Whether you're flying south for Spring Break or just determined to battle the bulge before the heavy winter sweaters come off, tackling the extra weight around your waist should start now.

Don't worry, endless crunches aren't the answer. Though ab and core exercises certainly will tone tummy muscles buried deep under that layer of fat, there are smarter ways that will help you reach your goal by beach time -- like one of these four simple steps to a slimmer waist.

Those steps: adding intervals training to your workout to burn fat, eating five to six small meals a day and cutting out alcohol (hey, it worked for Nick Carter). Finally, you just need to relax. Holding in that tummy might make it seem flatter, but it makes belly breathing harder, which can wear you out.

Finally, when you are ready to tone, try this killer ab workout from Fitz.

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Welcome to the Good, the Fat and the Hungry. I'm Karla and I have been -- or am -- all those things. Here, I will share with you my lifelong struggle with my weight, and I hope you'll follow along on with my determined attempt to lose nearly 40 pounds. I promise to tell you every win and setback along the way every Tuesday and Friday.

Three months post op and my new tummy is a thing of beauty. Dr. Olivier did her thang! She gave me what my gf Taia calls, the hips of life. She means it about her momma, but I'm taking it for my own hips. Dr. Olivier is a bad girl! She did so well in fact, I thought I had a tumor. Fortunately for me, I have not had to walk through my recovery alone. I have had family, friends and neighbors really step up and help me in any way. For all of them, I am grateful. In particular, my next door neighbor and confidante Kim has been with me every step of the way. From drains to scars, she's seen it all. Very early on she became immune to me randomly jerking up my shirt to show her this or that. Last night, my concern was far more severe than anything we had broached thus far. Thanks to episodes of Dr. 90210, she has become the unofficial expert. She's not just my neighbor, she's a friend.

I came home and immediately knocked on her door. In her usual laid back swagger, she answered. In my usual haste, I tell her I need her to come next door and look at me. No surprise to her, she says she'll be over in five minutes. Sure enough, five minutes later she's at the door with snacks in tow, never knowing what to expect entering the private domain of Karla. As I've been known to do, I get right to the point. I immediately jerk my shirt high and say, "Feel this." She presses her fingers into my tummy. She says, "What, Karla?" I say, "Don't you feel that? It shouldn't be that hard. Something must be wrong. Maybe it's a tumor." She says, "Fool, those are your abs!" I say, "What do you mean?" She says, "Thank Jake cause your abs are tight." We fall to pieces laughing at how silly I can be and proceed to watch the Bad Girls club. An impromptu girls night has ensued and I don't have a tumor. What luck.

If you've been blasting through rep after rep of crunches, yet your abs are still M.I.A., it may be time to get off the floor and onto a treadmill.

In order for your six-pack to start popping, you have to reduce the amount of subcutaneous fat it's hiding behind. To do that, adding even more crunches to your ab workout really isn't the answer; while cutting back a bit on your caloric intake and ramping up your cardio workout should make all the difference. The first step in this process is to determine your body fat percentage. Then, use that information to tailor your proper ab-unveiling cardio workout. The following tips from Men's Health should help you along.

• If you have less than 15 percent body fat, do cardio 3 times a week. Results should show in one to two weeks.
• If you have 15-20 percent body fat, do cardio 3-4 times a week. Results should show in 2-3 weeks.

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People often wonder what it takes to get a flat stomach. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent each year on ab-sculpting gizmos and so-called wonder pills, with most of these products doing little to help whittle your waist. On top of that, people spend hours at the gym in efforts to reduce their midsection, sometimes coming up short on their goals. What, then, does a person have to do to get a six-pack?

Despite what so-called fitness pundits may have told you years ago, dropping to the floor and banging out 500 crunches is not the answer. While it is true that performing ab exercise is vital to sculpting your stomach, it won't do the trick by itself. Equally important are diet and fat-burning cardio.

Whether you believe it or not, you actually already have abs. They're there -- trust me. Your job is to make them visible, which is why dropping body fat is crucial. You can choose from any number of cardio programs that we've highlighted in the past here on That's Fit, as well as several great posts on healthy eating that can help get you on your way.

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