No such thing as a ‘beer belly’

There is no such thing as a beer belly. So says author Graeme Hilditch in a new book designed to dispel many of the myths surrounding diets and fitness.

Is Is Just Me Or Are The Sit-Ups A Waste Of Time , published this week, pours scorn on the long-held notion that too much ale is largely to blame for a fat tummy.

Instead, Hilditch - a personal trainer for 10 years - highlights excessive calories, a lack of exercise and the fact that men are more likely to put on weight around the stomach than women as the main reasons.

The book does not stop there either, with Hilditch also raising an eyebrow to many other so-called 'facts' concerning diets and weight loss.

He laughs at the notion that your muscles will turn to fat due to lack of excercise ("it is biologically impossible"), sets the record straight over whether red wine is good for you in moderation ("it can reduce lower blood pressure"), but saves his real contempt for those obsessed with sit-ups - hence the book's confrontational title.

Speaking to the Sunday Herald, he said: "People think because they are making the stomach muscles work, all of a sudden you will shift all the flab and get an amazing six-pack.

"But you have got to be a lot more controlled in what you eat and do high-intensity exercise to help melt the fat away, rather than just performing sit-ups."

Another piece of advice is to throw away the bathroom scales.

He said: "Everybody stands on the bathroom scales to see if they have lost weight and they are a colossal waste of time.

"A lot of people standing on the scales will get despondent as they seem to put on a pound or two, but it is so easy to put on a pound or two over the course of a day."

The point he is trying to make is that so much of what we think we know about dieting is confused or simply wrong.

He said: "It really is quite frustrating seeing the general public so confused about how to lose weight.

"People want this proverbial magical pill; a quick easy fix. A lot of glossy magazines will give the 'lose 6lbs in six days' type diets and everyone will buy the magazine to find out how you do it. But it is not as easy as that."