While you might be scared away by the numbers (or crave a table, if you are a scientist), there is a bigger problem with the calculations, as I just found out. A colleague with a background in biology pointed out to me the kcal is not like kcal. What does that mean?
If you burn 1 g of ethanol you will measure about 7 kcal of energy. However, the human body does not process ethanol in that way and is actually not able to get the full amount of (potential) energy out of the alcohol, whereas it is much better with sugar - sadly for some. The body does not convert most of the alcohol into fat, but into a substance called acetate. This means that not only will the body need some energy to do that, it can apparently also get less calories out of acetate. One source I found suggested that we would have to half the kcal that the body will get from alcohol in the calculations above.
But don't be so quick to call me wrong, as it actually is even more complicated. Acetate in your blood stream will apparently slow down the body's fat metabolism - the body will look for the acetate fist as a source of energy and not the body fat. This means that drinking wine with high levels of alcohol while on a diet will still be bad for you as it keeps your body from reducing its fat reserves. In addition to that, alcohol acts as a potent appetizer and will increase calorie intake. Do also have a look at these two websites: http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm http://wine.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Calories_in_White_Wine
As often, we find that the answer is a bit more complicated. Having said that, the conclusions I drew would still be correct: First of all, there is no point in drinking the bad WeightWatchers wine as the wines I have cited above would all have their calorie count reduced too - the Mosel Kabinett wine would be reduced to about 40 'effective' kcal, as would be the WeightWatchers wine (assuming they have not already factored that in, in which case its balance would be even worse). The dry Silvaner would now look like a diet wine and even a glass of the Molitor every other day would not be the end for your diet.
Actually, it is even more complicated
While you might be scared away by the numbers (or crave a table, if you are a scientist), there is a bigger problem with the calculations, as I just found out. A colleague with a background in biology pointed out to me the kcal is not like kcal. What does that mean?
If you burn 1 g of ethanol you will measure about 7 kcal of energy. However, the human body does not process ethanol in that way and is actually not able to get the full amount of (potential) energy out of the alcohol, whereas it is much better with sugar - sadly for some. The body does not convert most of the alcohol into fat, but into a substance called acetate. This means that not only will the body need some energy to do that, it can apparently also get less calories out of acetate. One source I found suggested that we would have to half the kcal that the body will get from alcohol in the calculations above.
But don't be so quick to call me wrong, as it actually is even more complicated. Acetate in your blood stream will apparently slow down the body's fat metabolism - the body will look for the acetate fist as a source of energy and not the body fat. This means that drinking wine with high levels of alcohol while on a diet will still be bad for you as it keeps your body from reducing its fat reserves. In addition to that, alcohol acts as a potent appetizer and will increase calorie intake. Do also have a look at these two websites:
http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm
http://wine.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Calories_in_White_Wine
As often, we find that the answer is a bit more complicated. Having said that, the conclusions I drew would still be correct: First of all, there is no point in drinking the bad WeightWatchers wine as the wines I have cited above would all have their calorie count reduced too - the Mosel Kabinett wine would be reduced to about 40 'effective' kcal, as would be the WeightWatchers wine (assuming they have not already factored that in, in which case its balance would be even worse). The dry Silvaner would now look like a diet wine and even a glass of the Molitor every other day would not be the end for your diet.