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Lose weight easily: which drinks are the most caloric?
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025

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Very often we gain excess weight not because we eat a lot, but because we drink the wrong things. What drinks are the "heaviest"? Even a person on the strictest diet usually forgets that not only food products have energy value, but also drinks.
Although a quick glance at the label is enough to understand that only water does not contain calories, other drinks are quite "material". Moreover, "liquid" calories are much more insidious than "solid" ones.
Are cakes safer?
Drink | Caloric content of drinks (kcal per 100 ml) |
Water | 0 |
Tea with sugar (1 spoon) | 28 |
Coffee with milk and sugar (1 spoon) | 75 |
Sweet soda | 42 |
Milkshake | 96 |
Hot chocolate | 110 |
Kvass | 27 |
Grapefruit juice | 35 |
Grape juice | 75 |
Leaders in caloric content - alcoholic and low-alcohol drinks
Drink | Caloric content of drinks (kcal per 100 ml) |
Light beer | 43 |
Dark beer | 48 |
Dry champagne | 64 |
Sweet champagne | 100 |
Vodka | 235 |
Skate | 239 |
American nutritionists conducted an interesting study. One group of volunteers was given 450 kcal in the form of sweet drinks for a month, while the other group was given the same 450 kcal in the form of candies and cakes. By the end of the trial, the first group had significantly more weight gain than the second. The explanation for this fact is simple.
Solid food, the digestion of which requires the body to spend up to 10% of the energy received, is processed slowly, remains in the stomach for a long time and creates a feeling of satiety for a long time. Liquid calories are digested instantly, with virtually no energy expenditure. Therefore, a person drinks more than planned without noticing it. And the amount of food eaten that we “washed down” with the drink can be greater. Caution should be exercised not only when drinking soda, but also with other drinks that are considered harmless.
You shouldn't quench your thirst with fruit juices, especially packaged ones. They contain no less sugar than soda, so you want to drink even more after them. And juices contain no less carbohydrates than confectionery. For example, a glass of grape juice is equal in calories to a serving of chocolate cake. Milk and alcoholic cocktails contain a fair amount of calories and sugar. Tea and coffee are considered the favorite drinks of all those losing weight. In their pure form, they really do not contain any calories. But they are seriously "weighted down" by all sorts of additives.
For example, a cup of coffee contains only 2 kcal, coffee with sugar and milk will already amount to 75 kcal, and mocha coffee - with cream and chocolate - will contain 275 kcal (the same as in a full hot dish).”
Can you feel safe sipping a sweet fizzy drink from a bottle with the label "0 calories"? This usually means that the drink uses a sugar substitute instead of regular sugar. But it is almost impossible to get drunk on such fizzy drinks! Firstly, the artificial sweetener can block the thirst receptors located in the oral mucosa and is difficult to rinse off, so there is a constant desire to "wash it away" with a new portion of fizzy drinks. Secondly, at temperatures above 37°C, aspartame provokes the formation of methanol (wood alcohol), which even in small doses can cause the development of neurological diseases.