If you're counting calories, you need to budget properly for meals as well as "extras," such as a few beers after work. You also need to allow for the fact that some beers have fewer than 60 calories, while others have three or more times that many.
General Rules of Thumb
You can usually guess by the name of the beer about how many calories it has. Regular beers average around 150 calories, while light -- or "lite" -- beers have 100 or so. Some newer beers take "light" seriously, such as Budweiser's Select 55, Miller Genuine Draft 64 and Beck's Premier Light, which have 55, 64 and 64 calories per 12-ounce serving, respectively.
The Top Sellers
Four of the six top-selling beers in the United States, according to CNBC, are light beers. The No. 1 beer, Bud Light, has 110 calories in a 12-oz. serving. No. 3, Miller Lite, weighs in with 96; the fourth-best-selling beer, Coors Light, has 102; and No. 5, Natural Light, has 95. The second-favorite beer of Americans, Budweiser, registers 145 calories per 12 oz., and Corona, the best-selling import in the U.S., has 148.
The Heavyweights
There are exceptions to the 150-calorie generalization for regular beers. Some brews really go above and beyond in contributing to your daily caloric intake, led by Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale, which has a whopping 330 calories in 12 oz. Samuel Adams Boston Lager, meanwhile, packs 180 calories, Guinness Extra Stout has 176, and Pete's Wicked Ale has 174, the FitSugar website reports.
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