Alcohol consumption inspires a variety of dietary questions. How many calories in a bottle of beer? Does red wine have more calories than white wine? And you don't even want to know the amount of calories in eggnog.

Alcohol and body weight

The calories in alcohol add up to increased body fat. Not a pretty sight. Consider these points:

• Calories in alcohol are used before stored fat calories. There goes the theory that drinking a beer (or two) after a workout counts as a fluid replacement. In reality, post-exercise alcohol is a straight-to-the-fat-pads beverage.
• People who are overweight actually gain weight more easily when they drink alcohol.
• Calories from alcohol tend to be stored in the abdomen. If you want six-pack abs, abstain from alcohol.

Calorie content of common alcoholic beverages

Although alcohol itself doesn't contain fat, it is packed with calories. And when you add in mixers, juice, sugar, and other ingredients, the calories can really add up.

Beer

Non-alcoholic beer actually has the same calories as beer with alcohol: 148 calories in 12 ounces. Drinking light beer, you'll only take in 99 calories per 12 ounces. One six-pack has more than 800 calories (and that's without the chips and dip).

Wine

Dry wine contains fewer calories than sweet: 106 calories for 5 ounces of dry wine and a whopping 226 calories for 5 ounces of sweet dessert wine (without the chocolate mousse). If you drink a glass of wine before dinner, another glass with dinner and a sweet wine for dessert, you've added more than 400 calories to your meal.