Your most Googled fitness questions answered

How do you lose belly fat fast? What is HIIT? Why are people obsessed with the Pioppi diet? Anytime Fitness' Kate Allott answers last year's most Googled fitness questions.

This content is sponsored by Anytime Fitness.

Health and fitness can be a minefield. A 'must-follow' new diet hits the press every other week. One minute crunches will get us washboard abs, the next we should avoid them like the plague. We're told we need to eat specific superfoods with every meal.

This relentless bombardment and sheer volume of information means it comes as little surprise that one in 20 Google searches are now health-related. So, to cut through any confusion, we enlisted the help of Kate Allott, National Fitness Manager at Anytime Fitness, to answer the questions you've been asking Google.

It might surprise you, but belly fat doesn't always come from overeating or a lack of exercise. In fact, much of the time it can be a direct result of stress.

"When we're stressed our bodies release a hormone called cortisol, which not only increases our appetite, but also means we store fat more readily around our mid-section," says Kate.

"Reducing your alcohol intake and making sure you're getting plenty of quality sleep are good places to start, but it's actually dedicating time to 'destress' activities - like yoga, a walk on the beach, going technology-free - on a regular basis that can help us to shift this particular type of fat."

"HIIT stands for high intensity interval training and it's basically a style of workout that's designed for people who are short on time," explains Kate. "One session would typically last between 15 and 30 minutes and it's all about exerting your absolute maximum effort during that period of time.

"Arguably, the workouts themselves tend to be more cardio-based because these are the exercises that raise our heart rate quickly, but HIIT cycles often incorporate resistance exercises, too. They've actually been found to increase our metabolic rate for hours post-workout, meaning you're improving your fitness levels and burning calories for longer, too."

A type of HIIT workout, Tabata has very strict work-to-rest ratios designed to test both the body's anaerobic and endurance capacities.

"Tabata circuits involve 20 seconds or max effort work and 10 seconds rest," says Kate. "There's usually eight rounds per exercise, so each interval lasts four minutes all up and I'd usually recommend maybe trying four or five exercises per session - certainly no more than six."

Low in carbs and high in good fats, the Keto diet is effectively a way of teaching our body to seek out alternative energy sources.

"Carbs produce glucose, which is the easiest and most efficient way for our body to find energy," says Kate. "But when we restrict our carb intake, our body goes into what we call a state of ketosis, where, instead, it begins to break down fats in the liver that would usually just be stored.

"It's not so much removing an energy source like with many diets. It's more re-educating the body and encouraging it to use a different primary fuel source."

"The G Plan diet runs over 21 days and three phases, with the aim of overhauling the body's supply of gut-friendly bacteria," Kate explains.

"Phase one - Rest - lasts five days and involves eliminating any fad, junk foods that have crept into your diet, as well as undergoing a semi-detox. It's not exactly fasting, but I'd recommended you follow a paleo-style diet and drink heaps of water to really give your digestive system a break.

"Phase two is called Re-wild and this is a nine-day process of introducing gut-healthy superfoods and drinks, like miso, sauerkraut, pickles, kombucha, that really nurture your digestive system.

"Then, finally, you enter the week-long Rebalance phase. This is when you start to re-introduce your everyday healthy foods, like meats, fish and so on, while keeping your diet free from any unhealthy foods."

"The 16:8 is a bit of an adaptation from the 5:2 diet and, like its predecessor, it focuses on intermittent (or metabolic) fasting," says Kate. "So, in this case, you would fast for 16 hours of the day and limit your food intake to just eight hours of the time.

"While it's basically the reverse of how our meal cycles would usually operate, the 16:8 is pretty manageable - but it's better just to do it every now and again. Short periods without food are a way of giving our metabolism a kick start, but if you fast too often the body starts to simply use less energy instead, making these food-free intervals much less effective."

Pioppi - a small village in southern Italy - is home to residents with the longest life expectancy in the world - they live roughly 10 years longer than anyone else.

"People started looking at the Pioppi lifestyle and diet to see what exactly they were doing to stay healthy for so long - and it's actually not all that extraordinary," says Kate.

"The way the locals' diet works is that there's a real focus on certain foods which are incorporated into every day's meals. Think apple cider vinegar, black coffee, teas, dark chocolate, Greek yoghurt, oily fish, salads, two to four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil - a glass of red wine a day.

"It's nothing crazy that we haven't heard of before, but the key is that the Pioppians don't ever really stray outside of these staples, whereas we tend to treat them as more of a fad. So we might have a spoonful of apple cider vinegar every day for a week, but then forget about it again. Or we might make the switch to black coffee but revert back to full cream after a few weeks when the key seems to be to stick with them long-term."

This article is bought to you by Anytime Fitness, a network of 24-hour health and fitness clubs. Open 365 days a year, and in 400 locations across Australia, you can look after your health anytime it suits you.