"Which alcohol is best" contains the presupposition that (A) that you ARE going to drink and (B) a best choice exists.

If you asked, "How much damage would I do to my body and how much would I slow down my results if I drank drinking during my fat burning program?" you might get a different feeling towards alcohol. This type of question presupposes that there WILL be a down side, it's only a question of how bad it will be.

If you think about the consequences of drinking, instead of how you can best "get away with it," it may change your emotional outlook towards alcohol.

I get asked about alcohol and fat loss a lot. Almost every time, I have a sneaking suspicion that the person asking the question is really just looking for me to give them "permission" to drink. I'm not going to do that. Well, not exactly.

I have 4 major guidelines I'd suggest you consider if you're thinking about drinking:

• On fat loss programs, I don't recommend drinking alcohol at all because alcohol suppresses fat oxidation and adds unnecessary calories to your diet, which either displaces nutritious calories or erases your caloric deficit.
• For lifelong maintenance, I recommend that if you choose to drink, that's fine, but only if you do so in moderation (1-2 drinks a day is considered moderation according to most health authorities)
• I do not recommend daily drinking as part of a fitness lifestyle, because daily drinking can become habit forming. My recommendation is limit drinking to weekends, holidays and or special occasions.
• I recommend ALWAYS being cognizant of the calories that are added to your diet through alcohol and above all else know how many calories are in your drinks.

If someone really must know which alcohol is worst on a fat burning program, then it would be the one with the most calories. Conversely, the better choice would be the drink with fewer calories.

For example, that would mean choosing light beers over regular beers. Bass ale and Sam Adams lager both contain 160 calories per bottle. Guinness extra Stout packs 176 calories per bottle. By comparison, Amstel light contains only 99 calories, Michelob Ultra has 95 calories and Beck's Premier Light has 64 calories (Beck's pulled off that feat simply by lowering the alcohol content. Beer drinking aficionados say it's very watery, as you can imagine).

Champagne has about 96 calories per 4 oz glass. White wine such as chardonnay has about the same caloric content as champagne. Any pure distilled liquor will contain about 65 calories per fluid ounce at 80 proof. When mixed with other calorie containing liquids, the calorie count goes up. A 6 ounce screwdriver will give you about 130 calories. A whiskey sour about 169 calories.

Naturally, mixed drinks may contain even more calories due to the sugar in the drink mixes. A margarita is one of the worst, with an 8-ouncer packing about 500 calories and a huge dollop sugar! A couple of those with your cheese Nachos and enchiladas, refried beans, sour cream and guacaomole, and you've just knocked back about two days worth of calories in one meal.

Fat loss is first and foremost a matter of calories in vs calories out, so the calorie counts are what you look at first.

If you wanted other criteria to judge the "best" alcoholic drink, you could also look at whether there is any health value, as in red wine, or whether there are any nutrients in the drink, such as what you might find in the vegetable juice of a bloody mary or the Oranje juice in a screwdriver. However, I think it's a pretty moot point when you consider the far superior way to get those same nutrients: eat whole vegetables and oranges.

The fact is, you can certainly get leaner while drinking, as long as you stay in a caloric deficit, but that doesn't mean it's a smartest thing to do for your body and your health.

For more information, refer to alcohol and fat loss, a special report on the effects of alcohol on your weight loss efforts. (inner circle members only)

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, a certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), certified personal trainer and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle and The Body Fat Solution (Avery Books). Tom has written hundreds of articles and has been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. Tom is also the founder and CEO of the Internet's premier fat loss support community, the: Burn The Fat Inner Circle. To get notified of updates to TomVenuto.Com, subscribe to the free newsletter at: www.TomVenuto.com/free_newsletter.