Drink less guides

Plain, practical guides for adults who want fewer drinks, not a label or an all-or-nothing rule. Each one answers a question people search on the way to drinking less: how to cut back, what counts as a drink, what changes in your body, and what to drink instead. Habits only; where a doctor should be involved, the guide says so.

Want to start with yourself? The free 2-minute drinking pattern quiz finds the cue behind most of your drinks.

Cutting back

• How to cut back on drinking alcohol: count a week, set a weekly number and dry days, swap the routine at your cue, with a 4-week schedule.
• How to drink less on a night out: your number before you go, what bar drinks really hold, pacing, getting out of rounds, and a plan for the office party, wedding or birthday.

Wine

• How to cut back on drinking wine: measure your real pour, set wine nights, buy one bottle at a time, and what to pour instead.
• Is drinking wine every night a problem?: what one or two glasses a night add up to, health and sleep, the 11 signs of a problem, and a 7-day skip test.

Limits

• How many drinks a week is normal?: what most US adults really drink, the 14 and 7 weekly limits, heavy drinking defined, and how to count your own week.
• Am I drinking too much alcohol?: count your week in standard drinks, check your heavy days, score the 3-question AUDIT-C, and what each result means.

Your body

• Benefits of drinking less alcohol: sleep, blood pressure, weight, liver and cancer risk, when each change shows up, and what the studies found, without having to quit.

Alcohol-free drinks

• Non-alcoholic drinks to order at a bar: what to order at a pub, cocktail bar or wedding, the words to say, what "non-alcoholic" means on a label, and the sugar and caffeine to watch.

Trackers and apps

• Drink tracker app: how to pick one and use it: what to log, US drinks versus UK units, free trackers and what they count, whether tracking helps, and a 4-week way to use one.

Dry January

• The Dry January challenge: who should see a doctor first, a December checklist, a week-by-week plan, what the studies found, and how to make it last after February 1.