Perhaps you’ve decided to start dieting during the holidays, because you like to make things difficult for yourself. Or, alternately, you’ve been making good progress on your weight loss plan and don’t want to let all the holiday merriment derail you.
Either way, if you’re still planning to drink a bit over the break, it helps to minimize the calorie intake without sacrificing that Yuletide buzz.
Behold, here are 15 options for alcoholic bevvies at 110 calories or less. As always, please drink with moderation, pace yourself, drink water in between each alcoholic drink, don’t drink on an empty stomach, and follow these safe drinking guidelines from the NIAAA.
Tequila, vodka, whisky or gin and soda (96-110 calories, on average)
Soda water is your friend. It’s hydrating, carbonated to keep you from getting bored, and it has zero calories; what’s not to love. It’s a refreshing mixer, especially with a squeeze of lemon or lime. As far as what to mix it with, here’s the breakdown calorie-wise.
Note: A typical measurement for a mixed drink is 1.5 oz jigger of alcohol — although some bartenders will do a 2 oz pour — so that’s what we’ll be basing these calculations on. You could mix your drinks with 1 oz of alcohol, but you can do better.
Tequila and soda: On average, there are 96 calories in a 1.5 oz jigger of tequila. Vodka has a hair more, with 97/1.5 oz on average, while whiskey clocks in at around 105, and gin, 110.
Rum and Diet Coke (98 cal on average)
Listen, don’t go crazy like Donald. A couple Diet Cokes in an evening will not kill you, just don’t have 12. (Besides, each mixed drink will likely only use about one-thirdof a can at most.) At 98 cal. average per 1.5 oz, rum mixed with Diet Coke (zero calories) is an A-OK sub for your classic Cuba Libre (rum and Coca-Cola) which is more like 150.
Champagne (95 calories/4 oz glass)
Oh good, another bubbly friend! Your average 4-oz flute of champers is only 95 calories. Another thing to toast at midnight New Year’s Eve.
Lite beer breakdown (95-110 cal per 12 oz can or bottle)
Lite beer: It doesn’t taste too, too bad, right? Anyway, which swill gets you the best deal, calorie-wise?
Budweiser Select 55, Beck’s Premier Lite (63 calories) and Miller 64, while a bit harder to find, are gonna be the lowest of the low.
As for the standard options, Amstel Lite is 95 calories, Miller Lite, 96, Michelob Ultra, 96, Corona Lite, 99, Coors Lite, 102, and Bud Lite, 110.
