I had somewhat of a similar dilemma, but just wanted to lose some extra weight (not a beer belly). But first thing to do is cut out all the harmful things from your diet - saturated fats, bad carbs (or at least an excess amount), fats, sugars, salts (in excess), caffeine, sodium, etc. I would stay far away from any beverage other than water and milk (skim if you like it) - I did this and lost 8 lbs. right away! It also is important to eating less and working out more, as mvgolden stated above - try to exercise for at least 30 minutes, 4-5 times a week - this will ensure a good amount of calorie loss. I recommend elipticalling or running, both are very good ways to burn a lot of calories, if you push yourself the right amount. After about a 30 minute cardio-workout do your tonal training, like the sit-ups, push-ups, bicep curls, bench press (whatever you feel comfortable doing) - but remember that when working muscle groups, do not spend day-after-day on the same muscle group - this will not allow you to actually rebuild these muscles, because they will rip and never get a chance to re-heal themselves. Also when doing tonal training, try to do a small amount of weight and a large amount of repetitions - this will ensure more of losing fat, and less of fat turning straight to muscle. I would also recommend eating healthier, but do not starve yourself (like eating a very small amount of calories), because your body will think it's starving itself and you will never lose weight that way - males when trying to lose weight should intake about 1500 to 1800 calories a day, any lessor more than this and you won't lose weight the way you should. Good luck - message me for any questions.