ABs!

[Jay1983 Senior MemberMember of the Month Apr 2014, Sept 2016 Find all posts View Profile Close Jay1983]

Oomph! So many responses, such little time right now.

I'm a slender guy, with a gut. When I look at myself, it seems just my gut and my peen stores fat. Lol. Anywhere else, no fat. My lung capacity and stamina is garbage, because I smoked cigarettes for years, and didn't exercise, consistently. Oops. I've quit the cigarettes, so now my focus is beating the fat off, my gut, lol, increasing lung capacity and stamina, and even strength. Sure, my body could use some bulking all over, but, eh, that can come later.

Thanks everybody for your replies! I owe you a drink!

[Nachos87 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nachos87]

I have a lot of experience and knowledge of fat loss.. came to about 9% last summer and I'm now going for 7%.

Main thing is diet, then weight lifting and then cardio.

Considering diet.. it is crucial that you count calories. As long as you do that and intake less calories then you expend, then you'll lose fat. It is mostly unimportant whether you eat clean or eat only pizza during it, as long as you're eating less then your maintenance. About 500-700 calories under maintenance is usually spot on.
It is still better eating clean, because you can eat more of it and you'd intake more vitamins, minerals and other vital nutrient in order to function properly BUT it is not necessary for weight loss as people think.

Other thing is to lift heavy.. low reps, high weight in order not to lose muscle in the process.
I use cardio just so I can eat more during the day. If you bike for 45 mins, that is equivalent to one decent meal.. no hunger, more protein intake.

Now, I could give you exact numbers as to how many kilos of fat do you need to lose in order to see abs and the whole program I'm using, with Excel chart for easy calorie counting and charting progress. But I need to see how you look shirtless to estimate BF%, both front torso and back.
If you are interested, PM me.

[Sean Jacobs Retired Moderator Member of the Month Dec 2012PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close Sean Jacobs]

There's been a lot of studies made on the benefits of fasted training, from what I understand we have yet to see any actual results from it. The changes in blood tests are scientifically insignificant, which means they are even more insignificant in real life.

The studies I've read state otherwise so we are at an impasse. I've tried it both ways and have had greater success with fat loss using HIIT over regular cardio, and greater success when doing HIIT in a fasted state.

This is what obese people say, blame hormones while eating 10 donuts a day...

I used to be one of those people who looked at obese and overweight people with disgust and assumed that their high levels of body fat were due to their lack of exercise (sloth) and/or from eating too much (gluttony). I thought that they just lacked the will power to do what was needed to be fit and trim. I fell into that trap of thinking. Then, over the last 5 years, I have been doing a lot of research (books, videos, online, etc). I have discovered that it is in fact hormones (amount, balance, interactions) which cause all functions of the body to take place, including fat loss and fat accumulation. So many factors of life cause positive and negative hormonal changes which can lead to positive and negative effects. Some simple examples would be sleep, stress, what you put into your body, sex, pregnancy, etc.

As far as obese people go, many factors can lead to obesity. Some are genetic others are environmental. For instance let’s use that obese person who eats 10 donuts per day as an example: This person may have a genetic predisposition to have stronger insulin reactions to sugar. This stronger reaction causes a higher percentage of the sugar to be move to the fat cells. Sugar (including both simple sugars and complex carbohydrates, which are just long chains of simple sugars) are scientifically proven to be addictive. So this person reacts like a drug addict to consuming carbohydrates, like the flour and sugar laden donut, and just can’t resist eating them. Over time the fat continues to accumulate.

Another example would be my wife. He has an autoimmune disease (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis) which causes her own immune system to attack her thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is the gland that produces hormones which control the majority of functions of your body. So, as her thyroid is slowly destroyed it has many downstream effects; moodiness, low libido, hot flashes, adrenal fatigue, and weight gain to name several.

So, to try to sum it up, there is far more to fat loss than simply exercising more and eating less. It is hormones that control all the functions in your body, including fat gain and fat loss. The trick is to create an optimal hormonal environment within your body to drive fat loss. There are many factors involve with this that I didn’t bother to list, but I will now: Getting enough good quality sleep, reducing stress, avoiding toxins (and there are many in our lives), getting enough exercise without over training, doing the right exercises, eating the right foods at the right times, staying hydrated, laughing/playing/loving, having sexual interaction, etc.

Please be careful with what you assume about people who are overweight. Truly, in many cases it actually isn’t their fault.

[aBone2pick Senior Member Member of the Month July 2014 Find all posts View Profile Close aBone2pick]

In my experience, HIIT is amazing. I do it when i skate past 10% bf to inch myself back down. Accodring to countless random online surveys, men with 10-12% bf are the most a attractive, so that's what i shoot for.

HIIT is great because it's not time consuming and it seems to preserve muscle quite well.

[Toadstool Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toadstool]

Bottom Line: I'm sorry to break it to you but getting Abs is 85 - 90% diet. In order to see your abs you must be below 10% body fat. No amount of ab work, cardio, weight training, will compensate for a bad diet. The worst part about this fact is that managing your diet is the hardest part of good health and being in great shape. You have to pay attention to it 24x365.

Personally I follow a primal/paleo eating plan, which is basically a low carb plan.

He's right. The only thing I disagree is how difficult it is. It's really not difficult. I mean...

What if you just ate the stuff that was healthiest for your body?
What if you just took on all the habits necessary that got you consistent results?
What if you learned how to cook the junk-food meals you eat but in a healthy way?

Myself, I never worry about diet and calorie counting. I got better things to do with my mental energy. All that planning and prepping? Blah!~
Much prefer to eat when I'm hungry and as much as I'd like to eat! Unless you want to have that puffed up bodybuilder build, in which case... nacho gives some good advice up there.

Oh and do yourself a favour - ditch the crunches and sit ups.

[JohnnyJ Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnnyJ]

Eat a clean diet. With a lot of greens and sufficient protein and healthy fats... and Perform weighted ab work and bodyweight ab work. Also lift some heavy ass weight. so when they do show..THey will be just asking to be seen..IIFYM...google it. FInd your maintenence calories...cut about 500 and add cardio. They will be showing in notime. I also agree HIIT cardio is the way to go. The number 1 reason why people dont reach their goals is quitting. So take it easy. Ease into the intensity and find ways to motivate yourself. FOr me my motivation when working out is looking at how much healthier i have made my mother. By teaching her everything i know.