Losing my growing belly

Hi folks....I stumbled across this website while researching exercise plans.

I am a 22 year old guy who has always been skinny (twig-like) my whole life...In the last two years, in college, I slowly began to notice that I was getting a beer-belly of sorts.  To be completely honest, throughout most of my life I ate crappy and never worked out much because I didn't have to.  Until recently.  At first it was just a little extra belly, but at some point within the last year I looked at myself and was amazed that I actually had a belly.  It stuck out with pretty much every shirt I wore, and I became very self-conscious and aware of it.  Now it's not HUGE--I wouldn't call myself a "fat" person--but it surely is there and unattractive.  I weigh about 155 pounds currently.

So my plan for this summer was to do whatever I could to get rid of it.  But frankly everyone I talk to tells me to do something different (and the internet has had a ton of different sites saying different things as well) that I don't know what is best or what, if anything, will work.  So I turn to this website!

For the last 2-3 weeks I have started going to the gym and running on the treadmill for 30-35 minutes.  I do it on one of the "interval" settings and generally burn about 275 calories or so.  I try to do this 4-5 times a week, and I was doing well for the first week and a half or so, but then I slipped up and went almost a week without it.  But I am back on it now.

Other than that, I have also started doing one of those 8-minute abs videos every night before bed...It basically involes a lot of crunches.  And I do walk a lot as I live in a major city.

My question for all of you experts is what is my best bet and what is a realistic timeline?  Full disclosure: I don't have the best diet, but I've cut back a lot on unnecessary fried foods/cheese/butter/ice cream, things like that.  I have also given up soda for the last month, which I used to consume in LARGE quantities.  Other than that I still have basically been eating the same stuff, although like I said I have tried to cut back.

So in short, is it realistic to keep my current diet more or less as is, go on the treadmill 4-5 times a week for 30 minutes a shot, do an 8-minute abs workout almost daily, and lose this gut?  Or will it all be futile as long as I maintain this diet?

Thank you in advance for any comments or suggestions, and I look forward to your responses.

First of all- Running on that treadmill won't do anything if you're not in a calorie deficit. When it comes to burning fat, it's going to come down to burning more calories than you consume. Exclude all those fried foods and ice creams, eat clean- Brown rice, veggies, chicken, water, etc. Do that and run in the mornings before you eat. 8 minute abs doesn't exist, don't believe that stuff. Just burn more calories than you consume, consume the right kind of calories and drink plenty of water and your stomach should go away within about 10lbs or so. Afterwords, if you're serious about transforming your body I would suggest a lean bulk.

ACE-CPT, NASM-CPT, AFPA-Nutrition Consultant