It’s time to ditch the diet! Here are some super-easy tips and tricks to help you reach your ideal weight and stay there for life.

Refuelling hazard
The more you exercise, the hungrier you get and so you might eat more or believe you ‘deserve’ to eat more after a good workout. In some cases you might just want to eat more as a reward for having survived the session.

It’s important to eat according to our whole day’s activity level, not just according to how hard you’ve exercised in the gym, particularly if you have a sedentary job.

Turn on the afterburners
Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is the term given to the body’s attempts to recharge and restore itself immediately after a workout, a process that results in additional calorie burn.

Research has shown that high-intensity interval training leads to greater EPOC than steady cardio workouts, so turn up the dial with alternate bouts of maximum effort and rest for serious results. Try the Tabata format – eight periods of 20 secs full-out work followed by 10 secs recovery.

Muscle up to slim down
Lifting heavier weights for fewer reps will promote muscle growth, but don’t worry, you won’t end up getting manly muscles, because women lack the necessary testosterone to get bulky.

The important thing to know, here, is that a kilogram of extra lean tissue will burn an additional 100 calories in 24 hours.

If you consider that a resistance training programme can reasonably be expected to add 3kg of muscle mass to your body, this equates to using up an extra 300 calories a day, just by doing your everyday activities. This adds up to a whopping 14kg of fat loss over a year!