Work smart, not hard

Well, when I say smart rather than hard, what I really mean is no harder than you need to. According to James, a lot of people who want to lose weight tend to do masses of cardio exercise and neglect to do much in the way of resistance work. But while cardio is definitely good for you, the body repairs itself pdq. Resistance work, on the other hand, means that the body needs to repair itself overnight as it restructures the muscle, which means your metabolism carries on working harder for longer. Not only that, but the more muscle mass you have, the more active your metabolism becomes. So you end up burning more calories overall.

And doing more muscle work doesn't mean that you will look larger. If you work out in the right way for your body, you can make your muscles more efficient without adding any bulk.

The downside, if there is one, is that muscle weighs more than fat. So even though you may be firming up, you may not necessarily see huge results on the scales. Pay just as much attention to the way your clothes fit as to the readout on the bathroom scales.