How Long Does Alcohol Stay In Your System
We’ve all heard people claim that they “Sober up” very quickly, just as we’ve seen people who appear to stay drunk well into the night despite having only a few drinks.
But both of these are actually provably false. Alcohol is one of the most predictable chemical reactions for your body. It burns off at an almost perfectly precise rate of .016 BAC per hour, about equal to 1 standard drink each hour (depending on your weight). This rate is true regardless of the size of your body. A 5’2 female burns off alcohol at the same rate as a 6’1 obese male.
The differences, however, are in the rate with which your BAC rises. One drink in a small female of low weight constitutes a much larger percent of her BAC. It may take a male 5 drinks or more in an hour to reach a BAC of .08, while it may take a small female only 2 or three drinks.
Also, it tends to take longer for individuals with a lot of fat to absorb the alcohol. In other words, if two people of different fat levels but of equal weight drink the exact same amount of alcohol, the one with less fat will absorb the alcohol faster, causing them to feel it quicker. The one with more fat will absorb it slower, all the while the alcohol they are absorbing is still metabolizing at the same rate, so they will not experience as much of a sensation.
But regardless of size or gender, the .016 metabolic rate is a constant. So if you are trying to remove all the alcohol from your system, refer to this chart on the left to understand the length of time it will take for your body to get rid of all of the alcohol in your system.
You will also notice on this table that if you are at a BAC of .24 (which is very drunk – you will likely be stumbling and risk blacking out) you will still have alcohol in your body the next day, and you will still be legally drunk for 10 more hours. Despite what many people believe, there is no way to speed up this process. Coffee may make you more alert, but it will not get rid of the alcohol that is still in your body.
How To Calculate BAC Levels
To help estimate your blood alcohol content level, we have created the BAC Calculator Tool. To use this tool you will need to provide some very basic information such as your gender, weight (in pounds), the volume of your drinks and finally the volume of alcohol within these drinks. Once you have entered your details, the tool will calculate your BAC level and estimate how long it will take to pass through your system.
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