Q: I'm not advocating the following but I would like your opinion. If someone is active lifting heavy weights and doing a moderate amount of intense cardio, but eating lots of red meat, drinking lots of alcohol and smoking how will it affect their health exactly. Lots of young people can get away with eating whatever, drinking too much and even smoking(up to a certain age) without putting on weight and other health problems etc. I was watching a programme and it had an athlete, he was told that as he was very active and used a lot of oxygen he gad to eat more fruit and vegetables than the average person to offset the damage done by free radicals. In other words he had to eat better etc than a non-active person or risk damaging his body more than a person who eat the same way but was not active. A lot of people including this athlete thought that as long as they do not put on weight their diet and lifestyle (alcohol etc) did not matter so much. I notice that you advise people not only to do cardio, lift weights, eat well , but also avoid alcohol, smoking etc. How important is the lifestyle you have outside the gym?

A: Like everything else it's all a matter of degree, of course. An occasional drink is certainly very unlikely to hurt your health or to interfere with either muscle gain or fat loss to any significant degree. But you can be sure that having a few beers every night will hurt you in both respects. The same goes for smoking as well. And yes, young people can 'get away' with more than older people. My responsibility is simply give you the most effective fitness advice and for the vast majority of people, so I advise staying away from alcohol and smoking. Even if you are young, it's a good idea to start building positive habits that will continue benefitting you for decades to come.