Richard Callender - Exclusive Personal Trainer and Fitness Presenter, London

Remember every gram of alcohol has 7 calories, so if your aim is to have a flat stomach or lose weight, practice acting drunk, mix your alcohol consumption with soft drinks / water or simply cut back on your alcohol intake.

Remember low fat foods, are often laced with sugar, which also has calories, just look at a low fat yogurt. Label reading is important otherwise you are lead to believe much of what you consume is healthy when in fact it is full of additives, preservatives, colourings and many more other ingredients that may affect your ability to lose weight.

Crash dieting, over exercising and fasting will slow down your metabolism and therefore mean your body cannot burn the existing fat properly and will slow your fat burning capabilities. Diets are not long term solutions but a healthier lifestyle incorporating a variation of foods and decisions is.

Never skip a meal, especially breakfast, and eat healthy snacks between meals. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs and the binges that follow, provides consistent energy, and may be the single most effective way to maintain metabolism efficiency.

Eat more Fibre.  Fibre makes us feel full sooner and stays in our stomach longer than other substances we eat, slowing down our rate of digestion and keeping us feeling full longer. Due to its greater fibre content, a single serving of whole grain bread can be more filling than two servings of white bread. Fibre also moves fat through our digestive system faster so that less of it is absorbed.

The body tissue you have today, good or bad, was built almost entirely from the foods you have eaten over the past 6-9 months. Make a commitment today to renew your body composition by changing both the quantity and quality of the foods you consume.

Always remember the energy equation. It is basically the amount of calories taken in versus the amount of calories expended so the aim is to end the day with a neutral or negative value which means you are more likely to lose weight.  Example: you consume 1500 calories and workout enough to burn 1750 calories that day which means your energy equation is -250 which means you are burning fat stores and not just the calories accumulated throughout the day.