If you have a gut and you want some nice abs, do two things:

1. First (and this is important): reduce your body fat. The more fat you have, the more work you will have to do to get rid of it before seeing some ab definition. So if you have a belly, diet before hand for some weeks and do some other exercise, like running, to lower your body fat.

2. When you just have a small belly, do lots of sit ups, and do them in a daily basis. Be disciplined and set a time to do this, like before going to bed or right after getting up and get it into your daily routine.

Now, I know sit ups are a pain. There is no easy way to do this, or everyone would have killer abs! But the error most people do is doing the classic sit ups, that strain your back and are very difficult to do on the long run.

My advice is to do sit ups, but not the classic ones. Do the Bicycle sit up, which is more effective and easy to do (start of slow, about 10/day and go from there as far as you can, push yourself, set weekly records):

Of everything I have read, there is no way to spot reduce so you are correct to want to tighten the muscles in that area. I wish I could! The only way I have heard is doing situps and a lot of them. I have read a great book in a series by "Mens Health" called "Fight Fat" http://tr.im/fightfat
The book is a great read, has a bunch of interesting interviews and articles about the subject of keeping fit.

Sit ups and crunches will help build your ab muscles but won't help reveal them by themselves. You have to watch what you eat and also do cardio so that your metabolism is generally pretty active and therefore burning calories including belly fat.

Nice article linked below:

slow-up/slow-down yet steady crunches, side sit-ups, lying down leg lifts, sit-ups on incline bench, brisk steady walking on treadmill with slight incline, upper body cardio (twists, turns - think tae-bo and richard simmons combined)

or you could just try banging a fat-or-ugly chick (one or the other, not both)... less work in my opinion...

... and if you think about it, the chubby ones will try extra hard to satisfy you... as for the ugly ones,... everyone's fuckin' hot in the dark, right?

hope this helps! good luck bro!

Some people will tell you to just do sit-ups, but in general this won't work.

The answer will depend on what body you have. Whether you are a...
- Mesomorph
- Ectomorph
- Endomorph

For Mesomorphs and Endomorphs, you need to really focus on loosing fat. (And the older you get, the more you'll need to focus on these things.) (And note that I said "fat" and not "weight". Many "plans" and "diets" talk about loosing "weight" and they end up having you loose muscle "weight" and water "weight". You want to loose fat!)

To loose fat you need to...

#1: Get enough sleep.

Getting enough sleep is important because when you enter REM sleep you (naturally) produce growth hormone. Growth hormone "cuts" fat.

(Get 6 to 8 hours a night, every night.)

#2: Eat properly.

You need to eat a high protein diet. Eat things like chicken meat and beef. Egg whites are good too. Etc

And get rid of food high in cabs. (No chocolate or candy. No peanut butter. No Soda Pop. Etc etc.)

#3: Do exercises that makes you sweat.

Do 45 min to 1 hr 3 to 7 days a week on the elliptical runner, treadmill, or some other similar machine.

In addition to this, weightlifting can greatly help too (especially if you are a mesomorph).

Now... this is for all 3 of them -- for Mesomorphs, Ectomorphs, and Endomorphs....

#4: Do stomach exercises.

Things like sit-ups, crunches. Doing some hip-flexor exercises can help with the aesthetic of it.

Hit the floor. I can attest to the value of sit-ups. Work your way up to about 100/day and in a few weeks you should start seeing results. It might not be easy, and it's definitely not fun, but sit-ups work.