How I wish such a miracle cream exists. You know what I'm talking about. A cream you can apply on your fatty areas and watch the fat melt away. No exercise or diets required. That's the stuff fantasies are made of.

How about those spas? You know the weight loss centers where women go in fat and come out skinny months later? They use all kinds of high tech machines to massage the fats away.

I've gone to one of those before. Yes, you are put under one of those torture devices that pinch and roll your fat in and attempt to breakdown that fat so that your body flushes it away. They also give you a drink which you take daily, which happens to contain ephedra. I was told to take it for the treatment to work. Ephedra was banned by the FDA in 2004 because it caused increased blood pressure and irregular heart rhythm. Both ephedra and Kava-kava, another slimming herb have been linked to liver failure.

For the treatment to work, to burn the fat away, the client is to skip dinner and take a meal replacemet drink away. On top of that, meals every day throughout the treatment period, lasting for months have to be restricted for the treatments to work. They have impressive photos of success of their treatment, which is probably due to skipping meals and not because the machines successfully massaged the fat away.

There are body wraps that promise instant inch loss. Lots of people look heavier because of water retention so these wraps tackle water retention and not fat. After a wrap, one usually has to go to the toilet to pee. Also, the treatment usually includes time in a steam chamber where you really sweat it out. Inch loss is usually achieved, through the loss of excess water retained in the body.

Another interesting is the way the therapists in some unscrupulous beauty centers measure their clients before and after the treatment. Before treatment, the tape is very loose when she measures the client. After the treatment, she tightens the measuring tape to the max. So how much of the inch loss is due to the client actually losing inches and how much is due to the slack tape?

So back to the question, can fat actually be massaged away?

Fat? No.

But massage can boost your circulation and get a sluggish lymphatic system going. That lymphatic system eliminates toxins more effectively. There is less water retention and you would feel lighter and maybe even look slimmer.

Then there are all sorts of creams, gels and serums from reputable companies who have much to lose should they ever promote snake oil. Some of the best beauty brands promote a range body beauty products to get rid of cellulite.

Cellulite is lumps of fat and fluid that show under your skin. Do these work? There are different schools of thought about what causes cellulite and how to get rid of it. Or even if cellulite really exists in the first place.

Back to getting rid of that fat. So if you can't rub it away, how do you slim down?

My doctor told me the best weight loss surgery for me would be to sew my mouth shut. He had a point. No doubt, you can go for surgery like stomach stapling and liposuction to get rid of the fat, but that is a stop gap measure. Unless you cut down the food intake, there's no way you can keep the excess fat off for good.

To get rid of the fat, there is no short cut. It involves a lifestyle change if you want to lose weight and keep it off. Daily exercise and sticking to a healthy diet are the only real ways to get rid of the fat.