Eating less best way to shake off the flab

"All in one circular motion you're firing your core like no other machine has done before! You'll firm and flatten your stomach in just weeks not months - we guarantee it!"

After the 50th time watching the Ab Circle Pro advert I ordered one of my own. I wanted abs, I wanted no love handles and I wanted a flat, skinny torso. Three minutes a day, I don't see why not?

A month later I had no abs, my love handles were solid and I had a masculine looking waist. Great. The Ab Circle Pro was clearly not for me. I found it was building muscle in all the wrong places rather than helping me lose excess weight.

After several attempts at the quick fix, you couldn't tell my before and after shots apart. I want the shortcut to losing weight, but how do I choose when the media bombard you with options? Decaslim. Fat Blaster. Appetite suppressants. Extreme Burner. Slim-fast. Do they even work?

Work colleagues who had used Decaslim convinced me to try it. It is rated No. 1 in the world for weight loss and has all natural ingredients. I tried it, and it wasn't too bad.

But, of course, there's a catch. Once I had lost a healthy amount of weight I stopped taking the tablets and put all the weight back on. Come on! At $55 a month for 60 tablets, my life savings would be gone within six weeks.

I wasn't looking for a long-term monthly payment; I was looking for long-lasting weight loss, so I continued my search.

Surgery, is that really what I have to look into? Heidi Montag had 10 operations to get her quick-fix body alteration. Now, with large breasts on a petite frame, she suffers from severe back pains and poor posture. The amount of trauma on your body that is caused by surgery is huge.

You may as well get scissors to cut off all your excess skin, then use a vacuum cleaner to suck all the fat out of your stomach and thighs. But then that would be a bit ridiculous when the surgeons do such a tidy job. I decided not to follow through with surgery for obvious reasons - like the cost, risks and my determination to find an easy option that worked for me.

I wasn't having much luck until I came across an article in Woman's Day magazine about how Beyonce keeps on top of her weight. It said that she keeps her famous figure with the help of a lemon detox. I wasn't convinced so I did a bit of research. I found out two things.

First of all, your liver is your body's own detoxifier, and you also need a healthy balance of the seven main food groups. The second thing I found was that the magazine article didn't mention the squats, lunges, cardio, weights, personal trainers and gourmet chefs that help Beyonce to stay in shape.

Then it came to me. It's not the lemon detox that is keeping off the weight, it's the healthy eating and exercising.

No matter what crazy quick fix we all buy into, exercise and healthy eating will always be the best way to lose weight. There is no 100 per cent guarantee with any gimmick that the media push. Why are we going to all these extreme lengths to lose weight and look good when the solution is so simple?

After I considered all the options I realised that I didn't fancy having a solid torso, a long-term financial commitment or having someone massacre my body. So I was relieved to find a way that worked for me.

Next time you're watching TV and the Ab Circle Pro advert comes on, go for a run, make a salad and then decide whether you want to waste three minutes a day twisting your hips to get a man's figure for $199.95.

Francesca Febres-Muir, Eden Campus (Auckland Girls Grammar School)