If you don't have social support, you won't lose fat. Having social support is the biggest missing factor in most weight loss programs, and that is why people fail.

It's that simple.

So here's what "social support" means, and how to get it.

Social support is probably one of the missing ingredients that people don't realize how important that is to achieve. Not only fitness goals, but really any goals in life. For example, to achieve your business goals you have to have support of other business minded people to help you.

If you want to stop drinking you've got to hang around people that don't drink. In this day and age, our social groups are a lot different now. There's a lot more internet based, for better or for worse, but the positive power of these internet based groups can be huge, especially now as they get more specific.

Before there just used to be fitness forums. Now, there are specific fat loss forums, and female only forums. There are forums specific for moms that are trying to lose body fat.

So, we're able to get more specific now and that way you don't have to go through a lot of various stuff to get to the specific stuff. You just go right to the specific stuff that's helping you with your specific problem. So there's all sorts of good stuff out there on the internet so hopefully people will be able to find it. But these networking sites and forums and that type of stuff are very, very helpful.

Social support means getting at least one person, and preferably a lot more people, to encourage you, check up on you, motivate you, keep you in line, and keep you on track. You need to be accountable to these people. You need to state your goals to these people.

By doing this, you will have a greater chance of success. You can also workout with someone to get the maximum benefits of social support.

According to research published in 2006, working out with someone else who loses fat significantly increases your chance of losing fat.

So stick with winners. Partner up with someone to get help and get their success to rub off on you.

If you can't do that, then get a doctor, trainer, nutritionist, or some professional on your support team. Research shows that being accountable to an authoritative figure also increases your chance for success.

And finally, although there isn't a research study to support me, I know that hanging around the right people will help you lose fat, while spending time with the wrong people will stop you from reaching your goals.

For example, if you continue to hang around beer-drinking, wing-eating friends 4 days of the week, expect to have a beer drinker's body.

Now, I'm not saying you can't have one special night out per week, but I am saying keep it to one night out, and limit the beer and wing intake.

Sacrifices have to be made, but it is a lot easier to make them when you have a social support team that is there helping you choose the right foods and do the right workouts.

Learn the best fat burning workout routines and nutrition tips from Men's Health expert Craig Ballantyne at Turbulence Training.