The Lowest-Calorie Alcoholic Drinks, Ranked

Alcohol is the second most energy-dense thing you can consume. Protein and carbohydrate give you about 4 calories per gram, fat gives you 9, and pure alcohol sits at 7 calories per gram. In the United Kingdom, one unit is defined as 8 grams of pure alcohol, which works out to roughly 56 calories from the alcohol alone, before anything is added.

Your glass usually holds two calorie sources, not one. There is the alcohol itself, and then there is whatever it is mixed with or made from: the sugar in tonic, the fruit juice in a cocktail, the residual sugar in sweet wine, the carbohydrate in beer. A spirit with soda water is almost pure-alcohol calories. A frozen cocktail is that plus a dessert.

These are approximate figures for typical servings. The alcohol portion is calculated from the strength, shown as alcohol by volume (ABV), and the volume, and the rest comes from sugar or carbohydrate. Real drinks vary, so treat this as a map, not a food label.

You do not need to memorise a table. Two things decide almost everything about a drink's calorie cost, and once you can spot them, you can rank any glass in your head.

1. Strength times size. More alcohol means more calories, full stop. A double is twice a single. A pint is bigger than a bottle. A 14% wine beats a 11% wine. Watch the pour, because a generous home measure can quietly double what you think you are drinking.
2. What you mix it with. This is where drinks that look similar split apart. Soda water and diet mixers add nothing. Full-sugar tonic, cola, and fruit juice can add 60 to 120 calories per glass. Cream, coconut, and sugar syrups in cocktails add far more.

A gin and full-sugar tonic and a gin and slimline tonic contain the exact same alcohol, yet the sugary version can carry an extra 70 calories or so per glass. Have four across an evening and that single swap is nearly 300 calories, roughly a chocolate bar, saved without touching how much you actually drink.

Cocktails are the least honest drinks on any menu, because the alcohol is often the smallest part of the calorie total. A pina colada is mostly coconut cream and pineapple juice. A frozen daiquiri or a creamy espresso martini can rival a slice of cake. The sweetness masks the strength, which is a double problem: you drink more calories and more alcohol without it tasting like it.

Cutting drink calories is worth doing, but keep the bigger picture. The calories are only one cost of alcohol. Even the lightest spirit and soda still hits your sleep, your recovery, and your appetite the next day, and the health risks of drinking rise with the total amount, not with how many calories are in each glass. A lower-calorie drink is a smaller version of a cost, not a free one.

• Default to spirit and soda, a diet mixer, or a small glass of dry wine, and save the sweet, creamy drinks for occasions you actually care about.
• Alternate each alcoholic drink with a glass of water. It slows the night down and takes the edge off the next morning.
• Watch home pours. A relaxed hand can turn one glass of wine into nearly two without you noticing.
• Most spirits, wines and beers are naturally plant-based, but cream liqueurs contain dairy and some wines and beers use animal-derived finings, so vegans may want to check or choose a filtered soda-and-spirit.