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How To Reduce Calories in Your Margarita

Margaritas, they’re the crowd favorite. Not only are they refreshing and packed with flavor, but they come in such a wide variety to enjoy. For those watching their calories, cutting out a tasty margarita can seem difficult. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce calories in your margarita.

Reducing Calories

best premade margarita
Below are six different ways you can reduce the number of calories in your margarita.

Booze

The calorie count of liquor differs across the various types. Try to stick with standard alcohol, like whiskey, scotch, gin, vodka, and tequila; these types of alcohol have zero carbs, and they have fewer calories than alternatives that are cream based or have added flavors.

Sugar

There are a lot of sweet things added to margaritas, which makes them generally high in sugar. The consumption of too much sugar can cause heart disease, diabetes, and weight gain. The average recommended amount of added sugar per day is 25 grams for women and 36 grams for men, and a singular restaurant margarita is more than the recommended amount. While the occasional surplus of added sugar isn’t going to be detrimental to your health, it’s still important to be mindful of.
To cut calories out of your margarita, try replacing additives like honey and agave with natural sweeteners, like fruit.

Fewer Ingredients

The fewer ingredients you include in your margarita, the healthier it’s going to be. Margaritas are full of juices, syrup, and various types of alcohol; if you want to cut calories out of your margarita, some of these options need to be removed.
Instead of having multiple different liquors, settle on one, and remove all of the unnecessary sugars that come from juices and syrups. The same sweetness and flavors that those bring can be achieved through the Incorporation of fruits or healthier sweeteners.

Flavors

Cutting out the syrups, juices, and tonic water can take away from the flavor of a margarita, which is the opposite of what you want to do. Instead, choose seltzer water or club soda, as both options have zero calories. You can even use green tea, fresh fruit juice, and coconut water to bring in flavor and sweetness.
Other options include modeling berries, ginger, and cucumber and adding herbs like mint and rosemary. If you still wish to include the traditional flavors, try to use less of them.

Portions

Sometimes we lose track of how many margaritas we’ve consumed; they’re so delicious and very hard to put down. But the more we drink, the more calories we ingest. When you’re out drinking, the larger cocktails often include more than a single shot of alcohol with many ingredients that are high in calories. You can always request a skinny margarita and, if the servers don’t know what that is, choose the classic margarita, which tends to be the most basic. And remember, you don’t have to finish it if you don’t want to.

Drink Water

When drinking margaritas, it’s also important to drink water in between sips. Not only does this keep you hydrated, but it can help you figure out how tipsy you are and whether or not you should stop. Also, when we are inhibited by alcohol, we often don’t make the best food choices. Eating healthy snacks while drinking can help your stomach with digesting the alcohol and keep you full, so you’re not binge eating in the middle of the night.

Skinny Margaritas

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Now that you are informed of the different ways to reduce the amount of calories in your margarita, we have provided two different skinny margaritas for you to make at home and enjoy.

Classic Margarita

Light and refreshing, this margarita recipe is a low-calorie twist on the classic margarita.
Ingredients:
  • 1/ ½ ounces of silver tequila
  • 3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice
  • 1 ½ tablespoons of fresh orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon of light agave nectar
  • Ice 
  • Kosher salt and lime wedge for the rim, optional
Steps:
  1. Run a lime wedge along the rim and thinly coat it by dipping the glass into salts. Skip this step if you don’t want to coat the glass.
  2. Add ice and the liquids into a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. 
  3. Add ice into the glass and strain the margarita into it.
There are also low-calorie premade margarita mixes you can use in your home.

Blackberry Margarita

This delicious blackberry low-calorie margarita recipe brings sweetness and tartness together into a beautiful blend.
premade margarita drinks
Ingredients:
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon of salt for the rim, optional
  • 1 ½ ounces silver tequila
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • ‘1 ½ tablespoons of fresh orange juice
  • 2 teaspoons light agave nectar or simple syrup
  • ¼ cup of blackberries
  • Ice
Steps:
  1. Coat the rim, optional
  2. Muddle two tablespoons of the blackberries in the bottom of the glass
  3. Add ice and the liquid ingredients into the cocktail shaker with the muddled berries and shake for 30 seconds.
  4. Add ice into your glass and strain the drink into it.
  5. Add the remaining blackberries as a garnish.
It’s nice to know we can still enjoy margaritas, even when we’re watching our calories. There are even margarita bottle drinks available on the market that are low-calorie.