Wine

I love wine. Love love love it. I cook with it a lot and I like to have a couple glasses with dinner several days a week.

This is a huge challenge due to the fact that I try to stay at 1500-1600 cals per day.

Any suggestions on what wines have lower calorie content? I assume that less sweet=less calories but that is so subjective.

Thanks for the input!

Less alcohol = less calories.

I know :)

I don't ever drink to get drunk (hardly ever anyways) I just love the taste, love pairing it with the actually rather healthy meals that I cook, and I feel that I can incorporate my consumption of alcohol into a healthy lifestyle. I was just hoping for some guidance from others who had perhaps struggled with this issue.

Thanks.

As long as you have a balanced diet and meet your minimum nutrient guidelines (1200 cals for women or 1500 cals for men) and still have room in your calorie allowance for alcohol you can be successful at losing and maintaining weight.  For me, this means cutting back on alcohol when I need to lose but I continue to enjoy beer or wine occasionally.  Just be sure to count all the calories.

I actually measured my wine glasses so that I know how much is going into them and how much I am really drinking. Its amazing how easily one can underestimate this amount.

I also love wine (a little too much :)) I'm pretty sure that the dry wines are the least caloric  (chard's, pinot grigio's, etc)  I don't drink much red wine unless I was eating a nice steak (which is soooo rare).  -Shannon

I've come to the rather disappointing, yet necessary, conclusion that I can either drink wine every night or be slim.... not both together.   I've counted the calories religiously  in the past but wine calories do not appear to work (in my body at least) like other calories.   The only thing that is effective in keeping my weight down is 'a lot less wine'... full stop.   So I choose my poison very, very carefully and limit it to once a week... seems to do the trick

I am with GI-Jane on this...it took me years to accept the fact that wine as killing my diet. It isn't just the calories, I felt like it also slowed my metabolism, not to mention dehydrated me and caused me to bloat. I still drink it, because I heart it, and frankly my sanity needs it....but I do 2-3 small glasses a week tops.

The alcohol/sugar mix is about the same amount of calories, whether it's in the form of grape juice, sauterne or dry and fully fermented.  For me the way to limit the calories has been the serving size.  4 ounces of dry red wine 5 nights a week with dinner hasn't affected my weight loss or maintenance. 

The amount of calories in various table wines varies in a pretty trivial way.  Wines like big bold Zinfandels that have more than 15% alcohol (and may have some residual sugar, as well) are a little higher in calories.  The only wines which are significantly more calorific are fortified dessert wines like sherry or port.

The best way to incorporate wine into your diet is to consider it as discretionary, and only consume it when you have met your full nutritional needs for the day, and rigorously control portions.  For me, that means having a small glass of wine (around 5 ounces) only when I know that I will also have consumed enough protein, vitamins, minerals, and fiber to allow a few "empty" calories that day.  Wine is my "special treat", as chocolate is for many other people.

Not trying to burst you bubble, but I do recall alcolhol being discussed befor by Ask Mary and I thought it did say it can have an affect on you metabolism and she recommends once in a while not a routine bases of having it.

Best advice cut back have it now and than, I don't think when you are trying to diet can you drink alcolhol on a daily bases.

I just don't have many cal's to play with and if I have wine it won't be one glass and it won't end with wine....than some cheese and who knows what else.

Good luck and Cheers!

I love wine and I am doing what  dkenworthy advised. I started counting 5 weeks ago. At first, I was just saving a few calories for a small glass of wine every night without thinking about anything else. I lost one kilo then got stuck.

A few days ago, I started checking that my diet was balanced. Now I use up the last few calories to balance my diet for the day if I have eaten too little fiber or protein or whatever (even if it means going over my calorie limit by a little bit). If I had already eaten 'right', I allow myself a very small glass of wine as a treat. I started losing weight again after doing that.

I cannot have wine every night anymore because I am very bad at planning a balanced daily meal plan up front! I am hoping to get better after a while, the glass of wine is my incentive to learn! 

I understand this dilemma as I too adore a good drop of wine.  I also regularly cook with wine and traditionally sipped a glass or two while cooking before sitting down to dinner and another couple of glasses........

Over the last few months I have learnt to limit my wine intake to a single glass of wine on no more than 3 nights a week (I will allow two glasses tonight as it is my birthday).  I have also decreased the number of dishes I cook with wine to "special" meals.

What I have done to make the decrease in consumption easier, is increased the quality of the wine I drink to the best I can afford so it really is worth enjoying.

Buy a dessert wine glass that appeals to you and use that for your glass size.  It'll cut your consumption considerably.

smwhipple- way ahead of you :) I measured my dessert wine glasses and they only hold 3.5oz if you fill them right to the tippy top, so I am only having 6oz or so on the nights when I have 2 glasses.

I am fairly good at planning balanced meals, and I do have to occasionally go over my cal limit or skip the wine in favor of something else.

I really appreciate all of the input. I think for now I will cut the consumption to 3 nights a week (tops) and invest in higher quality wines so that when I do trat myself, its even better.

Thanks again.

Those gigantic Riedel glasses will be the death of us all....

I've been using some old Baccarat Haut Brions that I picked up on eBay.  It's surprising how much the size of the glass has grown over the years.  In their time the HB's were considered a big glass.

It just occured to me, you could just use a shot glass.  For the most part when I have a smaller glass of wine I take smaller sips, but I enjoy the small amount of wine just as much if not more than a larger glass.

I heard it put this way by my nutritionist one time.

Wine is 95 calories per glass. If you have to drink a glass it should be white or rosey color for less calories. Once or 2ce a week is fine as long as you are making sure every other meal and snack is following your guidelines or calorie limitations.

- Alcohol increases appetite and decreases metabolism.

but its a great treat and reward (: hehee