Online blood alcohol content (BAC) calculators can help you learn your alcohol consumption limits, so that you can avoid overindulging and making poor decisions, like drinking and driving. But most of them only take sex and weight into consideration. Determining your limits isn’t that easy. Metabolism, what and how much you drink, the rate at which you drink, how much food you’ve eaten prior to drinking, and even what medications you’re taking are other factors that determine the amount of alcohol required to be impaired.
A new BAC calculator created by the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility (FAAR) takes all of these factors into consideration to better educate users on how alcohol consumption affects an individual’s BAC. B4Udrink allows users to explore different drinking scenarios so that they can discover their limits and make educated, responsible decisions when going out for drinks. Here are a few features you’ll find at B4Udrink’s alcohol consumption simulator, or “Virtual Bar”:
- BAC Calculator: B4Udrink ask you for your gender, weight, height, and age and tells you why these factors matter. At the site’s Virtual Bar, you’ll choose a drink and time in which to drink it before finding out your BAC.
- Time Until .00 BAC: When you get your BAC results, the Virtual Bar will also tell you how long it will take for you to be completely sober.
- Different Scenarios: You can change or add onto a scenario by changing/adding a drink and/or consumption time. You can even click “Eat Food” to see if and how eating food after alcohol consumption affects your BAC.
- Alcohol Effects: As you explore the simulator and your BAC goes up or down, the Virtual Bar will tell you how alcohol affects you at each BAC level.
Want to test your limits? Head over to the Virtual Bar ar B4Udrink to learn more about how alcohol consumption affects your individual BAC. While the B4Udrink BAC calculator is the most advanced of its kind, it isn’t a scientific tool or 100% accurate. Your safest bet is always to designate a sober driver or plan a safe ride home, limit your number of drinks, and pace yourself.