For those wanting to avoid putting on too much weight over the Christmas period then there are a number of measures you can take to not just avoid putting on the pounds, but in fact lose weight over the course of festivities.
Step 1: Cooking and eating the turkey
Eat plenty of roast turkey.
Turkey is one of the healthiest white meats, it's incredibly low on fat and calories yet exceptionally high in healthy protein.
It's not the turkey that makes you gain weight, it's all the snacks and binges that pile up on top, but Christmas dinner is a particularly all round healthy meal.
If you avoid the skin and smothering it with butter before roasting, a slice of turkey breast on average contains 150 calories and 2g of fat, where as a slice of red meat would be roughly 170 calories and 6g of fat.
With plenty of zinc and nutrients that will help you sustain a healthy immune system, try not to include ready made stuffing with a lob of butter, but instead you can make your own low calorie stuffing with chopped chestnuts that contain approximately 2.5g of fat per 100g to that of sausage meat which contains 32g per 100g.
Step 2: Cooking and eating the vegetables
Brussels sprouts, carrots, red cabbage, swede, cauliflower - all the traditional Christmas vegetables are fantastic for maintaining a low calorie, rich nutrient, vitamin and mineral diet.
Ideally steamed, again avoid coating them with butter and less fat if you're roasting the spuds or parsnips.
Using spray oil is one way to keep down how much oil you use, especially when coating the turkey and the onions.
And when making the gravy from the vegetable and turkey stock, be sure to drain off the fat.
Step 3: Bacon rolls
Just briefly, while real sausages coated in bacon are sumptuous, again if you want to cut the fat content out by more than half, then you can use lean bacon and coat them round low fat chipolata sausages.
Step 4: Be wary of condiments
Go easy of the condiments; this is where the calories add up.
Cranberry sauce, white sauce and bread puddings are notoriously calorie packed with little else.
If you feel you can't do without them try to keep portions small, and the same goes for Christmas pud.
An average 100g serving will contain a staggering 340 calories and around 12g of fat.
Custard also contains more calories than brandy butter and cream, and a dollop of skimmed cream won't shave off too much to make a difference to your Christmas dieting plan, so try to opt for something a little less fat binding.
Step 5: Watering the drinks
Alcohol is part and parcel of celebrating Christmas, and even if you're not a fan, you'll find it's easier just to have the odd glass and make it last.
That's where mixing a white wine with soda or diet lemonade will halve the calories and last twice as long.
On average even half bottle of red or dry white wine will make up about 250 calories.
Alcoholic carbonated flavoured drinks are also lethal in this department. Laden with calories they score as one of the highest in the alcohol chart per serving, along with gin and tonic and syrupy cocktails.
