You see the infomercials almost daily and you think to yourself, "If only I could see the results that these people are getting in the testimonials". You see that a middle aged man or woman has lost in excess of 30lbs. and you just wonder how it can be done.

Take a quick moment and think about all the "quick fix" solutions to weight loss out there and how they always seem to fall short of the expectations you have put on them. How much have you spent on such infomercials? Twenty, fifty,...$100?

It's actually downright insulting for these snake-oil salesmen to push their products on you! However, they are so well put together! It's really a psychological game and these companies play it so well.

So now it's time to get past all the infomercials and fad diets out there and talk about the cold, hard truth behind weight loss, abdominal reduction and fat burning. No gossip, just the science behind what we all need.

First, we need to address the important principle of structuring your workouts. In order to stimulate fat-loss, especially from your stomach, you need to stop wasting so much of your time doing worthless crunches and in the hopes of "spot-reducing" your abdominal fat.

Spot-reduction does not occur because fat loss AND weight loss occur from the body as a whole. Your body is not capable of selecting where it would like to burn fat from.

You can never lose fat from your stomach by exercising that area alone. You must do something much more capable of burning fat from the entire body and that's what we will discuss next!

Now, don't be put off by my bashing on ab exercises. I still believe ab exercises are an important addition to any workout. The point I would like you to run with is that ab exercises are great for strengthening the core area, however, they will not make you burn the most calories for your buck!

Instead, I like to concentrate on what I call the after-burn effect. You see, if you use multi-joint exercises like presses, pulls, and lunges, you will actually end up burning more fat from your belly than by using ab exercises!

I know this may be hard for you to imagine, but these types of exercises cause your body to have an increased metabolic rate for up to 72 hours after you perform them. Think about that!

If you do an intense workout consisting of these multi-joint exercises, you will reap an amazing benefit. During this 48-72 hour post exercise period your body will actually be flooded with fat-burning and muscle building hormones!

So, how do you do it? How do you accomplish this avalanche of fat-burning hormones? Easy, you use exercises like squats, lunges, deadlifts, presses, pulls, AND your favorite ab exercises together. However, your priority is placed on the exercises that are more intense and require more concentration.

This boils down to taking minimal rest periods and ignoring your gym friends' gossip. You need to be intense! Keep track of your rest times and tell your buddies to meet you for food after your amazing fat burning workout!

Second, we need to eat for fat burning. Your nutrition literally has the power to make you burn fat. Of coarse, the exact opposite is true, food can also be the cause of your fat gain just as easily. The key is to use science in your favor to determine which foods should be eaten to accomplish your fat loss.

By following the recommendations of fad diets you will actually keep yourself from burning fat. Imagine that. The very thing that all of the fad diets claim to cure, they actually aid! If you follow the advice of the low-carb diets, soup diets, amazon diets, low-fat diets, and calorie ratio diets, you will only end up gaining fat because they do not understand the science behind fat loss.

None of these fad diets address the fact that a specific hormonal balance within the body is needed in order to burn fat. If this hormonal balance is not achieved, then there's no fat burning!

When you begin to move away from the fad diets and toward a realistic fat burning program you will find that becoming leaner happens automatically. It has to become lean if your hormones are in their proper levels because hormones have the master key to this process!

So the secret to fat loss is essentially eating foods and doing activities that boost your fat burning hormones and limit your "fat adding hormones". This process is not complex and has a definite cause and effect. Remember, stay positive about your weight loss goals and take it one day at a time.