Drinking water. 3 months ago i decided to drink 2 litres of water a day for 6 months. It has greatly affected every physical aspect of my body, i no longer have to drink any coffee, my blood circulation is much better and i have lost 15 pounds. I do the exact same amount of exercise and sit at my desk the same amount of hours. The only difference in my life has been the amount of water that i drink.

This article got me started

(http://mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283)

I would have to say that excersising as well as leaving POP out of your diet has the greatest positive changes in your physique. Of course we all know that if your exercise you will become slimmer and leaving pop out of your diet not only shows a slimmer you, but it replacing pop with water clears your complection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/390606540/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/helga/3249036871/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcgutierrez/705209722/
This needs to be eliminated

In terms of losing weight & mass (quickly) - South Beach Diet - though I felt exhausted and generally hated life in the process. I also gained weight back quickly when I switched off the program (I know, there are phases that are supposed to be more sustainable, but I just didn't enjoy them).

In terms of losing weight & mass (over time) - low fat, lower calorie diet with increased exercise (both weight training and cardiovasular). Simply put, burn more calories than you eat. Gain some muscle mass and cardiovascular health to increase metabolism.

In terms of gaining muscle & mass - Body for Life

I actually gave up all soda and that has been the greatest change. When it comes to keeping a healthy diet I am a sucker for all the new fads. But when I cut out soda completely, I'm talking even diet soda, I saw the greatest improvement. I never got lethargic after that and was more motivated to go for a run or play basketball after work than before. Hence I had an immediate change in physique, not drastic but there was a change.

Basically cutting out soda motivated me to partake in activities that have changed my physique.

Just to clear a few things...

@Sunshine : Exercise isn't a change in diet, although soda (I think that's what you mean?) is... however, if diet soda is your drink of choice, you shouldn't have a problem (however there are plenty of sites that will tell you otherwise).

@Eric : I see what you're saying, but drinking water *isn't* the only change you made. You said you no longer have to drink coffee, so drinking more water/day AND ditching coffee seem to be what changed for you. Are there any other things that drinking that much water affected? (although you are absolutely right, drinking extra water flushes your system crazy well, and all of those benefits can be seen from drinking extra water during the day)

@MrCal : South beach diet is so insanely full of sodium you're almost doing yourself a disservice. It's a short term solution that only works in cycles.

Best bet, @InfoMaven? Honestly, make sure you're getting the right balance of GOOD fat (peanuts, extra virgin olive oil just to name some examples) with GOOD protein (chicken and fish) as well as a protein supplement (whey protein isolate oughta do the trick).

You really wanna lose more weight eating everything you're eating? EAT MORE PROTEIN. Extra Protein has a thermic effect. A fact to note: a gram of carbohydrates has 9 calories and a gram of fat or protein have 4 calories, but with the energy the body uses on breaking protein down into a form it can use, it actually comes out to 2 or 3 calories (depending on protein quality)... from the article cited below:

"In a study published in the American Journal of Physiology, one group was fed a high protein diet (just over one gram per pound of bodyweight per day) while the second group consumed a protein diet near equal to that of the RDA.

"The group eating the high protein diet burned more fat than the group consuming protein near equal to the RDA. One reason for this could be an increased "thermic" effect. The thermic effect of the RDA group was elevated 16% after eating.

However, in the high protein group the thermic effect increased 42% after eating, almost 3 times that of the RDA group.

This thermic effect of digesting your food peaks approsimately one hour after eating. Spreading your daily caloric intake over 6 meals a day, eating every 2 to 3 hours, helps to take advantage of the increased metaboic rate that accompanies eating.

IN OTHER WORDS, the more often you eat, the higher your metabolic rate, i.e. the number of calories your body burns each day.

In addition, by adding more protein to each meal, you also increase your metabolism. Your body requires more energy (i.e. calories) to process protein than it does to digest carbohydrates"

But MAKE SURE you drink at least 8 glasses of water/day... eating a lot of protein is going to (over time) take a toll on your kidneys.

Hope that helped. :)

Well, I drink Water instead of soda. I still drink soda just not as much. I also eat granola bars instead of candy or cookies or any kind of junk food.

The best think I did and Im so happy I did it is to drink a lot of water and exercise 30 min. a day (just walking) and the most important one is stop the junk food!!! and eat more fruits and vegetables. Try it out if you want to posetively change your life.

One word: WATER.

A few years ago I completely cut soda out of my diet. I started drinking only water and green tea. This alone, without changing ANY other aspect of my eating habits at all, made me lose 15 pounds.

Also, drinking 8 glasses of water a day got rid of alllll my acne from puberty. My face has been flawlessly clear ever since.