Michael Mosley: How to avoid a horrid hangover

REGARDING your advice last week to do three brisk ten-minute walks a day rather than focus on 10,000 steps: can I do just one 30-minute walk?

IT DOESN’T really matter how you decide to divide up your brisk walks, as long as they add up to roughly 30 minutes and you get your heart rate up. You can do them in five-minute chunks or in a 30-minute burst.

I WANT to do the 5:2 but I don’t have time to cook meals to take to work on fast days. I could cope with meal replacements, though. I see so many on the market and it’s difficult to know how to choose. Could you recommend a range?

LOTS of people find mealreplacement shakes a convenient way to kick-start weight loss. I have tried a few but find that most taste synthetic and are unpleasantly sweet. I will do a bit more testing and get back to you in the New Year about this.