For nonhabituated drinkers, the liver is able to metabolize about 1 standard drink (0.5 ounces pure ethanol) per hour. This amount may be doubled for someone who is habituated to alcohol.
Assuming you are nonhabituated, you can estimate the amount of time it would take for all the alcohol to leave your body by counting the number of drinks you have had and counting out that number of hours from the time you started drinking. This will give you a rough estimate of the length of time you will have alcohol in your system.
If you are a habituated drinker, it is more difficult to estimate the amount of time alcohol will stay in your system, since the amount of increase in metabolism varies from person to person. As noted above, the rate of metabolism may increase as much as to double your baseline rate of metabolism.
It depends on the individual's weight and metabolism. If you can eat like a horse and never gain a pound then your metabolism is fast and you'll probably burn off the alcohol fast too. It can also be affected by medical conditions and any medications you are taking. In other words, if someone gives you a specific time for how long it takes, it's probably just an educated guess based on their own personal experiences or an average that probably doesn't apply to you specifically.
Answered by
Nidhi Singh
, an ibibo Master,
at
2:51 PM on January 28, 2009
