Farah Dutson - Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach

Farah Dutson - Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach and Consultant Optometrist
Empowering you to live your best life through exercise and nutrition.

Strengthen microbiome and anti inflammatory profile, regulate hormones, lose weight and gain muscle

A client messaged me last week. Mastectomy coming up, lymph nodes to be removed, already told the 5lb lifting rule for l...
09/08/2026

A client messaged me last week. Mastectomy coming up, lymph nodes to be removed, already told the 5lb lifting rule for life. It’s advice that’s been passed down for decades in breast cancer recovery, based on caution rather than research.

⭐️Nobody ever tested whether 5lb was actually the safe number for lymphedema risk. It stuck because nobody had studied what happened when women lifted more after lymph node removal.

⭐️That changed in 2009, when the PAL trial was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed by a second trial in JAMA. In the JAMA trial, 154 women who’d had lymph nodes removed were split into a supervised weight lifting group and a no-exercise group. A year later, 11% of the lifting group had developed lymphedema, compared with 17% of the group who didn’t lift.

⭐️Women with five or more nodes removed, the highest risk group for breast cancer related lymphedema, saw the biggest benefit of all, 7% versus 22%.

⭐️In the NEJM trial, 141 women who already had lymphedema did twice weekly progressive resistance training with no upper limit on load. Their swelling didn’t increase, and flare-ups went down. The muscle itself is part of why. Every contraction acts like a pump, moving fluid through the lymphatic system instead of letting it collect.

⭐️None of this means lifting heavy on day three after surgery. Early recovery from a mastectomy or lymph node dissection needs its own staged approach, built around your surgery and your timeline.

⭐️If you’ve had lymph nodes removed and been told this too, you’re not the only one asking. Comment “Book” or drop me a DM and we’ll go through what’s actually right for you.

doi.org/10.1056/ NEJMoa0810118 and doi.org/10.1001/ jama.2010.1837,

07/08/2026

Why am I still so tired after chemotherapy?

Post-chemotherapy fatigue for breast cancer isn’t just about “feeling tired.”

⭐️Chemotherapy can affect how your body produces energy by disrupting mitochondrial function, and it can also reduce red blood cell production, meaning less oxygen reaches your muscles and tissues.

That’s why fatigue after breast cancer treatment can persist, even when treatment has finished.

⭐️The encouraging news is that research shows appropriately prescribed resistance training and aerobic exercise can help improve mitochondrial function, increase your body’s capacity to produce energy and support your recovery over time.

This isn’t about exercising harder.

⭐️It’s about exercising smarter.

The goal isn’t to push through fatigue, it’s to gradually rebuild your body’s energy systems in a way that supports healing rather than adding more stress.

⭐️Have you experienced ongoing fatigue after chemotherapy?
And does this explanation help make sense of what your body has been feeling, comment below ⬇️

04/08/2026

You may disagree with me, but I think every woman on an aromatase inhibitor should have her bone density checked before treatment starts, not after damage shows up.

⭐️Letrazole, zoladex, exemestane all lower oestrogen dramatically and that acceleration in bone loss starts from day one. Right now, most women only get scanned once problem is already visible on a follow-up test. By then you’re managing loss, not preventing it.

A baseline DEXA or REMS. scan before treatment starts gives you and your oncology team a real number to work from. Something to measure against, instead of finding out too late.

⭐️Did your oncology team offer you a scan before treatment started, or did you have to ask?

Follow for clear, science-backed information on breast cancer recovery and osteoporosis.

Breast cancer recovery and osteoporosis exercise guidance. Had a comment on my last post that I want to share and it’s t...
31/07/2026

Breast cancer recovery and osteoporosis exercise guidance. Had a comment on my last post that I want to share and it’s the exact thing running through most of my clients’ minds when they start with me. Swipe through for what the research actually shows on exercise, recurrence risk and myokines.

⭐️If you’re going through breast cancer recovery and osteoporosis with no real exercise or nutrition guidance and need actionable next steps, DM me or comment “Book”

https://.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/
PMC7071977/
https://doi.org/
10.1158/1055-9965.epi-24-1798
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
piї/S1462388922000709
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/
РMC11547039/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
РMC9395336/
https://oncodaily.com/oncolibrary/
radiotherapy/anti-cancer-myokines

27/07/2026

SKINNY IS EVERYWHERE AND AFTER BREAST CANCER this can feel overwhelming.

The pressure to lose weight fast.
To get your old body back.
To make yourself smaller again.

⭐️But skinny doesn’t protect your bones.

⭐️And being lighter without enough muscle doesn’t protect you long-term either.

Especially when you’re taking Aromatase inhibitors and / or Zoladex or Tamoxifen in perimenopause where the sudden loss of oestrogen already increases the risk of bone loss.

Fast weight loss can mean:

1.Less load through the bones
= less stimulation for bone strength

2.Muscle loss
= lower protection as you age

3.More stress on the body
= poorer recovery and resilience

⭐️And when women are under-fuelling, over-exercising and chasing rapid fat loss
they often end up weaker, not healthier.

Most of my clients don’t need more restriction.

They need:

✔ Structure
✔ Clear programming
✔ Accountability
✔ A sustainable plan that supports muscle, metabolism, gut health and bone health

⭐️Recovery shouldn’t just focus on making your body smaller.

It should focus on making your body stronger.

STRONGER. NOURISHED. SUSTAINABLE.

⭐️Do you feel the pressure to lose weight?

14/07/2026

Breast cancer exercise can make a huge difference during treatment, especially if you’ve started aromatase inhibitors or endocrine therapy.

One of my clients came to me before her planned double mastectomy because she wanted to build strength before surgery and prepare her body for treatment.

⭐️Then everything changed.

Her surgery was delayed after an insurance issue the night before, and she was started on an aromatase inhibitor much sooner than expected.

⭐️Within days she experienced joint aches, poor sleep, increased stress and something many women don’t expect…

Her appetite disappeared.

⭐️Because we’d been tracking her nutrition, we could see she was eating around 1,000 calories a day, sometimes even less!!

Instead of telling her to “just eat whatever you fancy”, we created a strategy.

We focused on making her first meal of the day count.

Protein.

Fibre.

Nutrients.

⭐️One simple change was using 0% Greek yogurt. Not because fat is bad, but because I didn’t want such a filling breakfast that she’d miss lunch altogether while her appetite was low.

⭐️We also created a Plan B for movement.

On the days fatigue was higher, she didn’t have to skip exercise completely.

She had a shorter workout, a walk, or a mobility session ready to go.

⭐️Something that made us both smile was that when she searched online for ways to reduce aromatase inhibitor joint pain, the same recommendation kept appearing…

Exercise.

Today she’s managing the aches better, feels mentally clearer and is moving into the next stage of treatment with confidence.

Follow for breast cancer recovery, osteoporosis & menopause help.
DM me if you need some help

Can’t beat summer in London.BST Hyde Park for Maroon 5 and OneRepublic, courtesy of my daughter who surprised me with ti...
12/07/2026

Can’t beat summer in London.

BST Hyde Park for Maroon 5 and OneRepublic, courtesy of my daughter who surprised me with tickets at Christmas. Years of subjecting her to Maroon 5 CDs in the car paid off!

Filmed some new exercises with my excellent videographer .
Strawberry tea at the Langham, then somehow ending up part of a small gig down on the South Bank with Joy Anonymous

Need to find a No Doubt concert now Lily!

11/07/2026

Exercise after breast cancer: one session suppressed cancer cell growth by up to 29%.

A 2025 study published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment took 32 breast cancer survivors and randomly allocated them to a single session of either resistance training or HIIT.

⭐️Blood was drawn before, immediately after and 30 minutes after. Then it was applied to live triple-negative breast cancer cells in the lab.The results were tracked for 72 hours.

Both groups raised decorin, SPARC, and IL-6, the anti-cancer proteins your muscles produce when they contract under load, by between 9 and 47% after just one session.

HIIT produced greater cancer cell suppression immediately after exercise, up to 29%.

Resistance training produced a more sustained myokine response at the 30-minute mark, with oncostatin M still elevated when the HIIT group’s had already dropped.

⭐️Neither was superior overall. They worked differently, and they worked together.

Cancer cell growth was reduced by up to 29%.

Not a program. Not months of training. One session.

This is why the women I work with do both. If you’re only doing one, you’re only getting part of the picture, and when you’re in breast cancer recovery, the full picture is the point.

⭐️If no one has told you what your training should actually look like in breast cancer recovery, during treatment and you’ve now been given an osteoporosis or osteopenia diagnosis and you don’t know where to start, I offer a breast cancer recovery and osteoporosis call.

⭐️The £75 consultation is one hour. Your history, your treatment, your body. A clear plan for what comes next.
Comment: Book, the link or look up:

https://farahduston-consultation.lovable.app/

PMID: 10.1007/s10549-025-07772-w

01/07/2026

If you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia after breast cancer, it’s important to understand why your oncologist may have recommended a bone medication.

⭐️Bone loss after breast cancer treatment is often very different from age-related bone loss. Treatments such as aromatase inhibitors, chemotherapy-induced menopause and ovarian suppression can accelerate bone loss, which is why many women are advised to start medication alongside lifestyle changes.

⭐️Strength training is one of the most powerful things you can do for your bones, but it takes time to learn good technique, progressively increase load, and build enough strength to provide a meaningful stimulus for bone.

For many women, it’s not bone medication OR strength training.

⭐️It’s bone medication AND strength training, with each playing a different role in protecting your long-term bone health.

If you’re unsure why you’ve been prescribed a bone medication, or you’re trying to work out how to exercise safely with osteoporosis or osteopenia after breast cancer, that’s exactly what I help women navigate in my 1:1 consultations.

⭐️Learn more here below or comment: BOOK for the link
https://farahduston-consultation.lovable.app

For years, the conversation around osteoporosis focused almost entirely on improving bone density.Bone density still mat...
28/06/2026

For years, the conversation around osteoporosis focused almost entirely on improving bone density.

Bone density still matters.

But today we understand much more about what contributes to fracture risk.

A DEXA scan tells us about your bones.

It doesn’t tell us about your strength, balance, reaction time, mobility, power, or physical resilience.

Those qualities influence how you respond when you trip or lose your balance and they can affect whether a fall results in a fracture.

That’s why I don’t believe exercise should be one-size-fits-all.

Your programme should reflect your medical history, fracture risk, spinal health, breast cancer treatment (if applicable), medications, and your current physical capacity.

If your T-score hasn’t improved but you’re stronger, moving better, lifting heavier, and feeling more confident, don’t overlook that progress.

You’re building resilience and that’s worth celebrating.

Follow for science backed, realistic breast cancer recovery, osteoporosis and menopause help

inhibitor

Tell me, have we moved on from just the T score?

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