Feeling your tummy rumble just before you head to bed? Then step away from the kitchen and go to sleep.

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A good friend of mine once lost a significant amount of weight, without once stepping on the scale. I marveled at her ability not to measure her success, except every time she dropped a pant size, of course.

Then, there are the rest of us, the ones who need feedback on a little more regular basis. I step on the scale every single day, not because I'm obsessed, but because the information it gives me is motivating -- positive or negative.

While a bathroom scale is a simple and inexpensive way to track your progress, as Health points out, there's more than one way to skin a cat keep track of the fat you're burning. You can track your BMI, measure your waist circumference, or even get an accurate but expensive DEXA scan.

The scale works for me, though I understand it's only a number and not an indication of my overall fitness. What's your favorite way to track weight loss?

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No, no ... Drew Barrymore isn't chug-a-lugging at the bar every night. She got that out of her system at a very young age, sadly. This is a much healthier activity. Drew is a fan of the Bar Method.

The Bar Method, created by Burr Leonard, is a blend of Pilates, yoga and other exercises. The program is low-impact and helps to reduce body fat while toning muscles. Many of the exercises (here comes the "no duh" moment of the post) focus around bar work.

I think Drew Barrymore looks awesome; she's lean and toned without being skeletal like a few other celebs we know.

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We all have body fat. It's necessary for proper body function. While a healthy percentage of body fat varies greatly, according to the American College of Sports Medicine a healthy range for women under 40 is 20-35%, for men 8-22%. (The ranges change for those over 40 and for fitness standards.)

But a recent study reveals that one fat cell isn't necessarily like another. In obese people, fat cells appear "sick."

Compared to fat cells taken from lean people, the fat cells from obese people were deficient in several ways. For example, the endoplasmic reticulum -- which helps cells synthesize proteins -- was stressed in the fat cells of obese people. This stress of the endoplasmic reticulum could inhibit or change the body's production of protein and could lead to insulin resistance (a contributing factor for obesity).

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