I can't get my abs to show!

[ctate95]

Hello, over the past month I have been dieting and exercising in an effort to get at least some of my abs to show. Every day, I run about 3 miles and do 200 reps of a combination of ab workouts that include crunches, sit ups, and bicycles. Throughout the day I am also active swimming in the pool, playing pick-up basketball games, performing yard work and two days a week for 5+ hours I work a physical job. My diet usually consists of a special k bowl of cereal or honey nut cheerios for breakfast. For lunch, I eat a slim fast meal bar/chocolate milk mix that is high in protein and fiber. For dinner I normally eat fish, chicken, beef, or some other meat product that is under 500 calories. Snacks consist of low fat yogurt, a granola bar, fiber one 90 calorie brownies, and assortment of nuts, etc. Every day I eat 1800 or less calories which is ideal for my "extreme fat loss" range listed on caloric calculators across the web. And I eat around 40 grams of fat, if not less everyday. My only cheat day is Friday nights when the whole family has pizza. So my question is how long will it be until even one of my abs pop out? A picture of my stomach can be seen on my profile pic if that helps at all.

Thanks for the help!

[Boss Man]

You might be consuming a bit too much Carb, try reducing the carbs by 10g per meal and replacing the calories with Fat.

This maintains calories, but means you could cause an energy deficeit, because of the reduced Carbs not providing energy, then the body could hopefully use some fat to provide the remaining energy needed.

[bendetwile2]

Hello, over the past month I have been dieting and exercising in an effort to get at least some of my abs to show. Every day, I run about 3 miles and do 200 reps of a combination of ab workouts that include crunches, sit ups, and bicycles. Throughout the day I am also active swimming in the pool, playing pick-up basketball games, performing yard work and two days a week for 5+ hours I work a physical job. My diet usually consists of a special k bowl of cereal or honey nut cheerios for breakfast. For lunch, I eat a slim fast meal bar/chocolate milk mix that is high in protein and fiber. For dinner I normally eat fish, chicken, beef, or some other meat product that is under 500 calories. Snacks consist of low fat yogurt, a granola bar, fiber one 90 calorie brownies, and assortment of nuts, etc. Every day I eat 1800 or less calories which is ideal for my "extreme fat loss" range listed on caloric calculators across the web. And I eat around 40 grams of fat, if not less everyday. My only cheat day is Friday nights when the whole family has pizza. So my question is how long will it be until even one of my abs pop out? A picture of my stomach can be seen on my profile pic if that helps at all.

Thanks for the help!

ctata95,

I understand your frustration, I used to have the same problem! I would always become frustrated because I would see other people with these great abs, but I could not achieve those same results. Well, I figured out the secret and I would love to share it with you:) With my program I can still eat pizza and not worry about my cheat meals. Message me for more details, I would love to help you.

-Ben

-Ben

[Athene]

Switch to meat and vegetables, with nuts as a healthy fat, cutting grains totally, and you will see your abs. Sadly, abs are "made in the kitchen" not the gym

Other exercises that will make your abs pop more visibly:

- Sit Ups on a GHD machine (glute ham developer)
- L-sits on parallettes
- Toes to Bar on a pull up bar
- V-ups/jackknife sit ups

[Boss Man]

parallettes

I've got those in my Gym, but I never knew what they were called until I googled that word just now. I'm not really sure why I never knew, as they've been there for well over a year.

[penelope54]

IT's not hard getting abs, I use this workout sponsored six pack shortcut workout, is this a coupon?

Code: Select all

http://92452v7tbwcscs4zbo31lk5x5c.hop.****.net/

[Boss Man]

Well assuming you're not promoting what that link offers, **** just provides services for people to make money out of, by offering commission based incentives, relating to the product popularity, (gravity) and product cost.

I would avoid it, as you don't need to be buying anything, that makes someone primary or second incomes like that, with not all the money going to the individual.

[belgian]

It seems to me that you are not far away from having your abs shown as you seem to move around a lot each day with a physical job and extra exercises. On top of that you are on a diet. But I wonder if you are always watching your meals? I mean for a longer period, not just a few days?

Anyway, when I look at your picture I can tell that your abs will certainly show someday. Just keep working them while watching your meals and you will get there.

[sfpachey]

In my opinion, abs are not as much a function of exercise as it is metabolism. The general formula is calories in vs calories out. If calories in exceed calories expended, the excess will be deposited. The area of deposit is based on genetics. Counting calories can be a pain and minor calculated adjustments to your diet can allow you to see changes. That's a hole other topic and discussion. One thing you need to really consider is insulin. Many people may be eating great but not getting results because of insulin tolerance and production. You may want to make sure that you have normal blood work before focusing entirely on your diet. I am not a doctor, so I would recommend seeing a good sports physician and endocrinologist as part of your body project. In terms of ab exercises, I am a moderate skeptic. Doing ab workouts is great for torso stabilization, but over working them is like any other muscle in your body. Doing more to spot reduce, in my opinion, is a myth. Working a particular area may develop the muscles in the area and create more tone, but the muscles will be tone under the fat deposits.

[watkinsc]

You seem pretty set on your nutrition - try changing things up a bit, maybe lose the dairy?

In terms of exercise, are you running at a steady rate constantly? Try doing some sprint intervals or compound movements such as power cleans in the gym. It just takes time!

[ValidFitness]

Many people have a great set of ab muscles but they are hidden by layer of fat. In order to get rid of this fat, you need to have the proper diet and do cardiovascular exercise along with your ab workouts! I recently wrote an article on attaining six pack abs. You should check it out @ http://www.validfitness.com