How many drinks does it take?
Calculate your blood-alcohol level

Many of us have wondered just how many drinks it takes before we'd be considered legally intoxicated.

In many states, you're intoxicated if you have a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 percent. Many states - such as Texas - have moved to a lower level of 0.08.

If you get pulled over and your blood-alcohol level is above the legal limit, you'll be arrested for intoxicated driving. If that leads to a conviction, you'll will get socked with much higher insurance premiums - if you get your license back at all.

This calculator will give you some examples of what your blood-alcohol content could be if you drank a specific number of drinks over a certain time period. Remember, this is just an approximation - the calculator has to make certain assumptions, such as drinking the alcohol on an empty stomach. If you eat while you drink, the alcohol is absorbed more slowly into your bloodstream.

Alcohol effects everyone differently. Of course, if you don't normally drink, a single beer could make you unsafe to drive. A good rule of thumb is: By the time you start feeling intoxicated, you're well past the legal limit.

In general, the more you weigh, the more you'd have to drink to be considered intoxicated. Consider this: A 220 pound male could drink five beers in an hour and still not be legally intoxicated in many states. His blood-alcohol content would be 0.0758. If a 140-pound man drank the same amount, his blood-alcohol content would be 0.1260 - well over the legal limit.

Gender also effects your blood-alcohol content. The female counterpart to a 140-pound intoxicateden male would have a blood-alcohol content of 0.17097 after consuming six drinks in an hour.

The slower you drink, the more time your body has to metabolize the alcohol. Each hour you add takes 0.012 off your blood-alcohol content, according to the formula used by this calculator.