Lightweight Lady

The beer belly: a common sight on the average college male. It might not be pretty but it does its job &#8217 putting away six-pack after six-pack and never putting the owner out of commission.

By CC Staff

You, on the other hand, drink like a lady … on a good night. An attempt to keep up with the boys usually means you’ll end up hugging the toilet.

Why can’t you up your tolerance? It’s not like you haven’t been drinking every day since freshman year.

Your lower body weight is partially to blame. You might consume a lot less than the guys, but it takes much less alcohol to affect your smaller system.

That’s nothing a few late-night orders of pizza and wings can’t fix, but unfortunately, it’s not just your size that determines your tolerance. Fat girls can’t handle their liquor either. Large or petite, we’re all cursed with having low levels of dehydrogenase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down alcohol in the bloodstream. We also have slower rates of metabolism, higher body fat percentages and less body water than men, all of which make us get drunk faster. Worst of all, the rate at which we absorb alcohol is affected by our estrogen level. So once a month, you’re not only surfing the crimson wave, but you should also (probably) be staying sober.

If you’re not depressed enough already, all these factors combined make us develop alcohol-related health problems more quickly than men.

So add another point to the men’s score. Women lose again. And we can’t even drink away our sorrows.