You burn additional calories after a workout session without even trying — which is sort of like a buy one, get one free deal at the supermarket. This concept of continuing to burn extra calories long after you’ve left the gym is called “afterburn.” The amount of calories you burn depends on how long and how hard you work out in the first place.

You’re likely to get the greatest afterburn from a long, hard weight-training workout. In one study, fit men who completed a super-high intensity, 90-minute strength workout, performing 60 sets with little rest in between, experienced an 11 percent metabolism increase for about two hours after the workout. The next morning, 15 hours after the workout, their metabolism was still elevated by a substantial 9 percent, which translated into about 150 extra calories burned. While these numbers are impressive, the workouts were far longer and more strenuous than most people can handle or tolerate on a regular basis without injury or burnout. During a more typical workout — say, three sets of ten exercises — researchers say a generous guesstimate for afterburn add up to no more than 50 to 75 calories total.

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It’s arguably the healthiest diet in the world. The Mediterranean diet – which emphasizes fruit and vegetables, grains, nuts and olive oil – is recognized as the gold standard for promoting good health.

The diet helps guard against heart disease, certain cancers, obesity, diabetes, asthma, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. And it’s been shown to increase life expectancy.

Now, after reviewing 50 studies conducted on more than 500,000 people, researchers say the diet substantially lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome and is highly protective against all the risk factors that cause the disorder.

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In 79 fabulous years, she looked death in the eye countless times and lived to tell the tale.

But yesterday, after a life as dramatic as any movie script, Elizabeth Taylor’s battle was over.

She died of heart failure in hospital, with her four children at her side. And when the New York Times paid tribute to Hollywood’s last movie goddess, it had to admit that Miss Taylor had actually outlived the obituary writer by six years.

The Oscar-winning actress spent the final six weeks of her life at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. She had been admitted after her weight plummeted to less than 98lb and the heart failure diagnosed in 2004 threatened to overwhelm her.

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If you read this column, it’s likely you have a lot in common with Julia Roberts. She’s over 40 (42), she’s incredibly busy, and she’s got a bunch of kids. Her metabolism is slowing just like the rest of ours, and after two pregnancies, her shape doesn’t bounce back as fast as it might have a decade ago. Still, she’s got a body a 30-year-old would kill for.

To find out how she does it, I spoke with her trainer, Kathy Kaehler. “Julia likes step aerobics so to modify her workout in her 40s, I ramped up the intensity by adding two-pound dumbbells,” she said. “The extra weight pushes her heart to work harder so she burns more calories in the same amount of time — and the resistance helps maintain muscle in her upper body. It also helps that for all the years I have known Julia, whether I am working with her or not, she finds the time to make exercise a priority.”

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A drug to treat diabetes, Actos, would be a “sensible alternative” to one which was banned last year, researchers have said.

Avandia, also known as rosiglitazone, was suspended by authorities in Europe, but is still available in the United States and Canada.

The study published on the BMJ website said patients taking Actos had fewer heart problems.

Diabetes UK said Actos was a very effective treatment.

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Whether you’re training for your first 5K race or your umpteenth half-marathon, or if you’re simply wanting to shed that winter weight, it’s important to develop an eating strategy that will help you run your best.

Poor eating habits – even seemingly small mistakes – can sabotage your running and undermine your diet, too. To get into peak running form, it’s important to watch for – and avoid – these common diet blunders.

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If you usually enjoy an appetizer before your main course, you might want to rethink your order.

Consider that most starters at full-service restaurant chains deliver at least 500 calories, and many clock in at over 1,000. Add a main course and a drink and you’ll be lucky to walk out for less than 2,000 calories.

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Kylie Minogue has told an Australian TV programme about her “rotten, dark moments” after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005.

The 42-year-old broke down in tears as she told the Sunday Night programme about how she coped with the disease.

Kylie Minogue celebrated five years of being given the all-clear at the end of February.

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A 45-minute catnap helps lower blood pressure, American researchers reported last week. They said a daytime snooze could improve heart health, particularly if you’re not getting as much sleep as you should at night.

This follows a recent six-year Greek study which found that people who took a 30-minute siesta at least three times a week appeared to have a 37 per cent lower risk of heart-related death.

The theory is that napping, by encouraging you to relax, reduces blood pressure.

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Actor Charlie Sheen has been fired from the hit US sitcom Two and a Half Men by Warner Bros Television.

The studio said it had acted after “careful consideration”. The news comes amid a frenzy of US media reports on Sheen’s controversial personal life.

No decision has been made on the future of the television series, a spokesman for Warner Bros said on Monday.

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