For those of us who love wine but don't love the calories in wine - there is a simple solution. Drink moderately. It's true - there are quite a few calories in wine and they can range from around 80 calories in a glass to 170 calories - depending on the type of wine.

But whether that number is low or high, it depends on your entire diet. Unless you are cutting off calories drastically, you should be able to handle the calories in wine in reasonable amounts: let's say around 3 times a week.

Wine is typically water with grapes, sugar and alcohol. Although weight-wise most of the wine is water, the vast majority of calories in wine come from the alcohol. The added calories come from sugar.

There are 122 calories in wine like Cabernet Suavignon with 10.5% alcohol (in a 5 fl oz glass). Would you have guessed that 105 calories of that amount comes from the alcohol alone???

So generaly speaking, there are less calories in wines with low alcohol percentage. So if you have a choice, go for the relatively low alcohol wines and dry ones (with less sugar).

This might surprise you, but when checking the calories in wine in sense of white or red, there isn't that much of a difference. In a 5 fl oz glass of wine there is only about 5 calories less in white wine that red.

Now, if you are going to jag down a few bottles of wine every night, then yes - you might consume less calories if you drink white wine. But really, if that is the case I don't think calories in wine is really your biggest problem, if you know what I mean.

What would make more sense is to divide the calories in wine according to the wine's type. And this is where the sugar comes into play. The more sweet the wine is, the more calories it is going to have.

A 4 fl oz glass filled with most wines will have 80-100 calories. That includes wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, Burgundy, Chardonnay, Chianti, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Champagne, and Zinfandel. On the other hand, the amount of calories in wine like Madeira, Muscat or Port, which are very sweet can get to 160 to 180 calories per glass.

You have to remember than although there are the calories in wine, it has a good reputation for having several health benefits. So it can still be a healthier alcoholic choice. If you drink wine moderatly you can both control your diet and improve your health.