Woman does experiment to show shocking difference between drinking on a full and empty stomach

As we get a little older, the preparations before a night of drinking seem that bit more serious.

Pre-drinks go from a few bottles in your uni flat to just glasses in the kitchen and the tube of pringles before heading out is now a big fat meal to ‘line the stomach’.

We all know that drinking on an empty stomach will get you smashed much more quickly, even if it's not not necessarily healthy, but to really hammer home the impact, a woman did an experiment to show the shocking difference between drinking on a full stomach compared to an empty one.

Loryn Powell is a content creator in the US making various comedy and alcohol related clips.

And back in 2022, she used a breathalyser to test her blood alcohol content (BAC) over a few hours after drinking.

Drinking on a full stomach

On the first day, Powell ate three slices of pizza before ‘immediately’ taking four shots of vodka. After half an hour, she recorded a 0.046 percent BAC and this went back down to 0.44 percent by the hour mark.

“Already hit my peak and I’m coming back down,” said an amazed Powell.

And by an hour and a half, it was down to 0.036 percent, then 0.024 percent by two hours and just 0.015 percent by three hours.

After four hours, Powell had gotten back down to a 0 percent BAC. Not bad at all.

Drinking on an empty stomach

On this day, Powell didn’t eat all day before downing the four shots of vodka.

Similarly, within 30 minutes her BAC was at a percentage of 0.046.

But that’s where the similarities ended because by an hour, it had shot up to 0.084 percent – nearly double of the day on a full stomach at this point.

“I feel very different than I did 24 hours ago,” she said.

And by an hour and a half, it was still going up, to 0.089 percent. At two hours, it had only gone down to 0.088 percent, hitting 0.0075 percent by three hours and 0.056 percent by four.

So, while it took four hours to get to zero on a full stomach, it took a whole eight hours on an empty stomach.

“Lesson is: always eat the pizza,” Powell advised.

Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support.