What Is the Best Gym Equipment to Get Rid of Belly Fat?

If you hope those endless reps on the ab machine will slim your tummy in time for swimsuit season, you may be disappointed. While a healthy diet coupled with regular exercise can reduce your overall body-fat percentage, there's no magical cure for belly fat. Spot reducing your belly might be impossible, but you can still use a combination of exercises to burn fat and tone your abdominals, which can lead to a trimmer waistline and a slimmer appearance.

Lose excess body fat and improve your overall fitness level by climbing aboard one of your gym's cardio machines. Treadmills burn the most calories -- between 600 and 1,200 per hour of running, depending on your body weight. Increase the speed and incline to burn even more calories. Elliptical and stationary bicycles come at a close second as major calorie burners. Elliptical workouts burn between 700 and 900 calories per hour, while stationary bikes burn 500 to 1,000, depending on your speed. To burn maximum fat, make sure to work out at a moderate intensity for at least 20 minutes on your cardio machine of choice.

Tone and strengthen your tummy muscles with weight machines that focus on your abs and core. Ab crunch machines typically involve bending forward against the resistance of weights to strengthen the muscles in your stomach. Upper-body weight machines like the lat pulldown and the shoulder press can also improve your posture, which will give your stomach and waist a slimmer appearance. According to certified personal trainer, Marc Perry, strength training also boosts your resting metabolism, leading to increased calorie burns and fat loss even between workouts.

Rowing machines combine the benefits of both cardio and weight machines. The rowing motion strengthens and tones your abs, back, arms and chest while burning up to 1,000 calories per hour, according to fitness expert Ben Greenfield of the Huffington Post. Make sure to keep your abdominals engaged and pulled in as you row to increase the effectiveness of your workout.

Use inflatable stability balls for crunches, situps or planks to tone your midsection while improving your core strength and balance. Doing standing twists, squats and crunches with weighted medicine balls held in front of your chest can also be effective tools for conditioning your abs and obliques. Be careful not to use balls that weigh more than you can reasonably lift without straining your back.

Shedding pounds and losing belly fat takes time and discipline. If you're struggling to reach your goals or want guidance using gym equipment, a personal trainer can help you choose exercises that are best for you. A trainer will also assess your form on these machines to make sure you are performing exercises safely and correctly.