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Make no mistake; here in Milwaukee we work hard, we play hard and on the weekends, we've been known to party hard. But after a long season fueled by holiday get-togethers, Packers parties and minimal outdoor activity, it's natural to want to commit to buffing up the body in time for swimsuit season.

With food, it's relatively simple to cut back the calories by swearing off the sugary sweets or replacing that side of fries with a garden salad. But when it comes to drinking alcohol, the answer is less straightforward. Sure, some drinks are obviously over the top -- that chocolate martini topped with whipped cream, for example -- but even common choices, whether it's beer, wine or liquor, can be deceptively caloric.

"I think there are so many misconceptions," says Kim Hanson, a rep for Badger Liquor and all-around liquor guru. A lot of people think that -- because of (things like) the Bacardi 'zero carbs' campaign -- that there are no calories in liquor, but there are."

Alcoholic beverages don't come packaged with nutritional information, making it something of a shady area. What we know for sure is that alcohol's calorie content is in direct proportion to its proof, so the higher the alcohol content, the higher the calorie count. And it doesn't much matter if you drink a handful of beers or one double cocktail; as long as you're ingesting alcohol, you're taking in calories.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, one ounce of alcohol has roughly the same number of calories as its proof.

It seems simple enough: you want a slimmer drink? Don't go for the Everclear.

At the same time, herein lies the problem with new products like MGD 64, which MillerCoors has reduced to a mere 64 calories and 2.4 grams of carbohydrates in a 12-oz. serving: it's only 2.8 percent alcohol, compared to 4.7 percent in a regular Miller Genuine Draft. There's no way to take the calories out of alcohol; the only real way to slim down a drink is to cut out some of the alcohol. So if you're looking for that same sweet buzz, you're going to have drink twice as many bottles of the low-cal stuff as you normally would. Consider the bloat factor!

And speaking of bloating, Hanson brings up another big factor: the mighty beer munchies.

"It might not be not be exactly what you're drinking that night, but at 2 a.m. when you're going to the gyro place or grabbing that burrito, that's what does it... especially with women, I think we put our guard down," she says. "We eat healthily but then we start drinking and we're munching on the snacks at the bar. That kind of thing comes more into effect than the liquor we're drinking."

And to top of all off, alcohol has been known to lower our metabolism and reduce the number of fat calories we'd normally burn.

It sounds like a raw deal, but while there is clearly no exceptional elixir, there are definitely some healthier options than others.

I know for a fact that Stoli adds sugar to their vodka, which makes it more palatable," Hanson says. "Smirnoff and Absolut don't add sugar. Knowing which ones add artificial flavoring and sugar and which ones are more natural is important to know."

What you mix it with matters, too. Syrupy colas add loads of sugar, carbs and calories, so Hanson recommends club soda as an alternative. Bourbon is another relatively lower-calorie, natural liquor that can be mixed with water or served on the rocks.

"It's a hard thing," she says. "There are calories in everything and in the end it's all about moderation in food and alcohol."