Supplements you ask?  Waste of money IMHO but if you must, i have some EmptyYourWalletine i can sell you at half price.  Sure creatine, glutamine and BCAAs can help but you can get gains without any of these with proper diet.  Experiment with them all you want. I make 2 suggestions: go a full month and/or finish the entire product before making a decision. that is plenty of time to determine its effects.  Stick to a single product or a very small number of products at on etime. it makes evaluating much easier. Should you cycle? Well looking at my opening statement i should not even discuss this but if you do manage to see some form of gain from a product "it depends."  Me personally i have experienced a modicum of results on creatine but they are short lived once my body adapts, then the gains are no longer there.  Maybe that will not be the case for you. My body may be fooled initially at the wasteland of products i have tried but in a short period they become pointless.  The vast majority of those getting big off of Muscle Tech, BSN, etc are the folk's bank accounts that are selling the products. 

When evaluating a supplement look at it carefully and who is doing the review. HMB for example is a product concocted by EAS.  Most of the glaring reports making fabulous claims are written by, you guessed it EAS scientists.  They may be JUST A TAD bias.

Magazines? Almost a waste of time. Too many caveats: models are all professional body builders; most are probably in their 20s; it is what they do for a living i.e. they have no other J.O.B; and a large contingent take products not offered in magazines or even in this country.  Good source of routines and general fitness equations. "Shredded in X weeks" is not going to happen unless you are already below or near 10% body fat and you are almost to your goal of seeing abs.

If you are 20+% in body fat don't waste your time doing ab work thinking they will show anytime in the near future. 10% body fat is the magic number before them bad boys will ever be seen. You are better off dieting and doing no more ab work than any other body part. concentrate on fat loss.

And look at their diets. They must have their own chef to prepare what they eat. The average schmuck does not have the time to prepare most of these lunch time delacies.  Make a menu realistic with items i purchase at WalMart on my lunch break. THAT i MAY be able to follow. Who the hell eats salmon cakes every night???

Fat loss? Can you target it? Hell no you can't. Stubborn areas will be the last to be shed. Patience.

Diets? Do they work? Certainly. Does one work for everyone? Certainly not. Quick Tip: don't cut both carbs and fats. make it one or the other. you cut both guess what your body burns? You guessed it, protein aka that hard earned muscle. Which should you cut and how much? Regardless of claims there is no magic formula but some general guidleines. It flat out depends on how your body metabolizes what you eat.  I can go on the Vince Gironda diet which is amazingly similar to Atkins and lose weight AND fat. Will i stay on this for a long length of time? Heck no but cutting weight for beach season it is a viable alternative diet. 

You can lose weight and fat by making lifestyle changes: whole wheat products ONLY, most white foods lack nutrician - white bread, potatoes, rice, sphagetti. Chose whole grain alternatives instead. Go 2% in dairy products if you want but remember, you need carbs to balance that loss of fat.  Your body has to burn SOMETHING.

Will eating fat make you fat? Heck no. Eating more calories than you burn CAN make you fat, if you are not properly exercising. So why trim the fat? It has more calories than protein or carbs. Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 or 10 depending on where you read.  1/4lb of 95% hamburger will have fewer calories than 1/4lb of 85% hamburger because it has less fat. It's that simple.

No not all fats are equal and this is a huge discussion. But the general principle is eating fat won't make you fat if the rest of your diet is balanced. I personally can lose more weight with my calorie percentage 40/40/20 of protein/fat/carbs.   And of course not all carbs are equal.  Yet another big discussion.