How do you benchmark memory consumption?

I would like to know if there is an efficient way to measure the actual memory consumption of a particular C data structure.

The goal being to make benchmarks based on how the memory usage changes after specific operations on those data structures.

I do not seek a way to count the number of objects in use; I do want to know exactly how big the memory usage of an object put under stress can get.

Is there a standard way to do that, either in C code, or from outside? (Some equivalent to the time (1) utility would be a start).

Obviously, I could track down every single pointer and do a sum of all sizeofs. If this is the only way, please do tell me. I wonder whether there is a simpler way. Or maybe a library to do it for me.