non-stop, I mean), so if I was in a party or something last night, chances are the next couple of days I wasn't drinking more than a beer or two.
-Second, If I eat/drink lots of water before getting wasted, I usually could stand more (I think food helps with alcohol absortion, but I don't know if this is correct).
-Third, it also depends on genre. I assume you are male, therefore you can stand it better than females (unless we are talking about a really big girl).
-Last, but not least, it also depends on what kind of alcohol you are drinking: for example, instead of those 1 or 2 liters of mezcal, sometimes I just had something like 4-6 liters of beer, more or less, but I really can't stand more than 500ml of wine, it just makes me sick after that.

There you go, I hope it'll be useful to you.

Wikipedia has some useful tables.

Depends on if you butt chug it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_enema

gggmork said:

Depends on if you butt chug it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_enema

p_p

What.The.Fuck.

I hope that isn't common practice.

fraggle said:

Wikipedia has some useful tables.

TIL if my tiny Chinese friend tried drinking as much beer as I sometimes have she might die.

I've make it a rule to drink until I throw up. By that time I've usually had enough.

Height, weight, type of alcohol and of course amount. Overall health and food inside of you matter as well. iPhone breathalyzers aren't accurate no matter how many people on Shark Tank put money into them.

hardcore_gamer said:

But I was wondering, what is the safest amount that can be consumed within a fairly short time period, like say 1 hour? Or 2 hours at most? It speaks for itself that drinking too much in general is bad for you and will end badly, but it's less obvious how much you can drink within a short period of time and still be ok.

I'm not likely to do this, but I would be lying if I said I never had drank 8 beers within 2 hours. I would have to say that is pretty close to the limit of what is ok unless you were a really heavy drinker to begin with.

I normally drink just beer, so maybe 2-3 beers in an hour will start to get me a little disorientated. I don't really drink that much though, so I usually don't go past 3 beers in a single day unless there's some special event going on. Even then, I may not have more than 5 or 6 at the said event. Most I ever had was 8 I think. I don't think I was drunk at the time, but let me tell you, if I wasn't, I was really close to being it.

Someone mentioned above that food help absorb the alcohol. I believe (though am not sure) that bread is especially good with this. Also, because alcohol dehydrates, it's a good idea to have water before hand, or even during drinking sessions.

Technically, food does not absorb the alcohol, but rather, it slows the whole digestion process down, thus delaying the amount of time it takes for the alcohol to enter your blood stream. Plus if you eat a bunch, you're not as likely to drink as much, simply as a result of being full.

Yeah, I heard in health class that if you stuff yourself with something starchy like pasta or fried potatoes before drinking then your body can tolerate a bit more.

hardcore_gamer said:

p_p

What.The.Fuck.

I hope that isn't common practice.

It is among people who can't use their throat for one reason or another. An episode of 1000 ways to die even featured someone getting alcohol poisoning through the arse.

4 beers a night is enough for me, not because I get drunk (I tend to keep it at about 1 beer/h) but it makes me sleepy as fuck. Drinking fast, like I did this Friday (0,2l of vodka in little more than an hour) puts me out of commission an hour later.

13oz. of hard liquor is a good amount for a two hour time span.

Drink until you don't want to.

Usually, when I start getting sleepy from beer, I switch over to red bull, and then back to beer, and then back to red bull, and so on and so on.

But that's only I want to cut loose; hanging out with crazy people till 4 am on a Saturday night.

Technician said:

I've make it a rule to drink until I throw up. By that time I've usually had enough.

no, once you've thrown up you can start all over again

^True story on my part :V

You've taken enough when a pint, beer mug or shot glass keeps spilling over even when you're careful. As long as they stay in your hand and they don't spill, you're fine, even when playing as a mop. And another way to say you had enough is when you see bottom of your wallet.

I think this is more of the site for you

This is a tough question with many varying components and no exact answer. I think it is out responsibility as functioning(?) members of society to run an experiment!

About 5 years ago my 40 year old mum would drag me off to parties and chug so much she would stay in bed the entire day after wards. I think she drunk 12 cans?

Sqrrt121 said:

About 5 years ago my 40 year old mum would drag me off to parties and chug so much she would stay in bed the entire day after wards. I think she drunk 12 cans?

Your mom sounds cool

RUSH said:

Your mom sounds cool

She sounds like somebody I would want to fuck. Though I will admit that I am saying this having consumed 3 beers already. So I dunno.

hardcore_gamer said:

She sounds like somebody I would want to fuck. Though I will admit that I am saying this having consumed 3 beers already. So I dunno.

Only three?

Sqrrt121 said:

About 5 years ago my 40 year old mum would drag me off to parties and chug so much she would stay in bed the entire day after wards. I think she drunk 12 cans?

Your mom sounds like my ex-gf.

BaronOfStuff said:

Only three?

Well, he is the guy who worried 2.2% beers were going to make him a dying alcoholic. Maybe his liver sucks more than we suspected.

hardcore_gamer said:

She sounds like somebody I would want to fuck.

To paraphrase Larry 2:

"You find Sqrrt121's mom sexy."
(but then, you find any woman sexy!)

Nevar. Again.

Beer does make women even more attractive. But when it comes time to get busy, your wiener may go limp.

Sober sex FTW.