So it’s that time of year again, the time for celebration, the time when many have trouble keeping up with their diets. Christmas season is not however the only time of year that you may want to celebrate, so what really is the best alcohol to drink while dieting? Well, for starters alcohol and dieting do not go hand in hand for losing weight but that’s not to say you can’t indulge and here we bring you the age old answer to the question “what is the best alcohol to drink while dieting”.

What alcohol has the least calories? Beer and wine typically have the least calories. This of course depends on the choice of wine and whether the beer is a light beer or regular variety. You can expect around 100 calories per 12 ounce serving of light beer, up to around 150-200 calories for 12 ounces of regular beer. As for wine it depends on the variety as some dessert wines could have a higher amount of calories than those regular red or white varieties. For instance a dessert wine could contain around 165 calories and that’s just for 3.5 ounces. This is largely in part due to the added sugars in such wines, so your best bet with wine is to stick with regular red or white wine and skip the desert wine. You can expect 100 to 125 calories for a 5 ounce serving of these varieties. So the best bet for alcohol content by volume would be the regular red and white wines.

Regardless your best choice for alcohol while dieting is beer or wine. But what about other alcohols?

Hard alcohol varies wildly in calories but we know that they are higher in calories per volume and you can expect anywhere between 95 calories up to 150 calories for differing types and this just for 1.5 ounces. They are so high in calories because they have so much higher content of sugars. So although they pack a punch they are much more devastating to your diet than simply having a light beer or glass of wine. However they are not as bad as mixed drinks, so if you must have hard liquor rather than a mixed drink because they are typically the worst drink to have if your dieting. This does depend on what your mixing it with, so for instance if you are mixing with diet cola you can avoid many of the unnecessary calories packed into the non diet versions.

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Mixed drinks can typically have between 80 calories for a 4 ounce drink all the way up to 160 calories for a drink like an 8 ounce whiskey sour. It all depends on what your mixing and how much volume it is. Your best bet is to mix only diet colas and avoid any drinks that have cream or coconut because these can help ruin what you’ve worked so hard for with dieting.

Drinking while dieting can also have negative effects on your willpower. You may opt for junk food and you might end up eating fast food because we all know how it lowers inhibitions and this can be especially detrimental to your dieting. Not even to mention the hangover and peoples general tendency to load up on high calorie foods to deal with the headache and pain the next day. So if you are serious opt for the lower calorie options, drink in moderation, and cheers to good health!

Bottom line, you want to avoid gaining weight while dieting so cutting out as much alcohol as possible is likely your best choice here. If you must drink (and I don’t blame you) stick to wine or low calorie light beer and if you are mixing choose wisely and use diet colas to mix with.