Strength training is an important component to fitness, but no one will be able to admire those flat abs and strong biceps if they're hiding under a layer of fat! That's why fat-blasting cardio workouts are important too, and if you're finding yourself struggling with too-slow fat loss, check out these tips for feeding your fat-burning furnace. You'll probably be familiar with a lot of these ideas, like eating breakfast, drinking lots of water, being as active as possible -- but there's some new information there as well:

• Calorie cycling: If you've reduced calories to lose weight, increase your calories by 400 every fourth day. It'll surprise your body into burning more fat, but make sure it's 400 nutritious calories you're eating!
• Break up your workout: If you're having time squeezing in that daily workout, two shorter workouts will work just as well.
• Try hydrotherapy: Drink 32 ounces of super cold water 30 minutes before breakfast in the morning. Apparently, this will force your body to raise it's temperature which will boost your metabolism. You can do it before lunch as well, but you have to be cutting calories for this to work. (Word of caution: I tried this yesterday and the cold water on an empty stomach made me really nauseous for about an hour!)

Has anyone tried any of these tips? Share your success with us!