Aerobic exercise puts the focus on raising your heart rate, burning calories and forcing you to break a sweat, not on burning belly fat or tightening your midsection. However, aerobic activity is actually the best way to trim down a rotund belly because it stimulates overall weight loss more effectively than situps or crunches. Check with your health care professional before making changes in your exercise plan.
Calories
Losing belly fat is about losing weight over your whole body, which requires you to consistently burn more calories than you consume. In that respect, aerobics takes the cake. It burns more calories per hour than strength training or flexibility exercises, so it's optimal for getting rid of fat. A side-by-side calorie comparison gives the lowdown: according to the HealthStatus website, an hour of crunches and situps burns only about 325 calories for a 160-lb. person, but an hour of jogging burns nearly 600 calories, according to MayoClinic.com.
Types
Any kind of aerobics will get your heart pumping, since aerobic activity by definition requires oxygen to complete. However, some types are more effective than others at burning calories and encouraging fat loss. Specifically, vigorous exercises are among the most efficient. They include running, sprinting and jumping rope. Plyometric exercises, which combine strength training with aerobics, can also help. These include such as mountain climbers, plank jumping jacks, lateral jumps and jumping lunges.
Toning
If your goal is a six-pack, you will have to do more than aerobics. Muscle definition and toning come with regular strength-training sessions, and aerobic exercise doesn't have the same effects. Once you lose weight and much of the fat off your belly, adopt a regular routine of ab and core strengthening exercises. Do moves that work many muscles at once for faster improvement and muscle development, such as the plank, the abdominal bridge and the quadruped.
Considerations
If you suffer from a chronic health condition, have an injury, haven't been active for a long time or are obese, it's not safe to participate in vigorous exercise without your doctor's approval. Light-impact and moderate aerobics also burn belly fat, albeit at a slower pace, so if you need to build up to more demanding activities, start with something slower and progress naturally.
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