Duke University Medical Centre find that inactivity rapidly increases visceral fat levels (that's fat in your guts folks) and that it is easily reversed with exercise.

Whilst women tend to accumulate fat most easily around their hips, men accumulate fat most easily around their waist. This is bad. Research has shown that a build up of fat around the waste directly contributes to heart disease and several other nasties that I can't be bothered looking up at the moment.

Traditional wisdom is that when you diet you loose body fat evenly across your body not where you need it most, in the waist. This new research indicates that the most damaging fat can be targeted for removal through exercise and the more exercise the better. Moderate exercise is good, vigorous exercise is better. (Just don't give yourself a heart attack if you haven't done any for a while).

So guys, forget the diet. Eat responsibly and exercise heavily. (If only I could motivate myself to do it!)