The best health and fitness tips of all time

3 May 2018

The Internet might be a treasure trove of health and fitness advice, but sadly, you can't always be confident which of that advice is sound and where it is instead... well, pseudoscience. In other words, not backed by findings of reliable scientific research.

If you want a straightforward idea of what you should do to get yourself into better shape on both the inside and out, here are what we would consider some of the best tips.

Always eat a proper breakfast

You have probably been told many times that breakfast is the day's most important meal. This bears emphasis - as, according to Turkish-American TV personality Dr Mehmet Oz in words quoted by Shape, skipping that meal "can increase risk for obesity more than fourfold".

Furthermore, you should aim for a balanced breakfast; Health24 recommends a high-fibre breakfast cereal, fresh fruit or fruit juice, a boiled egg, and low-fat milk or yoghurt.

Pursue interval training rather than steady-state cardio

Another incentive to consume a comprehensive breakfast is that it can suitably energise you for that day's exercise regime - which should include, we hasten to add, interval training.

This differs from steady-state cardio in that you would periodically vary your exercises. In doing so, you would make a high-intensity effort before slowing yourself down to recover... and subsequently start over again. 15-20 minutes of this can be as calorie-blasting as an hour of steady-state cardio.

Don't be a core loser

Your body's core is much more than a visible six-pack. It also incorporates muscles that enwrap your whole torso and so stabilise your body, keep you upright and help protect your spine.

Therefore, before each exercise, you should get those muscles working; your back, balance and body position rigidity will all thank you for it. Following this tip will also give you isometric exercise potentially helping expose core muscles to aesthetically pleasing effect, says LIVESTRONG.COM.

Do you mindful? Learn to live in the moment

You might consider life too short to spend much of it focusing on rudimentary tasks. However, in doing so, you could actually help clear worrying thoughts from your mind.

This is an instance of being mindful - and it could really pay dividends for your mental health. If you remain unsure how to approach the challenge of engaging in mindfulness, start by focusing on simple sensations, like feeling the texture of fruit as you pick it up and flavour as you eat the fruit.

You snooze, you lose... weight

If you often struggle to enjoy many hours of slumber, this could be playing havoc on your weight loss efforts. "The brain craves carbohydrates when you're tired, so you could unknowingly sabotage even the best-laid plans," cautions Dr Oz.

Insufficient sleep can also accelerate your ageing - giving you another good reason to nightly aim for at least seven hours of sleep and so let your body restore itself. Getting enough sleep could revitalise you ahead of sampling a London boot camp run by our staff one weekend a month.