It's been a good week for ...

gym guilt

If the sight of a friend or colleague checking in at the gym on Facebook is enough to sour the taste of that third chocolate ice lolly you were merrily enjoying on the sofa, then fret not: there is a good chance they are lying.

According to a new survey, a quarter of British people admitted they stretch the truth about how much exercise they do while one in 10 tag themselves at gyms on social media but don't actually go.

Yup, it transpires we are a nation of fitness fibbers. Topping the list of falsehoods is exaggerating how many times people claim to work out each week, the distance they run or cycle and the number of sit-ups or press-ups they can do.

Even those who are at the gym aren't always exercising, with 24 per cent owning up to spending more time sitting in the sauna or Jacuzzi than pounding the treadmill.

The biggest lie they are telling? It's only to themselves ...

It's been a bad week for ... Lord Voldemort

You have to feel sorry for Lord Voldemort, the arch-enemy of Harry Potter. Not only is he a social pariah in the magic world, but he now has shamed cyclist Lance Armstrong seeking kinship with him.

In JK Rowling's bestselling books, evil wizard Voldemort is such a chilling character, no-one dares utter his name. Instead they refer to him by epithets such as "You-Know-Who", "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" or "the Dark Lord".

Armstrong, stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and given a lifelong ban from cycling in 2012 for taking performance-enhancing drugs, claimed last week that he felt like Voldemort. "I'm that guy everybody wants to pretend never lived," he said.

The fictional Voldemort was powerful, intelligent and ruthless. In the end, his arrogance led to his downfall. Actually, that does sound uncannily familiar ...

Not everyone agrees. Satirical website NewsThump quotes Voldemort as saying: "Being compared to a drugs cheat and serial liar is really quite offensive you know.

"Murder and torture, yes - but at least I was up-front about what I was doing. None of this bare-faced lying throughout my career."