One in ten Britons admit to binge drinking their recommended weekly alcohol limit in a single session, alarming new figures have revealed.
Around 2.5 million people consume more than 14 units on one day, with younger groups and the well-off most likely to binge.
At the other end of the scale, older people were more likely to have had a drink in the last week but did not binge on the scale of youngsters.
The UK's chief medical officers said no level of regular drinking is without risk to health and people should have several booze-free days a week but not 'save up' their 14 units for a binge.
But the new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows people are regularly flouting the guidelines.
Nearly one in five of Britain's highest earners drink at least five days a week.
Binge drinking is also more common among people on top salaries than any other income group.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 18% of people earning at least £40,000 a year drink frequently - more than twice as many (8 per cent) as those earning below £10,000.
The proportion of high earners who binge drink is even higher: almost one in four.
This compares with one in eight of people on the lowest salaries.
According to the ONS, the differences can be explained partly by the age demographic of each income group.
Those in higher income bands have a smaller amount of people aged 16 to 24, who on the whole are less likely to drink.
Another factor is gender. Women are less likely to drink than men, but also make up a majority (67%) of regular drinkers in the lowest income group.
The figures also show that almost one in five (17%) drinkers aged 16-24 consume their entire weekly limit of alcohol in one day.
This falls to one in 10 for drinkers aged between 25 and 44, and one in 13 of drinkers aged between 45 and 64.
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New NHS drinking guidelines published in January said men and women should stick to 14 units of alcohol per week.
Ten per cent of Britons consume a week's worth of alcohol in one session, alarming new figures have revealed. Young people are the most likely to binge, while older adults drink little and often
Today's figures, from the 2014 drinking survey, show:
* 58 per cent of people (28.9 million) drink some alcohol in a typical week. This is down from 64 per cent in 2005, but the drop has been less sharp for middle-aged Britons.
* Older people drink more frequently than the young. For example, fewer than half of 16 to 24-year-olds questioned had consumed alcohol in the previous week, compared with 66 per cent of 45 to 64-year-olds.
Among the younger group, the proportion drinking every week has fallen from 60 per cent in 2005, but middle-aged drinking every week has only fallen a few percentage points, from 69 per cent in 2005.
* Of everyone who had consumed alcohol in the previous week, 45 per cent of people had consumed more than 4.67 units - a third of the new weekly guideline - on their heaviest drinking day.
* The areas where the most people had drink alcohol in the previous week were in the South East (62 per cent) and the South West (62 per cent).
Men were more likely to have drunk alcohol than women, and were more likely to binge drink than women.
* Binge drinking is most rife among the young. Seventeen per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds drink more than 14 units in a day, while 11 per cent of 25 to 44-year-olds do the same.
* The biggest binge drinkers are in Wales and Scotland. Wales had the highest number, drinking 14 units or more in a single day (14 per cent), followed by Scotland (13 per cent).
New NHS drinking guidelines said men and women should stick to 14 units of alcohol per week
The new figures follow last week's Public Health England (PHE) stats which revealed how more people are dying as a result of illnesses linked to alcohol - such as certain types of cancers and heart disease.
Deaths from conditions - such as bowel and breast cancer - rose last year, according to the data.
There has been a 1 per cent rise in deaths from conditions related to drinking, from 22,779 in 2013 to 22,967 deaths in 2014, PHE found.
These include some deaths from heart disease, cancer of the oesophagus and mouth, breast and bowel cancer and diabetes Type 2.
Meanwhile, fewer adults are dying from conditions directly caused by alcohol, such as alcoholic liver disease and alcohol poisoning.
Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at PHE, said there were over 10 million people in England drinking alcohol at increasingly harmful levels, putting them at risk of conditions such as cancer.
'For women who drink, they are 20 per cent more likely to get breast cancer than those that don't,' he said last week.
'Alcohol harms individuals, families and communities and it's crucial that, alongside effective local interventions and treatment for those that need it, we look more widely at what affects drinking behaviour in this country.'
HOW GYM-GOERS COULD BE 'BORDERLINE ALCOHOLICS'
Pounding the treadmills is great for burning off calories but does not undo internal damage from excess alcohol, Jackie Ballard warns (file image)
Alcohol concern's chief executive Jackie Ballard, has warned how the body-conscious could be putting themselves in harm's way.
Writing for The Hippocratic Post, she said many so-called 'fit' people were unaware of the internal damage excessive alcohol consumption can do.
While pounding the treadmill can burn off the calories consumed on a big Saturday night, it cannot reverse the internal damage caused by over-indulging, she said.
'There is an assumption that someone who exercises regularly, indeed visits the gym four times a week, will have a healthy diet and not drink alcohol to excess.
However, this is not always the case,' she said.
'Research we have carried out at Alcohol Concern showed that more than a quarter of people drinking at levels which indicate a possible alcohol dependency are ostensibly fit.'
She said the results of the charity's survey 'The Way We Drink Now' showed 27 per cent of people most at risk of alcohol abuse exercise four times a week compared to only nine per cent of those who didn't exercise at all.
'I can only assume these people think gym visits will offset the harmful effects the alcohol is having on their health, or of course it could be that they are more likely to lie (to themselves and surveys) about their lifestyle,' she said.
Alcohol is extremely calorific, so the calories in the bottles of wine or pints of beer, may be burned off by gym workouts or regular runs, she said.
'But in the long term, the the toxic effects of booze remain; it is not the same as exercising to compensate for eating too much.
'It seems these fit, but heavy drinkers, are not aware of the other effects alcohol has on their body - the potential harm to their hearts, livers, brains, blood pressure, and the potential to increase their risk for cancer.'
But we clearly need to do more to raise awareness amongst these fit drinkers.'
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