Just jumping in on the "spot reduction" thing. When people say "spot reduction" is impossible, what that has historically meant is that it is a MYTH that training an area of your body will cause fat loss in that area. I.e. - sit ups burn fat on your abs, triceps exercises burn fat in your arms, etc. When you burn fat through exercise, you burn fat from a systemic viewpoint - so spot reduction through exercise does not work.
To say you can't reduce fat in a specific area through other means is obviously wrong - think of liposuction. Of course I can spot reduce fat on your abs, I can slice you open and pull the fat out physically and sew you up.
It is a good idea to be skeptical of anything that says you can lose fat by taking it. It is an even better idea to be skeptical of anything that says, "Just rub this on your skin and you will lose fat". And it is a REALLY good idea to be skeptical of anything that says, "Rub this on your problem areas and lose fat." I don't blame anyone here.
On the other hand, there probably are ways to make fat loss more effective IF you can target the fat cells. For instance, Glut4 translocation will help your body utilize glycogen better because it helps transport glycogen from your blood into your cells. Increasing Glut4 expression will get more glycogen into cells, and decreasing it will make it harder to get glycogen into cells. Long story short, increasing glut4 in muscle tissue is good for body composition. Increasing glut4 systemically or specifically in fat tissue can be bad for composition. In reverse - what if you can reduce glut4 in fat tissue without effecting muscle tissue? A localized, non-systemic delivery system that can deliver a chemical directly to fat cells through the skin and thus not effect muscle tissue would be an obvious answer....
