Ooooh I have a question! How can I do strength training with a bad back? Lifting, bending, pushing, and pulling are all things I can't do yet.... I'm slowly building up my core strength with modified crunches/oblique crunches and core-concentrated leg exercises... but how can I add strength to this? The way I understand exercise:

Cardio burns fat all over. It only burns fat, but it gets rid of it everywhere.
Strength training builds muscle. You can pinpoint where you want to build the muscle, but you can't pinpoint where you want to burn fat. Muscle is important to keep fat off, but it's possible to build muscle under the fat layers, making your fat stick out even more.
Resistence training tones muscles and helps shave fat off, but isn't(?) recommended as a stand-alone exercise program (but what about pilates/yoga/etc?).
Diet is 50%+ of the weight loss MUSTS.