Barbecue fun needn't mean a big tum

Summer is filled with barbeques and long nights spent drinking with friends in beer gardens. This exuberant living can play havoc with your waistline, leaving you looking more porky than perky, more chunk than hunk.

But there are ways to join in the fun and feel like you are indulging without overdoing it. Follow this fool-proof guide to summer living and we’ll have you enjoying yourself quicker than you can say “six pack”.

1. Most men like meat. Fact. But remember. Naked is always best. You can easily remove the skin from a piece of chicken without anyone seeing. Other good choices include the leanest cuts of beef and pork. Sirloin and fillet steaks tend to be the healthier choices. Throw a slab of steak on the barbeque, wait until it is suitably cremated (or pink if you are going gourmet) and place it into a ciabatta roll with some red onion lightly fried in olive oil with some balsamic vinegar. Try to resist the urge to smother it in the red stuff – tomato sauce is often high in sugar.

2. Don’t believe the hype. Bread can be good for you. Of course, if you eat a whole loaf, you might look as round and bloated as a beach ball but in normal daily quantities bread will not cause you to put on weight. In fact, it should be seen as a versatile low fat food, which can be used as an accompaniment to a meal, for making sandwiches or even puddings. And there aren’t many foods you can say that about are there? You do need to watch what you put on it though as many spreads and fillings can be high in fat. Try having some bread with olive spread as an accompaniment to your barbeque- there are after 200 types after all.

3. It’s easy to over-eat at a barbeque but there are some simple ways around it. If you want a burger then have one, just make sure it is a ¼ pounder rather than a ½ pounder. Likewise, sausages with a low meat content that shrivel up and end up looking like an overcooked chipolata probably won’t be doing you any good. Opt for herby sausages with high meat content and a lot of flavour so that you aren’t tempted to add extra calories and fat with large dollops of condiments.

4. Fill up on grilled vegetable kebabs, but if you really can’t do without meat, then add some chicken. For a carb fix, a jacket potato wrapped in tin foil cooks really well on the barbeque. Just add some low sugar/salt baked beans with a splash of barbeque sauce mixed into them and add a small sprinkling of cheese.

But it’s not all about eating and drinking. Summertime presents the perfect opportunity for outdoor exercising. But what do you do when using your girlfriend to do bench presses just doesn’t seem appropriate?

A kick about with mates is always a good way to pass the time and impress the ladies with your ball skills while you are waiting for your steaks to cook. Frisbee is also another good option- just make sure it doesn’t end up in your other half’s wine glass – that’s not likely to impress her very much.