Top tips for keeping slim at Christmas:
On Christmas Day load up on vegetables and don’t cover them in butter. A 100g portion of carrots, for example, is just 35 calories, while the same quantity of sausage wrapped in bacon is 311. Red cabbage and Brussels sprouts are even lower in calories. Avoid Christmas puddings which can be as much as 350 calories per portion.
Learn to read nutritional labelling. Anything with pastry will be frighteningly fattening. Even a single small sausage roll can be 200 calories while cheesecake is over 300 calories for a 100g portion. Salted peanuts, put out just as a pre-meal snack, are a whopping 600 calories for 100g.
If you want something sweet after a meal or between meals, snack on grapes or a tangerine, says super slimmer Nicola Ellery. A 100g pack of blueberries is just 32 calories while just three segments of a Terry’s chocolate orange add up to 139.
Cheese is very fattening so grating it makes a little go a long way, says slimmer Charlotte Ryman.
At the buffet table, choose lean meats, fruit, vegetables and salad and avoid fat-laden pastry, mince pies and deep-fried snacks.
Stay active but remember to warm up indoors before going out to shovel snow or doing any strenuous exercise, says fitness expert Chris Ball.
Offer to be the designated driver and then stick to diet drinks, says Slimming World consultant Lynda Thwaites.
Remove food triggers from the table, such as olives and baskets of bread, when dining out, says Weight Watchers leader Dot Bush.
