Personal Trainer John Fell, Dietician Arlene Normand and Exercise Physiologist Dr Adam Fraser will sort out what is "fact" and what is "fitness fantasy".

We have always been told to stretch before exercise, according to Adam, you need not bother.

"There is no evidence to support the fact stretching before exercise prevents injury, no evidence whatsoever," he said.

• The eight-minute workout
• Space age weight-loss
• The original Kick-Start diet

2. We are often told to exercise three times a week. This is a myth if your goal is to lose weight, according to John.

"Exercising three times a week, sorry, not enough if you want to get results," John said.

Adam said to aim for around 30 minutes each day.

"Most days of the week, five, six days would be perfect," he said.

Super-toned celebrities and the Atkins diet taught us carbohydrates are the enemy but here is some good news for pasta lovers.

"If you have carbohydrates with every meal and you keep your portions small you won't put on weight," Arlene said.

Australians love cooling off with a sports drink, consuming 21 million litres every year, and we are told it is good for us.

"Sports drinks are for athletes," according to Adam.

"The average person does not need them, they simply don't need the calories."

Arlene said the average sports drink has about nine teaspoons of sugar.

"The average person doing a workout certainly doesn't need all the sugar after the workout or during the workout," Arlene said.

We are told nuts are a healthy snack but they are not if you want to lose weight.

A handful of nuts is OK but stay away from nut bars.

"The average nut bar has twice as much fat as a Mars bar and more calories in them," John said.

A common source of confusion among fitness experts is low impact exercise against high impact. Does walking burn more fat than running?

"At the end of high intensity exercise we tend to burn more total fat than at low intensity exercise," Adam said.

John said you are much better off doing short high-intensity bursts of interval training.

"It will also burn more calories in the workout but will increase your metabolism so you will be burning more fat," John said.

Celebrities like Jennifer Anniston swear five to six small meals a day is better than three large meals.

Adam said this is a myth.

"When the British Journal of Nutrition looked at this they found no difference between five or six meals to three meals a day but what it does do is stop us bingeing and craving food," Adam said.

We know some exercise is better than none but do you have to exercise for a certain length of time for it to count?

"This is the biggest myth on the planet and it makes me frustrated because people will listen to that and think 'well, if I can't exercise there's no point'," Adam said.

"You start to burn fat from the first step you take."

Most people think exercising before breakfast is better.

"This is a tricky one, there is a lot of research that shows if you haven't eaten you burn more fat, a greater percentage of fat, although having looked at this it's not really worth the effort," Adam said.

"The absolute impact on you is not that great."

Some women are scared pumping iron could make them too much like a man.

"Complete myth," Adam said.

"Women don't have the testosterone levels to put on a lot of muscle," Adam said.

John said women should not be afraid of weights.

"The idea is keep your weight light, do lots of repetition and change the angle," John said.

Does a lack of sleep or stress lead to weight gain?

The panel is unanimous on this one: the key to better health could be as simple as getting more sleep.

"What we know is people who are overweight tend to sleep less than people who are normal weight," Adam said.

Arlene said fatigue leads to overeating.

"When people are tired they tend to be overweight," Arlene said.

Related links

www.arlenesway.com.au

www.dradamfraser.com