There’s been all sorts of hooplah over lovely big Fern’s gastric band deception, but what exactly is a gastric band, can anyone get one and should we want one?

Despite sounding like a snazzy belt, a gastric band is actually a very serious bit of kit that involves a hardcore (and dangerous) operation.

It’s really quite frightening how many medical breakthroughs have come about purely by accident. Though scientists don’t like to talk about it, they owe a great deal to chance.

You pay the world’s most brilliant scientists millions of pounds to find a cure – only for the answer to come about with all the skill of picking the right lottery numbers.

It certainly makes you think.

I mean, for all I know, the disgusting coffee cup which has starting growing some sort of fungus on it because I haven’t washed it for a week could be the key to the next big medical breakthrough.

It’s all well and good to get the inside info on Charlotte Church’s home gym or what type of fruit we should eat to get a flatter stomach, but isn’t it more useful and refreshing to hear how real women diet?

Many of us juggle high-pressure jobs and a busy home life, with barely a second to even think about going to the gym.

We spoke to Ruth Pugh, 22, a support worker from Middlesbrough, about all things diet…

It’s all well and good to get the inside info on Charlotte Church’s home gym or what type of fruit we should eat to get a flatter stomach, but isn’t it more useful and refreshing to hear how real women diet?

Many of us juggle high-pressure jobs and a busy home life, with barely a second to even think about going to the gym.

We asked Leila Day, 23, a student from Huddersfield, to tell us how she stays in shape.

Our guest writer Louise Robertson is back to tell us how to get fit in a very childish way…

With uniform tracksuits pounding away on rows of neatly spaced treadmills, you could be forgiven for thinking the gym is a meeting place for pre-programmed robots.

OK, the gym does work and you get results if you put in the effort, but when did it all get so… well, grown up and boring?

Why not mix it up a bit? Exercise like a kid and have fun at the same time. No, there isn’t a catch, just hours of potentially hilarious, reminiscent, fat burning fun.

It’s all well and good to get the inside info on Charlotte Church’s home gym or what type of fruit we should eat to get a flatter stomach, but isn’t it more useful and refreshing to hear how real women diet?

Many of us juggle high-pressure jobs and a busy home life, with barely a second to even think about going to the gym.

Katy O’Hara, 21, from York, tells us how she stays in shape.

Being a celebrity is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Sure, having more money than God, living the high life and an army of fans has its perks. But being a Hollywood A-lister is not all pink champagne and parties, you know.

It’s all well and good to get the inside info on Charlotte Church’s home gym or what type of fruit we should eat to get a flatter stomach, but isn’t it more useful and refreshing to hear how real women diet?

Many of us juggle high-pressure jobs and a busy home life, with barely a second to even think about going to the gym.

We asked student Jess McCarrick, 20, from Stockton-on-Tees, about diet, fitness and health.

How far would you go in the pursuit of physical perfection?

Would you wash your hair in animal semen, eat placenta, or scrub your face with bird poo - just to make yourself look a little better?

No!? Well, even if you wouldn’t, there are plenty of people who would. In fact, there is a whole industry dedicated to such odd treatments.

You don’t have to spend hours on the treadmill or go on a punishing diet to start getting into shape.

The road to better health can start with adding simple things into your daily routine – like chewing your food longer, taking deeper breaths and cutting down on how much alcohol you thrown down your neck.

Ok, the last one is not that simple. DietPixie’s writers have always been partial to the odd drink – or seven!

Most women have problems with their ‘muffin top’, that unsightly tyre of flab that rests smugly atop our jeans - a constant reminder of the family-sized bag of Maltesers we ate just after lunch.

Unfortunately, flab manages to squeeze its way out in other places. Hands up if you’ve got a fat back? Yes, it sounds strange, but if you’re storing excess fat on your back, it will spill over the edges of a tight top - a second muffin top, if you will.