New research finds that your best bet for trimming belly fat is vigorous aerobic activity, such as jogging or brisk walking (in Z-CoiL shoes, naturally), rather than lifting weights.

''If you are overweight or mildly obese and want to lose fat -- belly fat, visceral fat, liver fat -- vigorous aerobic training was better than resistance training," said researcher Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Participants in the eight-month study, published last month in the American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism, were divided into three groups. One group walked on a treadmill on an incline, another group lifted weights, and a third group did both workouts.

It seems the aerobic training group was the most successful in reducing their visceral fat, and the reason behind that is simple: intense aerobic training burns more calories.

A cautionary note:  The focus on the study was on visceral fat located deep within the body around the stomach, as opposed to subcutaneous fat, which lies directly under the skin. Although any kind of extra padding around your waistline is considered unhealthy, researchers said, too much subcutaneous fat is, in fact, much more dangerous.