Four things that will affect how drunk you get

I have a confession: I’m a serious lightweight when it comes to alcohol—it’s a blessing and a burden.

On the plus side, I can save a ton of money when I go out because I’m only going to have one or two drinks. The downside: I’m the epitome of those “can’t hang” memes—I’m in a cab, on the way home before the party even starts for most people.

As a woman, I kind of drew the short end of the stick as far as alcohol tolerance goes—it’s a well-researched fact that ladies just can’t hold their liquor as well as men can. Many different factors are at play: Women are physically smaller than men; women carry more fat and less water in their bodies (giving alcohol less of a chance to dilute) than men do; and women even have less of a protective enzyme (alcohol dehydrogenase—known to break down alcohol) than men have.

Our hormones (natural or through contraceptives) potentially make us extra susceptible to getting tipsy, too, but research in that area is divided. Basically, ladies, we’re all lightweights.

But having a vagina isn’t the only thing that gets you three sheets to the wind by 10 PM. Here are 4 more things that affect how drunk you’ll get.

You’re a beer-glass snob.
If you stick your nose up at the average, straight-sided glass, you may be more likely to end the night under the table. It turns out, those specialty beer glasses (the ones made specifically for Hefeweizens, pilsners, lagers, etc.) influence how fast you drink your beer, according a study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

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Researchers from the University of Bristol found that total drinking speed increases by a whopping 60% when an alcoholic beverage (in this case, beer) is presented in a curved or fluted glass, compared with a straight one.

Perception is at play here—it’s more difficult to tell the halfway point in a curved glass versus a straight glass, which can drastically alter your drinking rate.

You’re a free-spirited woman.
Ok, maybe not “free,” but definitely spirited—at least when it comes to your drinks. We all know the rules: The amount of alcohol in 350ml beer, 150ml of wine, and 30ml of liquor are all comparable.

But according to a study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the type of alcohol is just as important as how much you’re drinking—especially if you’re downing spirits like vodka. Researchers found that a person’s blood alcohol content was higher after drinking a serving of vodka (diluted with tonic water) versus a serving of beer or wine. Vodka drinkers got drunk faster, too.

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You hit up happy hour—before grabbing dinner.
It’s never a good idea to drink on an empty stomach—unless you’re trying to break the world record for “fastest time to inebriation.” Research published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology shows that eating a meal (approximately 550 calories) about an hour before drinking enables your body to eliminate alcohol 45% faster than it would on an empty stomach.

Even better: Any type of meal works—high fat, high protein, and even high carbohydrate meals were all comparable in their alcohol-eliminating powers. But the food in your stomach isn’t “soaking up” the alcohol, like you’ve been told; rather, it’s aiding in liver function. Eating food increases liver blood flow, and it continues to do so for up to 200 minutes following a meal. Researchers believe this better liver function leads to better alcohol elimination.

You’ve gone under the knife.
Well, specifically, your stomach has. Here’s the thing with gastric bypass surgery: It doesn’t just make your stomach smaller, it totally changes your gastrointestinal anatomy, making the route from mouth to stomach to small intestine much more direct.

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This means alcohol gets to the small intestine faster—and then is absorbed into the bloodstream faster. Two times faster, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Surgery, which followed women who had and had not had gastric bypass surgery.

Researchers found that, when given the same amount of alcohol, those who had surgery felt drunker faster than those who hadn’t. In fact, the effects of two drinks in women who had gastric bypass surgery were comparable to the effects of four drinks for women who didn’t.