Cutting back means a number you can miss

What "cut back" actually means

People say they want to drink less and then have no way of knowing whether they did. A pint and a large glass of wine both get called "a drink". One is about 2.6 UK units at 4.5% ABV. The other is about 3.3 at 250 ml and 13%. Two of the second already outweigh three of the first.

Take a weekend that felt ordinary. Friday, two 250 ml glasses of 13% wine: 6.6 units. Saturday, three pints of 4.5% lager: 7.8. Sunday, one 25 ml gin at 40%: 1. That is 15.4 units before Monday. In a notebook it was "a couple of drinks, then a few pints, then one gin." Against the UK weekly line it is already over, with four days still empty.

British pub menus still say "a glass of wine". That glass is often 175 ml or 250 ml, and 250 ml of 13% is 3.3 units on its own. Three large glasses on a Friday are about 10 units before the rest of the week starts. Home pours are whatever left the bottle. Log millilitres, or you are counting the menu word.

The UK Chief Medical Officers advise no more than 14 units a week for men and women, spread over three or more days, with several drink-free days. The NHS publishes the same weekly figure. They treat it as a ceiling, and they are explicit that risk rises before 14. Saving the week's units for Saturday is a different pattern from spreading them. The same 15.4 as a Tuesday pint, a Thursday pint, and the Friday wine would still sit above 14, but it would match the "spread over three or more days" part. A cut that only means "dry Monday to Thursday" can still be a heavy Friday.

France publishes 10 verres standard a week and no more than two in a day. The US publishes daily limits and no weekly cap. The guidelines by country have the sources and the grams. A UK unit is 8 g of pure alcohol, a French verre standard is 10 g, a US standard drink is 14 g. Do not carry a number across a border.

Pick the weekly guideline where you live if you currently sit above it, or a number below your own recent average if you already sit under it. If you drink eight units a week, 14 is not permission to drink six more. The bodies that publish these figures say that too.

Write the number down. Count in units, or in the local standard drink. The unit calculator turns volume and ABV into units (millilitres times the percentage, divided by 1,000). Pick one number for four weeks. If the first month is only about getting an honest total, write last week's figure down so the next one has something to sit beside.

Why sobriety apps feel wrong if you still drink

Most apps built around alcohol treat a drinking day as the exception. The home screen is a streak. The community celebrates days without. One glass of wine resets the counter to zero. That design protects a run of abstinence.

It fits a goal of zero. It fights a goal of twelve units this week instead of twenty-eight. Logging the wine then feels like confessing a relapse, so people stop logging, and the week disappears. The drink you still intend to have cannot survive a streak.

Programme apps sit in another category. On the comparison of alcohol trackers, Reframe is a multi-month course that leans towards quitting. Sunnyside is moderation with a human coach on a text thread, built for the US. The Sunnyside vs Reframe page goes into that pair. DrinkControl is closer to a diary and includes streaks, which is why some people prefer it.

A count and a weekly line, if you keep drinking

Two numbers do the work. First, a count per drink in a real unit: UK units, French verres standard, or US standard drinks, matching the guideline you are reading. Log the pour you actually had. Empty days stay empty. There is nothing to tap on a Tuesday without a drink.

Second, a weekly line to sit the total next to: your country's published figure, or a lower number because last month was higher. The line is context. It does not score you.

A coach, a community, a multi-month curriculum and a dry-day streak help people who want them. Skip them if all you need is the week's total.

Modraly logs a drink in two taps from the Home Screen widget, keeps the log on the iPhone with no account and no server, and shows the week next to the official weekly figure for the UK, France or the US. No streak, no badge, no daily prompt.

Look elsewhere for a programme (Reframe), a person expecting to hear from you (Sunnyside), streaks (DrinkControl), Android, or clinical support. The comparison spells those cases out. We are iPhone-only and we do not have a date for Android.

When quitting is the right answer

Official bodies do not argue that drinking less is healthier than stopping. They state there is no risk-free amount. Fourteen UK units is a ceiling at which they still describe risk as comparatively low. It is not a weekly ration.

If you have tried to drink less and the number does not move, if you drink to get through the day, if people close to you have asked you to stop, or if going a few days without alcohol is physically hard, a unit tracker will not help and may delay getting help.

Stopping suddenly after heavy daily drinking can be dangerous. Talk to a doctor before you try. The NHS alcohol pages and Alcool Info Service are the right starting points. We are not affiliated with either.

Official advice is not to drink at all if you are pregnant, trying to conceive, under the legal drinking age, on certain medications, or living with some health conditions.

Modraly is not a medical device and does not provide medical advice.