There’s no doubt running and eating well is a great way to lose weight.

It’s one of the reasons why so many people take up running in the first place.

It can be a long road but with the specific dieting you can make a lot of progress quickly. Here in lies the problem.

Short-term weight loss isn’t conducive to long-term weight loss.

Your friend might have lost five kilos in four weeks by just eating soup but as soon as friend returns to regular eating, they’ll put the weight back on, having decreased their fitness and slowed their metabolism down in the process.

When planning your eating you need to think like an athlete, not a dieter.

The problem with counting kilojoules
Your friend who "works out" at aerobics twice a week might get away with a meager 5000 kilojoules a day; you, runner, cannot.

Depriving yourself of kilojoules will slow your metabolism and sap your energy, damaging your weight-loss and running efforts.

Besides, diets don't work: A July 2008 New England Journal of Medicine study set out to find whether a low-carb, low-fat or Mediterranean diet worked best, and concluded that none were particularly effective.

Losing weight as a runner
While dieters tend to drop weight fast only to regain it, athletes need to focus on slow, steady weight loss.

This will provide energy for training while bolstering your chance of keeping the weight off for good. And don't ditch carbs in an effort to get lean:

Doing so will drain your glycogen supply (the energy in muscles derived from carbs), preventing you from running as long or hard as you want.

Fueling your weight loss
Barbara Lewin, a sports nutritionist, kick-started a client's weight loss by adding a high-quality carb to every meal, plus high-carb snacks like whole-grain crackers and fruit.

Her energy skyrocketed, her workouts improved and she lost weight. Now that's a "diet" we can resolve to follow.