What Is The Best Wine For Menopause? And What Drinks To Avoid

One of the most common questions we hear from women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s is: “Can I still enjoy a glass of wine and lose weight during menopause?”

Menopause brings about all sorts of hormonal changes that can make it much harder to lose weight, especially around your stomach. At Trinity Transformation, we’ve helped countless women struggling to lose weight around menopause. This is while still enjoying their social lives, including the occasional drink.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into the best types of alcoholic drinks for your weight loss goals, focusing on the all-important question: what is the best wine for menopause?

We’ll also give you tips on how to make sure your favourite drinks don’t interfere with your fitness goals in menopause and how you can lose weight even if you don’t want to give up alcohol entirely.

Alcohol and Menopause: Is It Possible To Lose Weight?

First, it’s important to understand why alcohol can make weight loss so tricky, especially around menopause. Alcohol is high in calories (7 kcal per gram, compared to just 4 kcal per gram for protein and carbs). It’s also not filling—so unlike food, drinking doesn’t make you feel full, but it still racks up the calories.

If you’re not careful, it’s easy to undo all the hard work you’re putting in at the gym and with your nutrition by having a few too many drinks.

How Wine Can Affect Your Weight Loss:

  • Calories Add Up Quickly: A large glass of wine can have 200-250 calories, and let’s be honest—it’s easy to have more than one glass. Especially if you’ve opened a bottle and don’t want to let it go to waste. If you’re having a glass every night, those calories add up. Over time, this can make losing weight incredibly challenging. For example, just one glass of wine each evening can lead to an extra 1-2 pounds of weight gain per month.
  • Alcohol Slows Down Fat Burning: Your liver prioritises processing alcohol over burning fat, so while there’s alcohol in your system, your body isn’t able to burn off that stubborn belly fat. For women in their 40s and beyond, this can be especially frustrating, as it’s already more difficult to shed weight due to hormonal changes.
  • Alcohol Worsens Menopause Symptoms: Alcohol can intensify menopause symptoms like hot flushes, night sweats, and disrupted sleep. And when your sleep is off, it becomes harder to make good choices around food and exercise. Studies show that sleep-deprived people eat 300 more calories a day than those who get enough rest. That’s enough to gain almost an extra 1lb every week, which doesn’t sound like too much. But this can add up to almost an extra 2 stone in 6 months!
  • Alcohol Lowers Your Inhibitions: After a couple of drinks, you’re more likely to give in to cravings or raid the snack cupboard. Those salty snacks and comfort foods seem a lot more tempting. This makes it easy to consume even more calories after drinking.

But here’s the good news: you don’t have to give up alcohol completely to see results.

So, let’s get into the specifics of the best wine for menopause and how you can enjoy a drink while still losing weight.

The Best Wine for Menopause

When it comes to finding the best wine for menopause, the key is choosing options that are lower in calories, lighter in alcohol, and less likely to worsen your symptoms.

Here’s what to keep in mind when selecting wine:

  • Choose Dry Wines: Dry wines typically have fewer calories and less sugar than sweeter varieties. A Mini Sauvignon Blanc (187ml) contains around 137 calories, whereas sweeter wines can be up to 200 calories.
  • Opt for Smaller Bottles or Single Servings: A mini bottle of wine, such as a Mini Malbec (187ml), contains around 130 calories. Because it’s pre-portioned, you’ll be less likely to overindulge compared to opening a full bottle of wine.
  • Stick to Lighter-Coloured Wines: Lighter wines like white or rosé tend to have fewer congeners, the toxins that form during fermentation, which means they’re less likely to leave you with a bad hangover or make your menopause symptoms worse.
  • Sparkling Wine Can Be a Great Option: Sparkling wines, like Prosecco, are almost half the amount of calories per glass compared to a large glass of wine.

What About Alcohol-Free and Low-Alcohol Wines?

If you want to lower your alcohol intake while still enjoying a glass of wine, there are now many fantastic alcohol-free and low-alcohol wines available that taste great and won’t sabotage your weight loss goals.

Some excellent choices include:

  • Ebony Vale Alcohol-Free Chardonnay – This alcohol-free option contains 67 calories per large glass, compared to 216 calories for a regular Chardonnay.
  • Freixenet 0.0% Sparkling Wine – As mentioned above, just 31 calories per serving, making it a refreshing, low-calorie choice for special occasions.

These alcohol-free wines are also great because they won’t interfere with your sleep, energy levels, or menopause symptoms. And, they allow you to enjoy a glass without worrying about the calorie count or the impact on your weight loss goals.

What Can I Drink for Menopause?

While wine is the focus of this post, there are plenty of other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks that you can enjoy around menopause without derailing your progress.

Which Alcoholic Drink Has The Fewest Calories?

  • Single Shot of Spirits with Diet Mixers: Drinks like a single gin and tonic with diet tonic contain around 55-60 calories, compared to 200-250 calories for a large glass of wine. You can enjoy several of these low-calorie options and still consume fewer calories than in one glass of wine!
  • Smaller Servings: Choosing smaller bottles or pre-portioned servings, like the Mini Bottle Of Prosecco (200ml), allows you to enjoy the social aspect of drinking without going overboard. So whereas the Prosecco will come in at around 86 calories, a large glass of regular wine can be upwards of 200 calories.

What Are The Best Non-Alcoholic Drinks?

  • Non-Alcoholic Beers and Ciders: Many brands now offer low-calorie, alcohol-free options. For example, Heineken Zero contains just 69 calories per bottle, compared to 139 calories in regular Heineken.
  • Flavoured Soda Waters: If you’re after something refreshing and low in calories, try flavoured soda waters like Fever Tree’s Italian Blood Orange Soda, which has just 50 calories per serving. It’s a great alternative to sugary cocktails or Aperol spritzes.

Can I Drink Wine During Menopause and Still Lose Weight?

Absolutely! You can still enjoy a glass of wine during menopause without sabotaging your weight loss. The key is to be mindful of portion sizes, opt for lower-calorie options, and balance your calorie intake throughout the day.

For example, if you know you’ll be enjoying a couple of drinks in the evening, you might want to have a smaller breakfast and lunch to leave room for those calories in your daily allowance.

The women who’ve had the best results in our Fit Over 40 Programme haven’t given up alcohol entirely—they’ve simply learned how to make better choices and fit alcohol into their nutrition plan. And you can do the same.

Here is just one example of our client’s success:

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