Low Calorie Alcoholic Drinks & Beverages:
Ideas, recipes & alcohol calories chart

Before we get to all the great ideas for low calorie alcoholic beverages I wanted to inform you about what it is that makes some popular alcoholic drinks less of a bad thing. You know, the old adage of giving you a fishing rod rather than slapping you with a big smelly fish, or something like that...

When we drink alcohol (which is essentially a poison) our bodies first burn the alcohol before fat cells. The consequences are that our natural metabolism is almost brought to a halt while our bodies deals with the alcohol in our system. In fact, recent studies have demonstrated that drinking alcohol can slow one's fat metabolism by over 70%!

But if you're a real soldier and you want to make things even tougher, then drink in greater quantities to increase the duration of slow metabolism, and also consume darker alcoholic drinks higher in fat, congeners and sugar content: like cream liqueurs and alcoholic cocktails with added sugar. This will give your liver even more things to metabolize. Now we're talking!

Low alcohol calorie drinks: Light versus dark

Darker alcoholic beverages usually contain more congeners (byproducts of fermentation). They are toxic, just something more for the liver to deal, and worsen the effects of a hangover. White wine and clearer spirits like white rum, vodka or gin will have fewer congeners. While congeners do not effect calorie content it's a general rule of thumb that clearer spirits have a lower calorie content.

Which are the best low calorie alcoholic drinks?

In calorific terms, without a doubt, it's vodka and a zero calorie mixer. However there's not that much difference between vodka and other standard spirits (not liqueurs) like gins, cane, rum, whiskey etc. other than the congeners I just mentioned...

Before we get to some great low calorie alcoholic drink recipes these are some beverages you should watch out for...
Red alert:

• Mixers or cocktails that are heavy in liqueurs, sweet sodas and added sugars. For example a 10 oz cocktail like Mai Tai, Piña Colada, Margarita or Long Island Ice Tea will clock in at around 550 - 600 Calories! The same as a Big Mac.
• Spirits with fruit juice mixers and added sugar.
• Drinks with high calorie mixers, like egg nog.
• Liqueurs, and especially creamy liqueurs (a cream liqueur shot can rack up 160 Calories!)
• Ports and fortified wines

Low calorie alcoholic drinks ideas

So just to recap: Stay away from sugar. Use mixers like water or soda water and lots of ice (great to combat alcohol dehydration). Dry is better than sweet and light is better than dark.

Knowing all that, here are some recipes you can experiment with and adjust to your tastes:

• Gin and tonic lite with plenty of ice.
• Vodka, tonic lite and a slice of lime (and a slice of sugar cane if you can find it)
• Wines: A white wine mixed with soda water and ice is less fattening than most alcoholic drinks. Also this mixture reinvigorates wines opened the day before and makes it more palatable. (Good tip if you get a mediocre bottle of restaurant wine).
  Obviously a drier wine will have less calories than a sweeter wine, and wines like Chablis and Chardonnays have fewer calories than other white wines.
• Cocktails, (if you really must) a Bloody Mary or Mojito (if you can get the bartender to go easy on the sugar) will hover around the 100 to 150 calorie mark. Also cocktails based on vodka or white rum like:
  Moscow Mule: Vodka, diet ginger ale, juice of 1 fresh lime and plenty of ice.
  Caipirinha: 1 packet of Splenda, juice of fresh lime, white rum and plenty of ice.

For more tips on how to reduce your calorie intake from alcoholic drinks visit calories in popular alcoholic drinks.

What are some low carb alcoholic drinks?

General rule of thumb: Don't drink beer. But most alcoholic beverages, like wines and spirits, contain virtually no carbohydrates. It's not the carbs you need to worry about...

Alcohol calorie chart with popular alcoholic drinks

Use this alcohol calorie chart as a guide only. As you already know, calorie contents can differ between types, color and even 'Pint' sizes (A pint can differ in Australia, UK and USA).

Alcohol Type	Calorie Content
Pint of beer	180
Glass of red wine	120
Glass of white wine	116
Glass of Champagne	95
Pint of cider	200
1 shot of Vodka	50
1 shot of Rum	50
1 shot of Whiskey	50
Cream Liqueur	160
Southern Comfort	80
Jack Daniels	60
Mixer (soda)	50
Mixer (juice)	50

 

Please remember the ill-effects of too much alcohol consumption:

• Alcohol flushes vitamins and minerals out your system acting as an anti-nutrient.
• It will contribute to weight gain.
• Alcohol can cause low blood sugar levels, dehydration and certainly lead to 'binge eating'.
• Drinking alcohol on a regular basis can cause high blood pressure, strokes, heart disease, osteoporosis and certain cancers.

 

 

Hopefully can use this information about low calorie alcoholic drinks to help you make healthier drinking choices.
Now navigate from low calorie alcoholic drinks to calories in popular alcoholic drinks , belly fat diet tips or Low calorie foods.
Or visit stomach flattening exercises home.