Need to loose my belly and tone it.... Help

[newstart2010]

I am trying to go to the gym 3 times a week, but ends up being twice a week alot of the time. If I do go 3 times it will include 1 class of pilates.

I have just started a swiss ball class which i think will be good for my belly, any other tips?

Sit ups hurt my back, I also really need to loose my hips... help...

Two seperate things here. Firstly you want to lose weight and this will be down to eating a healthy balanced diet. Pilates is great for the core, and there are some great exercises for your abs which you can do on a swiss ball. Functional weight training (things such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, push ups etc, with weights) is great for strengthening your core and developing lean muscle all over, which in turn will increase your metabolism, which combined with a healthy balanced diet will lead to weight loss.

One of the best core exercises is the plank. Also, prone jack knives on the swiss ball. Do sits ups on the swiss ball hurt your back as well?

Sit ups shouldn't hurt your back. It may be because you're doing sit ups, rather than the more productive, and easier, crunches. Sit ups are old fashioned and known to not be that wonderful anyway!

Crunches mean you lie on your back, feet on the floor, knees bent, arms down by your sides, palms down. Then you literally just lift your shoulders and head a tiny, tiny bit - think of it as moving your hands towards your feet while keeping them on the floor. Make sure you are using your stomach muscles to do it, not your back. If you're doing it right, it shouldn't hurt. When your stomach muscles give out on you, that's when your back takes over and it starts hurting. If you're just starting out, it'll take a while, but you'll soon see you can do more of them before your back starts hurting.

You'll have to trust me on this one - sit ups have always hurt my back too, until my dad (who is training to be a personal trainer) taught me how to do crunches properly last year.

Also reverse crunches - same position but lift your feet off the floor and cross over your ankles - shins parallel to the floor IYSWIM. Then try to lift your bum off the floor - even if just a milimetre - that works the muscles at the bottom of your abdoment.

And the plank as the above poster suggested.