How much of an airplane's forward energy is lost to lift?
In the most simple model for subsonic aerodynamics, drag is split into two components:


Zero-lift drag, that is all the drag created when the airplane produces no net lift. This kind of drag has again two components: Friction and pressure drag, that is the aerodynamic drag parallel and perpendicular to the local surface. This drag would dominate in a vertical dive or a zero-g parabola.
Drag created due to lift. Since that was explained mathematically first by using the Biot-Savart law for electromagnetic induction, this is called induced drag. The simplest explanation is: Lift is created by bending the oncoming air slightly downwards, and the reaction force is perpendicular to the mean angle of that airstream. Induced drag is the force component parallel to the initial direction of motion of the air relative to the airplane, and lift is the perpendicular component of that force. Thus, induced drag is lift times half the tangent of the bending angle.


While zero-lift drag increases with dynamic pressure, i.e. with the square of airspeed times density, induced drag decreases with dynamic pressure. Like this:

Drag components over speed for a typical glider (own work). The nonlinearity at the lowest speed is due to flow separation when the lift-creating limits of the aircraft are approached. The physics for large aircraft are the same, only the numbers will be larger.

Due to the dependency on the square of airspeed, the sum of both components has a minimum when they are of equal magnitude. However, given enough thrust, a motorized aircraft can sustain level flight at the far right end of that diagram when lift-dependent drag almost vanishes.