It’s time to take the old beach bag out of storage for the season. When you grab it from your bedroom chest of drawers, however, you cannot help but notice the accumulation of wintery wobble around your waistline.

You grow concerned, and quite rightly so, as designers are still firmly adhering to the ‘less is more’ approach when it comes to fashionable swimwear, and the summer 2011 collection will be no different.

Our need to get in shape over springtime means there are plenty of people out there jockeying for our hard-earned cash. With their help, we can apparently obtain the beach body of a lifetime in return for little to no effort.

Many of the products on offer over the coming months will appeal to our laziness, as we try to maximise our results without tampering too much with the comfortable lifestyle we love so much; indeed, the lifestyle that got us into this state of softness in the first place.

Will you go down the diet road by hiring a nutritionist or ordering the latest celebrity chef diet book? Or will you head down the exercise route by hiring a personal trainer or purchasing a gym membership or home exercise machine?

Many of us will go down the diet route, refusing to break sweat or invest the time required into increasing our activity levels. Many will go down the exercise route, by joining a gym so that they can continue to enjoy life’s naughty dietary pleasures with a clear conscience.

Sadly, today I am the bearer of bad news. Neither of these journeys constitutes the optimum route to your destination; well, not in isolation anyway.

A recent study published last month in the journal entitled Obesity, headed by researcher Anne McTiernan, showed that a combination of the two is far more effective than either strategy alone. The study focused on over 400 overweight, sedentary, post-menopausal women, divided into four research groups.

Participants assigned to the first group performed exercise only: 45 minutes, five days a week. Those assigned to the second group only followed a diet consisting of anywhere between 1,200 and 2,000 calories per day depending on the starting weight of the participant, with less than 30 per cent of the total intake coming from fats.

In group three, participants followed both diet and exercise programmes simultaneously; while in group four the women carried on with their normal routine.

Over a one-year period, the fourth group not surprisingly lost no weight. The exercise-only group lost an average of 2.4 per cent of their starting weight, while the diet-only group lost 8.5 per cent of their original weight.

The reason why the exercise-only group lost less overall weight is because while body fat was shed, muscle mass was maintained, unlike in the diet-only group where both muscle mass and body fat were lost simultaneously.

When muscle mass is maintained, the body remains in an optimum metabolic balance. Muscles are made of functional tissue which requires energy to work and sustain itself.

With more muscle, your body requires more calories for energy, which means you use up more of the calories you consume. If you lose muscle, your body suddenly requires less calories, so you are more likely to end up eating too much, even though you are actually eating less.

This is why when we diet alone, we often put all the weight back on fairly quickly upon cessation of the diet. Since there is less muscle than before, the body requires less calories, so your choice is to either stay on the diet indefinitely, or put on a little muscle by exercising.

This is why the most successful group by far was the third group, who combined both diet and exercise. They enjoyed all the benefits of exercise, including the maintenance of muscle mass, physical fitness and functional strength, combined with the health benefits of a healthier low-fat and calorie-reduced diet.

Apart from coming out in best health, participants in this group enjoyed an overall loss of 10.8 per cent of their original bodyweight, coming mostly from body fat.

So how does this affect us? This crucial information can help us during our pre-summer body transformation blitz to avoid falling into the have-your-cake-and-eat-it trap.

If you are thinking about joining a gym to lose weight so that you can continue to enjoy an un-healthy diet, think again. While this is in fact possible, the sheer amount of exercise you would have to perform simply precludes almost all normal human beings.

If you aren’t prepared to train up to twice a day, six days a week at intensities that would bring an endurance athlete to their knees, then this approach simply will not work.

Instead, try this strategy out for size, and you can rest assured your clothes will fit better too.

Decrease your overall calorie intake and divide it into small. frequent meals. Reduce fat, eliminate sweets and junk food from your diet and ensure you are eating at least a small amount of fresh fruit and vegetables every day.

Combine these healthy dietary modifications with increased daily activity levels. Your weekly activity schedule can incorporate any combination of participation in recreational sports like tennis or five-a-side football, brisk walks, visits to the gym, participation in group fitness classes, or any activity conducted at an intensity you can just about hold a conversation.

Good luck!

info@noble-gym.com