Most of us have a pretty nice shape core... Under a little layer of fat. Most people think that by doing crunches, planks, side planks, or any other traditional "core" exercise, they will be chipping away at their core, carving out a more defined shape... While these exercises MAY have an effect on the muscles, they will do nothing for burning the layer of fat that lies on top of them. There are not certain exercises (or foods, or supplements or teas) that can burn this bel

Nor should you NOT eat carbs before bed. It's important to ask two things 1. What's your goal? 2. How does YOUR body react and what does YOUR body need? If your goal is fat-loss, it doesn't matter when you eat carbs. (Remember, carbs are not the enemy, and cutting them out won't help you lose fat UNLESS YOU ARE IN A CALORIE DEFICIT. But that is another post for another day). If your goal is to be healthy, it DEFINITELY doesn't matter when you eat your carbs. What shou

So many people fall at this hurdle when it comes to undertaking a new fitness program. So let's get the record straight. Once a week of ACTUALLY training is better than wishing you could train 3 times a week, or 5, but in reality not training at all. @ramit shared an cool story about a woman who every week told him "I'm gonna run 3 times a week" for about a year, and every week she ran exactly zero times. He suggested to her: "Hey, why don't you just run once a week". Her r

I'm gonna be coming at you with some myth-busting over the next few weeks... I hear too much of this crap. This one hits close to home - because listened to it for soooooo long. I see so many posts from trainers about "stoking the metabolic fire" and other such nonsense. There is no evidence for this, and the idea that you should have a good breakfast is mostly just an old wives tale. (Remember "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper...?) What

I had this fascinating conversation with a cardiologist today... She was explaining the benefits of high intensity interval training (or HIIT or metabolic conditioning) from her perspective. She says that the way you should gauge the intervals should be like this: (I just tried it out before posting so I could make useful comments) 1. Each interval should be for a minute 2. The last 20 seconds of that minute you should be breathing **REALLY** heavily (she demonstrated by pan

I found this piece really moving - it made me think about my relationship with my own mother, when I first realised that she was "fat" and how that changed how I thought about female bodies forever, including my own. My own mother was beautiful, I remember thinking that she was perfect in every way and it never occurred to me that she could look better. I only cared that she was my mum. I think I was about 5 or 6 when she told me that she wanted to lose weight and I was devas

So I was working a while back in this awesome group where we do loads of body weight stuff - handstands pull ups and things like that. It's awesome, and I look forward to it every week. I started the 2 hour class and suddenly felt starving. Not the "hmm what do I fancy" kind of hungry. The dizzy, "if I don't eat something now I'm going to faint" kind of hungry. I had a 2 hour class ahead, and I had just done another 2 hour session - not of strength work but lots of running ar

See this is the kind of thing that really pisses me off. This particular variety of yoghurt is marketed towards health-conscious people as a snack that is "rich in protein". If you look at the nutritional value of this product, and compare it to regular yoghurt from the same brand (below) you do get an extra 1.4 grams of protein per 100g... ...BUT... 1. To the "protein rich" yoghurt they've added 6.8 grams of sugar (12 instead of 5.2) 2. Per 100g it has an extra 23 kcal (90

Q: This may be a stupid question, but I’ll shoot anyway. Can we talk about protein powders/shakes/bars/etc? A couple of friends have mentioned I should try them but I don’t really know where to start. I’ve always been slightly skeptical about how useful/necessary/effective they are, any comments? Seems expensive, are there advantages over standard dietary sources of protein? Also what can I look out for that makes a good/bad protein source? Finally how much/how often is appro

I want to have a little rant… I hope someone will read it to the end… I saw a blog post the other day from a pelvic floor physio in the States that I really admire, and she was talking about intra-abdominal pressure, which is the pressure that is created inside your abdomen by the forces of the muscles (diaphragm, abdominal, pelvic floor) contracting inwards. It stabilizes the spine and gives us the ability to sit up, stand up, squat, pick up heavy objects and do back-flips.