For two months, I posted weekly polls on nutrition and exercise on my Instagram stories, gathered my followers’ responses, then shared my research and own personal view. I saved this collection of bite-sized advice in a highlight called “Fitness Q&As”, and have now edited and converted it into a series of blog posts.
 
I proudly present to you the first 10 questions!
 
This week’s topics include:
 

• Nutrition and health: sugar vs salt, carbs vs fat, being healthy at every size
• Fat loss: resistance training vs cardio, fasted training, and eating during the peri-workout window
• General health: optimal weekly training frequency and eating before bed

​“Full body” and “body part splits” are common terms in the fitness space, used to refer to two different structures for a resistance training program.
 
In full-body training, you usually perform an exercise for each muscle or muscle group in every session.
 
Body part splits target specific muscle groups in each workout. Some of the most popular splits are:
 

• The classic “bro split”, in which you hit one or two muscles or muscle groups per day, for example chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, legs and calves on Wednesday, shoulders and core on Thursday, and arms on Friday;
• An upper-lower split, in which you train the upper body on one day and the lower body the next in an alternating fashion;
• A push-pull-legs split, which distributes pushing and pulling exercises for the upper body, and exercises for the legs across three days.

 
This article will cover the rationale for full-body training and split training; pros and cons of both; and some tips on how to choose the structure that will benefit you the most.

​Growing up, I couldn’t connect with either fitness or my gender identity.
 
I was an overweight teenager, who thought exercise was a means to lose weight and “eating healthy” meant “eating less”.
 
I would look in the mirror and all I could see was rolls of flesh in the wrong places. I would go to PE class and all I could hear were my peers’ jeers and jabs at my chubby shape.
 
I hated to look at myself and I hated physical activity. So I never actually got to know my own body. And, when I did, it was in the most self-destructive, hateful way possible.
 
I have always been an ambitious person. When I set myself a goal, I pursue it to the end of the earth. At 15, I made myself a promise: I would lose my excess weight.

​How long have you been tiptoeing around the idea of getting fit and healthy?
 
How many times have you been put off by the amount of contradictory information available on the internet?
 
How many times have you felt your knowledge was inadequate for you to make progress, so you never got started?
 
You aren’t alone. Countless people may not have easy access to a personal trainer or an online coach, so they postpone their fitness journey indefinitely because they feel like they lack the knowledge and confidence to do it properly.
 
I’m not going to lie. This article isn’t a substitute for a personal trainer’s expertise. No random piece of writing on the internet is, regardless of what the title might tell you.
 
Nevertheless, I’m going to do my best to offer you a couple of tips to get you started on the path of building healthier habits around training and nutrition.