The first and, by far, most important thing for toning stomach muscles is nutrition! Now, I could write a whole article (or book) on nutrition, but I will keep things simple here. Nutrition accounts for about 75% of your results...without proper nutrition you will never be successful at toning stomach muscles (your abs). You could do 500 crunches, sit ups, leg raises, etc every day, but if you don't get your nutrition in line you are wasting your time!

Everybody has ab muscles, but only those who have a low enough body fat percentage actually have a visible six pack. So, if you have a layer of adipose tissue (fat!) around your midsection you won't see your abs. The first thing you need to do to be successful in toning stomach muscles is to cut back your calories so you can start burning body fat.

When I say cut back the calories, I don't mean go on some crazy fad/crash diet. They don't work and you will most likely put the weight back on once you continue your normal diet. What you need to do is eat less of everything you are eating now. Smaller portion sizes and healthier food (fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats/protein) is a good place to start.

The second most important thing in toning stomach muscles is to work your butt off in the gym! The harder you work, the more calories you burn. It's as simple as that. Don't get caught up in the magical "fat burning zone." The harder you work, the higher you heart rate gets and the more calories you burn. Your workouts should be high intensity with short rest periods and should focus on large muscle groups. Spending time on your biceps and triceps are all good and well, but they are small muscles and require relatively small amounts of energy to work and maintain.

The third most important thing in toning stomach muscles is the way in which you train your abs. Of course, you need to exercise your abs when toning stomach areas to build and develop those muscles, but how you train those muscles is key.

Let me ask you a question...when you are trying to develop your chest, biceps, legs, shoulders, etc do you do 150 reps? No (at least I hope not!), you do 15-50 reps (total) in a workout while using some kind of resistance. The same goes for abs. To truly develop your ab muscles, you need to train them using some kind of resistance. Crunches and sit ups are good for beginners, but training with some kind of resistance will stimulate those muscles much better and quicker. For example, leg lifts (done properly) and cable crunches (done properly) will provide a much better stimulus than 150 crunches/sit ups.

There you have it! When it comes to toning stomach muscles these are the three most important things!