It's nearly Christmas, so you're allowed a little tipsy indulgence before an abstemious January ahead. But on top of the alcohol units, those boozy beverages can take a big toll on your waistline. Here, our qualified nutritionist Angela Dowden gives the lowdown on the calories in your favourite Christmas tipples and reveals those that contain over than 300 calories – more than a typical cheeseburger.

A small (1-fl-oz) tequila shot is just over one unit of alcohol and 67 calories. Sounds innocent enough, but line them up on the bar and they can soon add up. That's not to mention the pinch of salt traditionally downed with each shot, which can add to water retention and raise your blood pressure.

Choose a dry prosecco and a 4-fl-oz flute will only set you back around 82 calories. That makes this favourite festive fizz a fairly good bet for your waistline as long as your consumption doesn't creep up beyond one or two glasses. But watch those bubbles, which can bloat you, especially if you have IBS.

Here's how to keep your G&T to 100 calories: stick to a a slightly smaller measure of gin (1½ fl oz rather than the usual 2-fl-oz serving) and fill to the top with calorie-free diet tonic. Top tip? Use a tall, narrow highball glass – your drink will appear a lot more substantial than if poured into a wide-based glass.

While this is at the lower end of the calorie scale for an alcoholic tipple, this certainly isn’t a “diet” drink. Nor does it have a particularly low alcohol content – at 4.2% ABV, a 12-oz bottle contains around 1.5 alcohol units (guidelines stipulate that we should not exceed 14 units per week).

At around 123 calories per 5-fl-oz glass, white wine isn't too bad if you're watching your weight. Go for a very dry white, like a flinty sauvignon blanc, to keep the sugar content to below 3g per glass.

The classic recipe for this cocktail involves vodka, tomato juice and a good dash of Worcestershire sauce. Drink it as a hair of the dog hangover cure if you must (we don’t advise it), or just to feel virtuous: along with 124 calories and a couple of alcohol units, you’re also getting plenty of tomato lycopene, a healthy antioxidant.

Red wine generally has slightly more alcohol than a dry white and therefore a shade more calories too. On the plus side, it's generally thought of as a healthier form of alcohol due to the fact that the skin of the grape is included in the fermentation, adding valuable antioxidants and anti-inflammatory chemicals to the mix. A little red wine – a glass a day – could help reduce the risk of blood clots.

This traditional English ale – now brewed in Chicago – has 131 calories in a 12-fl-oz bottle, plus 10g of carbs, so it's not keto friendly. On the plus side, it’s a fairly long drink, so it can slow down the rate at which you're consuming alcohol units (there are around 1.6 units per bottle).

Mix whisky or bourbon with ½ teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon of water and three dashes of Angostura’s bitters to make an old fashioned cocktail, usually garnished with an orange twist. With 2 fl oz whisky, expect around 144 calories – but if you’re heavier handed with the spirit the calories will mount (each fl oz of whisky has around 66 calories).

In its purest form, this citrussy beverage is made up of white rum, lime juice and a little superfine sugar for added sweetness. A typical serving adds up to 147 calories.

A typical 12 fl oz serving of lager with around 5% alcohol (such as Peroni) has between 140 and 150 calories and around 1.8 alcohol units. Just the one is OK, but once you’ve cracked open a few bottles you’re hurtling towards a beer belly...fast.

A reminder of summer in winter, a Negroni cocktail – 1 fl oz gin, 1 fl oz, Campari and 1 fl oz vermouth rosso – is sweet and sun-kissed with a calorie count that’s rather less light. The 161 calories in this classic cocktail is more than you'll find in a full-sugar can of Coca-Cola.

Brazil’s famous national cocktail is made with cachaça, a cane sugar liqueur that tastes like a delicious cross between rum and tequila. A typical Caipirinha made with 2 fl oz cachaça, half a lime and a teaspoon of sugar weighs in at about 167 calories. 

Love this? Now read 27 low-carb cheats to get your diet back on track

Rum, lime, mint and sugar are mixed with club soda to create this classic cocktail. In a typical recipe with 2 fl oz of white rum, ¾ fl oz of lime juice and ½ fl oz of simple syrup – all topped with soda to your preferred level – you can expect about 178 calories.

To make the perfect Manhattan cocktail, you'll need 2 fl oz rye whisky, 1 fl oz of sweet vermouth and a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters. Try to resist the urge to add a cocktail cherry garnish – they're approximately 50% pure sugar.

Darker porter beers are made with higher roast malts – hence the dark colour – and tend to have higher residual levels of carbohydrate (result: more calories). A couple of bottles of Black Butte Porter beer are similar calorie-wise to a McDonald's McDouble burger.

A classic dry martini made with 2½ fl oz of gin and ½ fl oz of dry vermouth nets you just less than 200 calories. Enough to leave your dieting intentions shaken and stirred.

This classic cocktail contains about 200 calories when made with the typical 2 fl oz of gin and 6 fl oz of full-sugar tonic. You’ll also get 3 teaspoons (12g) sugar – that’s more than a quarter of the maximum amount of added sugar the average American should consume in a day.

A 2-fl-oz dose of 80-proof vodka topped up to an 8-fl-oz drink with tonic also comes in at just a smidge under the 200 calorie mark. Swap to diet tonic to shave off about 65 calories.

Traditionally served in an absinthe-rinsed glass and made with equal parts whisky and cognac plus a sugar cube and a dash of Angostura bitters, a Sazerac cocktail doesn’t skimp on hard liquor. That means plenty of calories – over 200 of them in this small drink.

Made with 2 fl oz rum and 6 fl oz of full-sugar Coca-Cola, this old favourite has more than 200 calories and 19g sugar (almost 5 teaspoons). Cut this down to 134 calories and no more than a trace of sugar by swapping to Diet Coke or Coke Zero. Add lots of ice and lime to make a longer-lasting drink.

Now discover if you've ever drunk one of the world's unhealthiest coffees

This fiery cocktail, which usually comes in a cool copper mug, is a favourite during the holiday season. The vodka and ginger beer drink with a touch of lime has 212 calories. It also comes with more than three teaspoons of sugar (unless you go for diet ginger beer).

Hard apple ciders can vary, but for a typical 12-fl-oz bottle of a cider with 6% alcohol you can expect 220 calories, which is more than in three JENNIE-O Turkey Franks. Plus you'll get 23g (nearly eight teaspoons) of sugar.

This creamy classic may be an essential part of the holidays, but with eggs, sugar, milk, cream and rum (or bourbon if you prefer) it’s certainly not waistline-friendly. On the up side, the eggs help make it very filling so you might eat a few less Christmassy nibbles. Be careful if you have heart health issues ­­though – eggs are high in cholesterol, which should be restricted for people with high blood cholesterol levels.

Recipes vary – ours, with a tablespoon each of sugar and butter, 2 fl oz rum, spices and 5 fl oz hot water, has just a tad over 300 calories, which is the same as in 2 oz of milk chocolate. More worryingly a glass has 7.7g saturated fat – that’s more than a third of the recommended daily amount of this cholesterol-raising fat.

Shake 1 fl oz Kahlúa, 1 fl oz vodka and 1½ fl oz Irish cream liqueur in a shaker with lots of ice and you have yourself a delicious but very calorific mudslide cocktail. The 331 calories is more than in an average serving of pumpkin pie.

Equal 1½-fl-oz slugs of Kahlúa, vodka and heavy cream make for a rich cocktail that has nearly a quarter more calories than a half-cup serving of Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Fudge Core. Plus your white Russian also supplies around a third of a person’s daily recommended maximum of cholesterol-raising saturated fat.

Now find out the healthiest fast-food option at every well-known chain