The primary reason many people want to lose weight usually has a lot to do with improved appearance and nothing looks better than a small waist. There are exercises that you can perform that specifically target this part of your body and can help you to decrease the size of your waist even if you have not lost any weight. This is one of the big tricks that the old time body builders used to use to give themselves such small waists and symmetrical physiques. The good news is that in addition to giving you a smaller looking waist line such stomach tightening exercises also tend to decrease the size of your stomach as the muscle surrounding your stomach presses in which ultimately reduces your appetite since you have a smaller stomach to fill. You can think of them as a way to give yourself a stomach staple without going through the pain and expense of surgery. Stomach tightening exercises a very easy to perform and do not require any expensive exercise equipment. The best way to do them is to lie on your back on a bench or even on your bed. Tighten all the muscles in your abdominal area and imagine trying to press your belly button through your stomach to touch your back. That is really about all there is to doing them. You can of course vary your position or and combine them with abdominal crunches but remember that your goal with any type of exercise here is to try to tighten all your muscles in a way that contracts the size of your stomach or "sucks in your gut" as the old saying goes. Give these exercises a try and after a short period of time you will probably be amazed at how much smaller and better your waistline looks.