Water
Replacing some or all of your beverage intake with water can help reduce caloric intake by a lot (assuming you consume a lot of non-water drinks). An exception to this would be sports drinks during your workout/run. The calories in sports drink will help you run at a higher level and allow you to workout at a higher performance level, which over all improves your body.
Breakfast!
Breakfast is often skipped by most people, but I can't stress just how important it is! Morning is usually a high caloric demand, as you've gone upwards of 10 hours without anything to eat. Eating breakfast is shown to reduce caloric intake later on during the day, and may also increase your activity level by giving you energy in the morning. A University of Massachusetts study found that people who regularly skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be overweight than those who eat it most mornings. Your net benefit of eating breakfast should be fewer total calories consumed and more calories burned throughout the day.
Grazing and Smaller Portions
Eating 5 or 6 smaller meals a day is said to match food intake with energy needs. Some people believe eating more frequently will boost metabolism which in turn helps weight loss. Of course there are studies that back up those claims, just as there are studies that refute it. The bottom line is, diet and exercise play a huge role in the maintenance of fat-free mass and resting metabolic rate during weight loss.
One study from The British Journal of Nutrition involved groups of overweight men and women who were randomly assigned to very strict low-calorie diets and followed for eight weeks. Each subject consumed the same number of calories per day, but one group took three meals a day and the other six. Both groups lost significant and equivalent amounts of weight. There was no different between them in fat loss appetite control, or measurements of hormones that signal hunger and satiety. As long as total caloric and nutrient intake stays the same, then metabolism, at the end of the day, will stay the same.
Proper Workout Fuel
One of the biggest mistakes runners pursuing weight loss make, is avoiding to take nutrition before and during workouts for fear of "nullifying" the calorie burning they are doing during workout. Runners that don't fuel their workout/run properly via pre-workout meal or sports drink/gel and water during the run will consume an equal number of calories in other forms during the day. So it's best to use those calories when they are most needed; during a workout!
AaronMFJ
