Some people exercise solely to improve and maintain an already-fabulous physique. Others just want to make their bodies look presentable by shedding visceral fat.

If you're looking to get your BMI down as quickly and efficiently as possible, this explainer from an exercise physiologist will help to steer you in the right direction.

The Whole30 diet declares swaths of food off-limits, and sets up ironclad rules about the little that's left. That means it checks a lot of boxes for a fad diet or one that's too draconian to be effective. But there's good here too, enough that it might help if you know what you're in for.

If you trying to change your body weight, sometimes you need to step on a scale to see how things are going. But it gets dispiriting to judge yourself first thing in the morning, celebrating if you lost a pound or feeling like you’ve been doing everything wrong if you gained one.

Breakfast is often said to be the most important meal of the day, but according to a new review out Wednesday in the BMJ, it won’t help you lose weight. The study found no good evidence that regularly eating breakfast helps us cut down on calories or avoid weight gain.

More damning, it even found some evidence that skipping breakfast entirely would be better for our waistlines — although you should probably find better ways to stay fit.

Finding the right motivation to lose weight often comes from others who have similar experiences. Losing weight requires lifestyle changes you can sustain. The initial weight loss is only part of the equation. You need to have a plan in order to maintain your loss.

Only until relatively recently in human evolution have we eaten three meals plus snacks every day.

About five years ago, I weighed in at 110kg - a lot of weight for a 178cm frame. I was unfit, lived a sedentary life and was on my way to many of the same health issues that claimed my father's life. These are the apps and gadgets that made a difference.

A thrusting young buck at work recently approached me to ask for some tips on toning up. He does a lot of exercise but lives pretty generously. That means, whatever his body asks him for, he generously provides. As a result he has cultivated something of a "Dadbod" and has now decided to take action to stem the tide.

Each year, new weight loss diets appear that promise to reveal the ultimate secret of success – if only you buy the book, pills or potions. Fad diets might achieve short-term results but they are difficult to sustain in the long term.

Core exercises will build up your abs, but they do nothing for the layer of fat on top of them. Likewise, no leg exercise can give you slimmer thighs. And yet headlines and tweets about shrinking specific body parts abound -- even when the articles themselves contradict the headline.

The key to maxing out the return on investment (ROI) from your gym session lies in stripping out anything superfluous. You should focus on five exercises, sometimes known as the 'Big 5'. Nothing else.

Excess storage of fat is linked to many different chronic diseases. But some areas of fat storage on the body are worse than others.

Searching for the best way to lose weight? Should the emphasis be on diet, or can the solution be found in the gym? We pitched the science of one against the science of the other in a bid to find out.

We've all seen those transformation photos of people going from pufferfish-like bellies to enviously defined abs. You may have mused, "I wish I could get to that 'After' picture, too." Oh, but you can. Without actually being close to that great a shape, in fact. It's not honest, but marketers do it, and hot damn, you will look fabulous.

Dear Lifehacker, In the past, I've assumed most doctors are charlatans, and only visited them in matter of dire emergency (needing a sick note for work, week-long flu, etc.). I am now reaching a point in my life where my body and mind are getting older and I am reconsidering past decisions.

When you want to lose weight, you have to cut out some of your favourite unhealthy treats. The desire to eat these tasty foods often stems from an underlying desire for something else. According to David Bedrick, writing for Psychology Today, identifying the desire can make dieting a heck of a lot easier.

Every year, for many, many years, I would promise myself I'd lose weight. Sometimes I would make a little headway, but mostly I didn't. Then in 2017, it happened. Like most huge changes, it was actually lots of little choices adding up to something big. Here's how I did it.

We don't often discuss the mental impact of restrictive diets such as Whole30 (no "inflammatory" foods), keto (low carb, high fat) or paleo (foods supposedly eaten during the Palaeolithic era). People like to tout the weight loss and mood-boosting effects of these diets, but experts say they can push some of us toward disordered eating.

Teach 600 people to eat more vegetables and less added sugar for a year, and it turns out they will lose weight. There's nothing super shocking in the new DIETFITS study, but there's a lot to learn about what doesn't matter in dieting.