I tend to get into the 'science' of this stuff way more than I should . . . so here's some stuff, after reading the whole thread:
-James's suggestion is pretty solid - try it, it's hard but probably worth it, and the logic is solid.
-Ephedrine/caffeine - sure, this stuff can mess you up, but if you feed lab rats their own body weight in water every day for a few months, the water causes cancer. If you don't want to go all the way to the doses in the type of medications described earlier, find sudafed-type medication w/out psuedodrine (you'll want the 'real stuff') and with caffeine - they do exist - and take the recommended doses of these. It's sort of the 'lite' version, and hockey players and baseball players have done it for years to increase workout efficiency and game-time readiness.
-Atkins diet - studies show that, for most people, the reason it works is because it causes you to cut out the majority of 'junk food' in your diet. Seriously - what do most people cut? Chips, sodas, candy, french fries . . . etc. - if you don't want to ditch carbs entirely, then try to limit these types of foods (which is pretty basic diet knowledge anyway - so i guess try to adjust the atkins diet to why you're cutting out foods).
-According to Men's Health, the average male loses 8-10 lbs in three months, just by cutting out juices and sodas from his diet . . .
-Also - don't limit yourself just to cardio work. For people who worked out doing cardio 3 times a week and weight work 3 times (two sessions overlapped, happening in the same day, for four sessions of 1 hr a week) a week, for two months, the average weight loss was in the neighborhood of 3-8% of total body weight, with net gain in muscle mass and a huge loss in bodyfat percentage. For those that just did 5 cardio workouts a week, they lost slightly more overall weight but had much lower cuts in bodyfat and had a net loss in muscle mass. The point? You'll want to keep tone etc., and keep your body "filled out" while losing weight - so add some light weight training to the workout. Even women.
-Also - those that added some form of weight training had much higher metabolic rates than those doing just cardio - this helps you keep weight off, and also you'll continue burning calories even after you've left the gym - you'll get more for less.
-Do exercises that work multiple muscle groups first - this helps get the body going in a workout, and over the initial energy barrier to start burning calories (and thus fat). Make exercises that work one specific group wait to the end. This means start at the squat rack, etc, then move to preacher curls.
-Do your weight work before you do cardio - some people feel more comfortable 'warming up' with their cardio workout first, but studies show that you'll get more out of the cardio work by starting the body off with weight-training exercises - and you'll get more out of the weight training by doing it at the beginning.
OK - well these are mostly from Men's Health and Muscle and Fitness - i'm not a huge lifter or fitness buff by any stretch of the imagination, but i suppose i drink enough beers and eat enough McDonald's during the year that I need to hit the gym to keep the gut at least somewhat in check - and i figure if i'm going to do it, I'd rather find the way to do it efficiently!
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