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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If shedding a few pounds is on your Things To Do list, you may want to etch "Curb Cocktail Habit" in the line just above it, since cutting back on those after-work martinis may help the weight come off.

Downing drinks at happy hour not only gives you a buzz, but it can also be a buzzkill for weight loss efforts. Because alcohol can slow down the body's fat-burning ability and potentially lead to the storage of fat at your waistline, it's a good idea to keep the number of drinks to a minimum.

Plus, any person who's been out late at night, throwing back a few and hanging out with friends, knows what always happens next: pizza. Or whatever else is available at that hour. Alcohol increases appetite, which is also not a good thing when you're trying to stick to a specific diet.

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For quite some time, researchers believed that the tortoise approach of slow and stead truly won the fat-burning race. Working at 65-70 percent of your maximum heart rate (MHR) was typically what was considered to be the ideal "fat-burning zone" (as evidenced by the fact that this very information still appears on some pieces of cardio equipment).

However, this school of thought has been challenged by a number of newer studies, and a growing number of people now subscribe to the idea that shorter, high-intensity interval workouts are much more effective at stripping away fat.

Researchers from Cornell University found that high-intensity intervals burn 30-percent more calories per workout than longer, low- to moderate-intensity sessions. And, a separate study, appearing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed that men who completed 20 weeks of interval training lost nine times more fat than men who followed a more traditional endurance program.

The takeaway? Start ramping up your workout. Try running (or any other form of cardiovascular exercise) for short bursts at a very difficult pace, followed by a minute or two of low-intensity movement. Repeat this process several times for maximum results.

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