A. Man boobs (or moobs for short) are often the final straw that forces men (usually between the ages of 30 and 40) to take stock of their expanding waistline and do something about it. It seems that beer bellies are somehow more acceptable than "moobs" and - in some circles - can even be a sign of masculinity ("I'm a hard drinker and my belly proves how macho I am"). But male breasts are both unsightly and un-masculine, and everyone wants to get rid of them.

The problem of beer belly and moobs is connected: most men with moobs are overweight. Losing the weight can reduce the belly but sometimes even after significant weight loss the moobs still remain. Moreover media attention lavished on this phenomenon has somewhat reduced the stigma associated with it and is why the number of men having breast reduction operations in the UK is rising dramatically (over 4000 men in the UK last year had moob reduction surgery, up from only 22 in 2005).

Lots of young boys get moobs: Pubertal gynaecomastia is tissue growth due to hormonal imbalance but usually disappears by the end of puberty. Breast growth can also be a side effect of drugs used to suppress prostate cancer, or by a genetic condition (Klinefelter's Syndrome). The vast majority of moobs however are simply caused by large deposits of fat over the pectoral muscles.

The problem is to be tackled in three parts: food, drink and exercise.
However, given the tone of your question, I am afraid you will not be successful. You see, starting a question to a fitness expert with the words "I am so not going to join a gym - but I might do the odd bit of exercise at home" informs me that for you exercise is an alien thing. You don't seem to understand that exercise has to be an integral part of your life, not just "the odd bit of exercise at home".

I am not going to try to pull the wool over your eyes to cheer you up with a positive response. You will not lose either beer belly OR moobs without drastically changing your lifestyle. You need to exercise aerobically for around 180 minutes per week. That's THREE HOURS of sweating and panting. On top of that you need to do one or two strength training sessions per week:
build muscle in your pecs and abs (and everywhere else) and the muscle will serve you well, as it burns calories for you 24:7 even after exercise.

But first and foremost change your eating and drinking. You would not be obese or have moobs if you didn't eat and drink to excess. I just don't buy it when people come to me obese with moobs and say: "I eat and drink normally". I simply don't believe it.

How many pints do you drink a week? Ten per week is the maximum limit assuming no other alcohol, and for people on weight loss programmes the limit is half that, i.e. five pints per week tops, no other alcohol.

What is "eating normally" to you? To me that means three properly-cooked meals a day, no snacks, no fry ups (maybe one a month max), no crisps, no biscuits or cakes, no takeaways...always eating properly cooked meals with 50% fresh fruit and vegetables... Do you eat like this? I am prepared to bet you don't.

So I'm sorry I don't have a magic formula for you to get rid of your moobs.
It will require a complete rearrangement of your life, a dedication to exercise, and a commitment to eating and drinking in moderation.

Unless you like surgery...

Rory Aitken

A. This is an interesting question I am sure many will identify with.

Gyms are too boring for kids under 16 (see my previous answer on this
subject) so parents need to make exercise more FUN. There are loads of things you could do as a family together in addition to the walking and swimming you already mention. Here's some examples.

Do you like water? If so have you thought of canoeing or kayaking? You could buy a 4-seat canoe and take to the water: you will see sights you can never see from land, be immersed in nature, and practicing sport all in one. Have you considered any of the martial arts? There are many forms of self-defence, and adults can train with their children: here in Totnes for example we have a Tae-Kwon-Do school where parents and kids train together.
It's really cool for kids to learn self-defence as it could protect them if needed, and gives them a wonderful sense of self-assurance and confidence.


The key thing is to make exercise FUN! How about Trampolining? Or proper rowing? (There's bound to be a rowing club nearby.) Or climbing: kids love
it: is there an indoor rock wall for practicing climbing anywhere near you?
Use your imagination, and try to find what sport clubs there are in your
area: envision yourself as a group doing that particular sport.... does it grab you?

Unfortunately you may end up having to offer each child a sport of their own, as each of your kids is bound to be different and any one of them might not like the group activity you set up. Perhaps there are local sport clubs one (or more) might take up e.g. boxing? gymnastics? athletics? Some kids prefer team sports: (most kids maybe? certainly most young boys do). So how about rugby, or football? Or the four of you could play tennis: two pairs of singles, or round-robin doubles.

The point I'm making is that the list of possible sports is truly endless, limited only by your imagination and local availability and your willingness to being a "taxi" for them individually or as a team. Keep it fun, keep it light-hearted, and above all LEAD BY EXAMPLE. Your kids are much more likely to want to get fit and stay fit if they see their parent exercising, keeping fit, staying slim, and eating sensibly...

Good Luck!

A. This is not one question: it's more like four or five questions rolled into one! Let's break it down:

a) I am not fat but I am 76kg and would like to be 72kg.

How do you know that 72kg is the right weight? Have you calculated your BMI?
See my previous answer on BMI calculations. If you were only 5' tall even 72kg would mean you were obese. If on the other hand you were 6'4" then 76kg would make you anorexic. The "right" weight is actually a matter of your height. Use your BMI to calculate exactly what weight you should be and aim for that... Also see if your gym can offer you expert advice: have a BodyFat% assessment and a BMI calculation done for you (note that we recommend women to aim for about 25% body-fat, men should aim for about 20%).

b) I have a routine of running for 30min followed by weights for 40min 2/3 times a week. It's quite a vigorous workout. Can I expect to lose weight?

This exercise routine done twice or three times a week sounds sufficiently intense, however losing weight is not just about how much you exercise, it's also (principally?) about how you EAT. So if you did this routine every day but then went home and pigged out on biscuits and crisps, you would GAIN weight not lose it. So - of course - keep the routine going, but ensure you regulate your food intake sensibly in order to lose weight gradually.

c) will I replace fat with muscle and then stay the same weight?

Again this depends on how much fat you've got (see part a) and how much you eat as well as the timing and composition of your meals. Losing fat and gaining muscle is a complex topic which includes the precise nature of your muscle-building exercises (intensity/weight, repetitions, number of sets,
etc) followed by the precise nature of your food intake (carbs versus protein, and the timing of your meals). It's a far bigger topic than can be covered here but suffice to say that from the sounds of it you will be burning fat and gaining muscle, however you make no mention of your dietary routine, so it's a moot point.

Please note that in the long term the body tends to adapt to any exercise routine so the fat-burning/muscle-building process tends to "level off" in time. It's up to you to ensure you always vary the routine: keep the body "guessing" - it's important never to become stale in a set routine because the longer you do it the less effective it becomes.

d) I am running at 140-145 BPM, is that a fat burning zone? How long should I be running for at that level please?

There are a lot of myths about the fabled "fat burning zone" and you've become prey to one. There is no such thing as a pure "fat burning zone". The body continually burns all types of fuel it has available: Carbs (in the form of glycogen stored in muscles and liver), Fats (stored under the skin
principally) and Proteins (all the muscles of your body are a huge reserve of energy). Generally the lower the intensity (i.e. running slowly with your heart rate nice and low) the more the body can avail itself of fat as a fuel. At higher intensities the body burns principally sugar to fuel the workout. To "force" the body to burn principally fat we need to work out very "softly", which in turn would necessitate us to spend huge amounts of time working out gently: far better to work out intensely, for shorter periods.

Therefore, for effective (and quick) fat burning it's the TOTAL number of calories out (i.e. exercise) versus the TOTAL number of calories in (i.e.
food intake) which counts much more. So to burn more fat you should both WORK HARDER and WORK LONGER! The more calories you burn the quicker the fat will melt off if you're eating sensibly.

As regards running with a heart rate at 140-145BPM, note that HR zones are AGE RELATED, such that 145bpm would be too low if you were sixteen but way too fast if you were sixty. As you didn't give your age we can't give you a hard and fast answer but 140/145bpm sounds about right - it's a good "average" for most ages. Running three times a week for 30 minutes is good too, particularly when followed by a muscle-building workout. This routine should certainly help you to burn fat in the long term provided you eat sensibly and vary the routine.

If you wanted to really burn fat, I'd suggest three one-hour runs every week, and separately do one or two muscle-building workouts per week. You should find that running for one hour (make sure to build up to that gradually, adding 5min every week until you're at 60min) three times a week will cause the fat to melt off much more effectively, and that muscle-building will work much better when you're "fresh" (ensure you are well warmed up before using large weights).

If you would like more precise answers send me your age and height and I can work out your BMI and HR Zones.

Cheers

Rory Aitken

A. This is the most difficult question I've yet had to answer on this forum.
The problem your daughter is suffering from (and millions of other children) is common - unfortunately. The so-called "obesity epidemic" is sweeping through the world and has made our children's generation the fattest in the history of mankind: nearly 50% of all kids are overweight, and about 30% are actually obese. What's worse is that these numbers are rising, not shrinking.

The stark reality of this epidemic is that our children's generation will suffer long-term health problems and premature death from becoming obese in their teens. Also, obese parents tend to produce obese children, so future generations will also be blighted by the same health problems.
Obesity-related health issues are set to become the world's biggest killers:
worse than cancer and heart disease combined. In the USA (which is leading the way in respect of childhood obesity) the costs relating to health care for obesity-related disorders will quite literally break the bank. Their health insurance companies have already started talking about making obese patients pay for some of their treatment since it's a self-induced illness like lung cancer from smoking.

The problem is in three parts, and thus has to be tackled on three fronts:
a) Nutrition b) Exercise c) Psychology. The mental element of the fight against obesity is the one most often overlooked, but if the child does not buy into what you are proposing they will neither change their diet nor exercise consistently enough to win the battle. And if children reach 18 or
19 years old and are still obese the chances are they will remain so for the rest of their shortened lives. It sounds grim because it really is. This is a matter of life and death for some of our kids.

The children of this generation are spoiled with hundreds of TV channels to watch and sophisticated computer games that keep them glued to the screen.
Making matters worse much of their social networking now occurs online, so they're still sitting on their bottoms, even when socialising. Furthermore schools now place far less emphasis on PE and sport than in the past: it is all-too-often an afterthought and led by unmotivated teachers.

So on the one hand kids have much more passive entertainment than ever, and on the other hand they are hardly ever forced to exercise. Exacerbating this problem is an over-abundance of food everywhere they look. Cakes and sweets dripping with sugars and fats are cheap and easy to obtain. In fact it's much cheaper to eat chips and nuggets than it is to have a properly cooked fresh-food meal with vegetables and fruit.

So the battle against our kids' obesity starts at home on three fronts:

1) Exercise
Parents must lead by example. Are you fit/slim yourself? If you don't exercise yourself you cannot expect your child to. If you are a couch potato the likelihood is that your child will be one too. So start by becoming fit (and slim) yourself and then perhaps the child will have an example to follow.

Joining a gym together is a good idea if the child is over 16 but at 13 years old she will find it boring. Kids need their sport to be hidden within
play: team (or solo) games are much preferable. Get her enrolled in one of your many local clubs: ask her to choose a sport she likes and take her to do it at least twice a week. The choice is huge: Martial Arts? (it's very cool for girls to learn self-defence) Trampolines? Badminton? Tennis?
Swimming? Rowing? Find a local sports club and get her into the junior team.
You will find that the team spirit fosters enthusiasm and may drive her to get fit and lose the weight.

The key thing at 13 is to make it fun. If it isn't fun, she won't do it for long enough to change her shape. Gyms are - quite frankly - very boring.
Jogging on a treadmill is not something I would ask my child ever to do. But you should get fit first, so by all means: YOU join the gym, and set your daughter a shining example of how fit and slim you are.

Nutrition
Again, lead by example. If she's getting fat at home it's because you are allowing her too much leeway in how she eats. Is she a picky eater? Does she get her "five a day"? Do you have a properly cooked meal every evening? Does she have access to biscuits, cakes, and other in-between-meal snacks? All this should be regulated and controlled by YOU, the parent. Given total freedom most kids will eat themselves silly. You need to set the boundaries, and rid the house of biscuits, cakes, fizzy drinks and crisps. These fatty/sugary foods are treats for special occasions only. Teach your daughter (leading again by example) the importance of having a good breakfast, a healthy lunch and a light dinner. No puddings (except on
weekends) and absolutely NO between-meals snacks.

Psychology
This is the hard one. Where to start? Communication is key. You need to let her know your concerns. Take her to a nutritionist or another expert and have her BMI (Body Mass Index) calculated. This is an internationally-recognised measure of a person's weight and there is an age-related scale which applies to children. Coming from a doctor or nutritionist your daughter is far more likely to take it seriously than from you or her peers calling her "fatty". Also, from an expert it somehow takes the stigma away, as it's presented as a "normal" health issue that can be resolved, rather than as a depressing judgement that might harm her self-esteem.

You need to tread carefully. So many young girls are driven to eating disorders by the pressures put on them to be thin from the glossy magazines, which totally mis-represent what 99.9% of women actually look like, and offer an idealised womanhood that is totally unattainable for most young girls. If you are too heavy-handed, you could cause your daughter serious psychological harm. Let an expert convince her that it's in her interest to lose the weight, and then help her on the journey. Do it together, support her, make it fun for her, and LEAD BY EXAMPLE.

I sincerely wish you luck in this journey. It won't be easy, but if you really want to you can defeat the obesity epidemic: it's all in the mind.

A. For sure, everyone gains a little weight over Christmas! On average in the UK people gain six pounds approx 3 kilos) between December and January.
That's almost half a stone. The good news is that you don't have to be a statistic. There is no need to gain that amount of weight, or indeed any weight at all if you follow some simple suggestions.

Obviously, over the Christmas break people tend to exercise less and eat (and drink) more. The question is this: how much less exercise can you afford to do? And how much more eating/drinking can you afford to do? If you stop exercising, and double the amount you eat and drink, then I'm sorry but you are likely to gain a lot more than six pounds! On the other hand, if you ate normally and went for a two hour walk every day, you would gain no weight at all.

It's all a question of BALANCE! Don't treat the Christmas vacation as an excuse to pig out. Apply your usual "brakes" to your eating - that's how you lost weight in the first place. Consume regular portions, don't always go for second helpings, lay off the mince pies (OK, one or two are fine!), and go easy on the double cream.

If your gym is closed during the break, or if you have decided to take a break from exercise, then you can do other forms of controlled calorie-burning. As I've already alluded, long walks are a great way to digest the heavy meals we all enjoy over the festive period. Aim for a two-hour walk every day, or better still, a one-hour jog/run (assuming you are already running). There is no reason why you should suddenly stop exercising for a fortnight, just because you are at home instead of at work.

Probably the biggest weight gains over Christmas come from the increased alcohol consumption we all drink over the holiday. Again, balance and moderation are key. Remember your liver and other organs don't know (and don't care) it's a holiday. Your liver can only safely process a few units per day (two units per day for women, three units per day for men). If you are able to drink as "little" as that, then you should keep the excess weight gains down to a reasonable level. If however you feel compelled to drink much more, then enjoy it! But be prepared to accept a disappointing shock in January.

To summarise: it's a question of moderation and balance. If you pig out and booze yourself silly, whilst lying around for a fortnight, obviously you will gain weight. If however you are able to stay active, and drink/eat in moderation, then you will be pleasantly surprised come January.

Merry Christmas!

A. This is probably the most common series of related questions we get asked by newcomers. There is no short answer - just as there is no “quick fix” for losing weight.

The first thing to do is to get a measure of the problem: just how overweight are you? Most women have a distorted body image and often feel they wish to lose more weight than what they actually need to lose.

The best way to decide just how much weight to target is to calculate your Body Mass Index (or BMI for short). Your BMI is a number (usually from 19 to anything over 35) which represents your height-adjusted weight. To calculate your BMI simply measure your height in metres (e.g. 180cm is 1.8 metres) and square it (i.e. times it by itself) so that 1.8m becomes 3.24. Then weigh yourself in kilograms: your BMI is your weight (in kg) divided by the square of your height (in metres). So, for example for somebody 180cm tall, weighing 80kg, the BMI is 24.69 (80 divided by 3.24).

A “normal” person’s BMI should be between 19 and 25. If your BMI is over 25 you are overweight. If your BMI is over 30 you are Obese. If your BMI is over 35 you are Morbidly Obese. Anybody with a BMI over 30 is at severe risk of obesity-related illnesses including stroke, heart attack, hypertension, diabetes, and many other nasty sicknesses including various forms of cancer.

Do not be complacent! If your BMI is over 25 you should do something about it before it’s too late. The “obesity epidemic” which is ravaging the world in the 21st Century will kill more people than smoking ever did, will kill more people than cancer, and will become the world’s number 1 cause of premature death by 2020. Don’t become a statistic! Fight the flab: it’s really quite easy once you really DECIDE you want to do it.

To calculate how much weight you need to lose simply work out what weight you need to be to have a BMI around 22 or 23, for a person of your height. THAT is your weight target. Whether you need to lose one stone or six (or ten) don’t despair! It’s perfectly possible - even easy - once you develop the right mindset. In our experience it’s all in your mind. If you TRULY want to lose weight, you do. If you hold any reservations in your mind (something inside your head is blocking you from achieving their goals) then you won’t.

If you have really made up your mind to lose weight, there are only two factors - calories in, and calories out. Calories in is how much you eat. Calories out is how much you burn. You can increase the amount of calories you burn through exercise, and you can decrease the calories you eat through sensible food choices and portion control. SIMPLE!!

(Except of course, nothing in life is ever really simple!)

The best way to burn calories through exercise involves stimulating both your CV system (CV = CardioVascular, i.e. heart and lungs) and your strength system (i.e. all your muscles). CV exercises (like spinning, jogging, swimming, cycling, aerobics, stepping, x-training etc) all burn plenty of calories. You should aim to do a minimum of three hours per week of “panting” (if you’re not breathing hard and really “panting” you’re not working hard enough to burn many calories). Most people simply don’t push hard enough. It’s SO common to see women at gyms, “twiddling” their legs on a machine whilst reading a gossip magazine! That’s not exercise! You need to focus, increase the resistance and get sweating / panting hard. Work at it…

The other essential element of any weight-loss programme is strength training. That’s because building muscle by doing weight training has a double-whammy effect: you burn calories as you’re doing the exercise, you burn calories for 12 hours after the exercise (as your body repairs itself and restocks the muscles) and in the long term the muscle mass you gain helps to boost your metabolic rate, burning calories for you even after the exercise has stopped.

It’s very important not to overlook this element of your training if you aim to lose weight. Try and spend about 75% of your time (say 3 hours per week) doing solid CV exercise, and about 25% of your time (at least one hour per week) doing weights. You will soon begin to feel and look much better…

In terms of how quickly can you lose weight, we usually recommend not too fast- approx 2kg per month is safe enough. That’s only 4 lbs per month, or one pound a week. This level of weight loss is sustainable for a long period of time and will not leave you feeling run down and weak all the time. You need to eat to fuel your workouts, after all, and need strength to exercise at your peak. Diets just don’t work!

The really big question is: are you willing to make the necessary changes to your eating habits? The point is this: exercising regularly is the easy part of weight loss. That’s one hour per day or two at most. It’s what you do for the remaining 23 hours of the day that determine your success or failure.

It’s to do with your relationship with your fridge. It’s to do with your shopping habits. What goes into your supermarket trolley? It starts at the supermarket, and ends up in your trolley, into your mouth and onto your hips. Start making the changes at the supermarket (i.e. DON’T buy that chocolate, crisp bag, or biscuit tin) and the changes will follow at home.

Above all, if you have a slip (those biscuits were just crying out to be eaten I know!) don’t suddenly give it all up and go on a binge. Just laugh it off and begin again. Remember each day you wake up is the beginning of the rest of your life. Any “slips” are now past… you may slip again, but don’t give up. It’s a rocky road to weight loss, but you can travel it. Thousands have done it before you, and thousands will do it again.

There is much more detailed nutritional information available from your qualified Dietician, Nutritionist or Personal Trainer. Stuff relating to the composition of your meals, the timing of your meals, etc. This level of details has no place here, but suffice to say that if you’re burning a bit more (by exercise) and eating a little less, the weight WILL come off! Guaranteed…

Finally: can we target specific areas for weight loss? (e.g. the “bat wings, or the hips)? Sadly the answer is NO. The body is a wonderful machine: self-repairing, infinitely complex and amazing. The body decides where to get it’s energy from. The body decides where to take the fat from. Broadly speaking, the body will burn fat off the places where it was laid down LAST. This means that, for example, if someone developed first a pot belly, then bat wings, when they finally start to address the problem, the bat wings will disappear first, then the belly (i.e. last on, first off…) but even that’s not a hard and fast rule. Don’t worry: if you exercise regularly (and hard enough) and eat sensibly (and little enough) the fat will melt off, and eventually will disappear from all those places you don’t like it!

A. It all depends on whether you were exercising already before becoming pregnant. If you were already exercising, then don’t stop! Most athletes carry on exercising until their 8th month - even two weeks before the due date. Obviously the growing bump becomes heavier and heavier and presents a bigger burden (and creates greater risks) the closer to birth you get. However this can be worked around: high impact sports like running and aerobics should be avoided, but there is very little that heavily-pregnant women can’t do in exercise.

However if you have not been exercising before becoming pregnant then you should NOT start when you first discover that you’re pregnant. That’s because starting a new exercise regime whilst your body is undergoing such major changes could cause you to lose the baby - it’s unlikely, but it is not a risk you should take. Particularly if you’re not already exercising before becoming pregnant you should avoid starting new-to-you high-impact sports like running.

However, it may be safely possible to start a new exercise programme when newly pregnant (even for those who are unfit) but it must be undertaken with even greater caution that usual. It’s vital to start gradually, just one or two sessions per week of very gentle exercises (for example using small weights and low-impact exercises) and only slowly increasing the duration and intensity of the workouts.

These precautions are even more important for newcomers who are newly pregnant. We recommend that newly-pregnant newcomers to exercise should seek the advice of a professionally qualified Personal Trainer who would help mother and baby to stay safe. Doing it on your own if newly pregnant and unfit, without professional advice and guidance, is putting the baby at risk.

One form of exercise that would benefit your abdominal muscles while pregnant is Pilates: that could be started at any time during pregnancy, whilst taking a few common-sense precautions that your Pilates instructor will have been trained to teach you.