do sit ups actually tone your stomach?!

2Watch how many soft drinks you consume. Drink plenty of water instead of soda. Water will make it easier to lose weight. Consider flavored water as an alternative if you must.3Do aerobic exercises daily at 30 minutes minimum and include 1-2 days of rest break each week. Anything that brings your heart rate up. Take up dancing, running, tae-bo, swimming,cycling and walking at a good pace.4Eat lots of lean protein (like beans and nuts - have some meat, it is rather good for you as long as you do not eat the fat!), fruits and dark vegetables, and whole grain breads and grains. If you eat "whole wheat" it's like the same as eating white bread; except with white bread all the good fibers have been stripped away. These "whole grains" keep you fuller longer than white breads like cakes, cookies, and sweets. Also, stay away from high-fat dairy products (low-fat dairy products are a great source of protein and riboflavin)5To better work the entire abdominal region, vary your exercises: Crunches work the upper abdomen, leg raises work the lower abdomen, side bends work the obliques (also known as love handles). Sure, you can do 100 daily crunches. But if you've got a layer of fat covering up your ab work then what's the point? You need to burn the top layer of stomach fat to see the changes.6Consider some form of anaerobic exercise as well. Some simple resistance training or light weight lifting will not only help you burn fat more efficiently but tone up the rest of your body as well.7Raising your metabolic rate is crucial. The higher your metabolic rate, the more energy (and thus fat) you'll burn even when you aren't doing anything. Try compound exercises like deadlifts with heavier weights. See "How to Do a Deadlift" for more information.8To increase your metabolic rate, increase the frequency of your meals to 6-8 times a day. Every 2 to 3 hours, ingest a small meal. This increased frequency will put your metabolisim into overdrive. WARNING: Do not over-eat! Small meals only. For greatest effect, only eat carbohydrates before 2:00 p.m, from then on only proteins.9Make sure you don't eat anything 2 hours before you sleep. Your body slows down when you sleep so you can't digest food properly. And if you go to bed really late, don't eat past 9:30 pm, because food eaten after 9:30 pm are normally stored as fat.10Some of the best exercise for achieving flat stomach are Abdominal Crunches, Vaccum Pose and Belly Rubs, Stomach Twisting, Belly Resting Exercise, Russian Twist, Hip Raise Exercise, Dumbbell Side Bends, Leg Lift Exercise, Air Cycling, Knees In and Out, Sit Ups, Inclined Sit Ups, Front Squat, Reverse Crunches, Ball Crunches, Log Roll, Ab Tuck, The Crab Ab Workout, Side Crunches, V Crunches, Chin Up Crunches, Hanging Leg Raise and Hanging Knee Raise.

Sit ups only hit one certain area of your abs. I'd suggest doing a mixture of different Ab exercises to tone your entire "stomach area".

Also if you have fat on your stomach you should be doing other cardiovascular exercise to help you lose the fat, because otherwise you tone your muscles of build a good 6pack/etc but you can't see it because it's hidden by fat.

Situps alone will not tone. The way to tone the stomach is as much if not more about sensible diet and the setups will make the muscle more defined.

Experience.