I want to get six pack abs

im working on mine,but mine isnt even a 4 pack,XD
man the important thing is to do sit ups every day lets say 3 times.
in the begining do sit ups quickly so u can burn ur extra fat
the guis are wright u must burn the extra fat before the muscles can be seen in theyr full glory^^so jump rope and run too^^

Cool, lots of good answers. Ten years ago I don't think people were as well informed about this oft elusive goal.

90% is good genetics. Some with low % body fat just don't seem to be able to show 'abs'. "Brothers" show abs even though they may never have done a situp in their life.

So track your calories, find your 'maintenance' calorie level, and be sure you're eating under that amount. I try for about 1000 calories per day on my tracking program. (There's probably a 10% error in accounting that even the most determined dieters make, because you're estimating by using 'calorie' tables)

Then when you get to about 8-10% BF by caliper measurement you can do other things, including extreme measures such as liposuction, yohimbe creams, and hyaluronidase injections[1].

It's probably true that fat cells don't decrease, just shrink, but we're not 100% sure on how the fat cells behave. They may actually split and divide and you end up with more cells. There might be an circumstances under which the fat cells die, but no clear evidence on that in humans.

Having said that, when you get down to about 10-12% body fat (get a weighing in a 'bod-pod' at your local heath spa, I think it is important to do waist exercises. Note I said 'waist', so you should work the lower back and the sides in addition to the abs, themselves.

Bear in mind that losing the weight (not 'loosing') is not the hardest part. You are goal-oriented.

The hard(er) part is maintaining the loss. Why? Well when you are losing you have the positive reinforcement of the scale and fitting in to smaller clothes. But once you reach goal you don't have these little rewards, so it can be easy to fall off the regime. In fact some people might self-sabotage so they can go back to working towards goals.

[1] hyaluronidase

Here's the two lists for you.

1) Exercise.

2) Eat properly.

Have fun and enjoy!

Abs and muscle definition is far from 90% genetics! Trust me. I was a fat kid for a good portion of my youth. I started playing soccer, became vegetarian for other reasons, and got addicted to running and I went from 175 lbs with a pretty big chest and a gut to 145 with a perfect chest and chisled stomach within 3 months or so. That's 30 pounds of fat in no time. Don't give up though... It's a pain in the ass but it's well worth it.


As for some advice.. Cardio, cardio, cardio. You should mix in full body work outs in the form of supersets but your primary focus should be a good cardio program. Make sure you're burning excess calories every single day. Regulate yourself to 1500 calories a day max which is more than enough if you're eating healthy, even if you are assimulating meat in your diet and have a regimen that burns that much or more. I noticed a good way to do this was PROGRESSO soup because of the easy calorie count and fairly balanced simple carb,complex carb, and protein. They're also very filling. Each can of soup is no more than 300 calories. It was a staple for me. Also eat as much fresh produce as you can. The quality of your diet is the most important factor. Even more so than excercise. It's INCREDIBLE the effects of eating mostly raw foods. It starts shaping your body with MINIMAL effort.

It takes a lot of work but stick to it and always keep your thoughts about losing weight positive. Take it from an ex-fat kid. Also, if you're interested. I'm 5' 10"/5' 11" and 135 - 140 and I rarely work out besides soccer games, running from the police, and eat almost raw and absolute vegan diet. It's definitely something you should look into if you want natural weight management.

Anyway, good luck! It's difficult but well worth it! I know a ton of little shortcuts. Feel free to hit me up.

[edit on 22-9-2007 by DeadFlagBlues]

[edit on 22-9-2007 by DeadFlagBlues]

I guess I will share the link which might help everyone on.

www.iwantsixpackabs.com...

I recommend signing up, it's definitely worth it.

www.metacafe.com...

www.youtube.com...

Enjoy.

reply to post by DeadFlagBlues


This advice is mostly nonsense.

It takes 3500 calories to burn one pound of fat. You could run for an hour and only burn 300-400 calories.

Much better to eat 500 calories below maintenance.

Also why mention 'raw foods' and then cite a processed food filled with salt and other additives (canned soup).

Plus, you can't spot reduce.

Lifting weights is much more productive than cardio, because more muscle means you're burning more calories per day.

Besides, no slam on you - good that you got the body you wanted, but who wants to have abs at the cost of weighing 135lbs at 5'11 and have 10" arms and legs too skinny to hold your socks up?

Genetics? Heck yes. Who has better abs, men or women. Genetics. Who has better abs, a brother, or a swedish or german guy? In general I was talking 'naturally having abs' as opposed to just dieting down to under 10% BF. There are tons of afro-american guys walking around with great abs who've never dieted or done a sit up in their life.

However, it's best to experiment. Some people do react better to exercise than others. Keep a journal to track your progress and use an online calorie tracker like fitday.com to track your food.

reply to post by Badge01




Wow. That's a great example of how to knit pick my entire post.

I referenced the Progresso as a good way to regulate and remember caloric intake and used "was a staple for me." Which second grade reasoning tells me that this statement is in "past tense" form. The dude is also a welder or a steelworker, and that s*** is handy on jobsites. But if there's any confusion, let me clear it up. I dieted eating conventional foods (including Progresso) down to about 145. I've SINCE then adopted a vegan lifestyle/diet and found my "natural carrying weight" to be around anywhere ranging from 135-143. A fluctuation rate of 8 pounds that changes exponentially. I also cited a calorie restriction of 1500 calories, which by elementary mathematics puts me at around 500-700 under "maintenance," which is somewhere in the general area of 1800 -2500. Subconsciously and probably more unintentionally agreeing through argument.. Interesting..

I also think you're focusing on the natural factors or at least the negative aspect of not having them, rather than the multitude of environmental factors which we are focusing on when you bring genetics into it. Yes, there are "brothers" out there, as well as every other race that what seem to have an over-active metabolism and eight pack abs. The reason that most of the normal world, you know? The realm in which we live in lacks those things are mostly environmental, not genetic.

A lot of the "metabolism" myths you hear also are the same kind of "it's genetic" rhetoric by people not willing to play the numbers game because it's proven that metobolism is relatively comparable.. The "journey"(and it really is.. A long ridiculous, pain in the ass journey) to six pack abs minus all the BS is simply numbers. Caloric input/ Caloric output. Naturally this is in your favor because you can strictly regulate the amount that goes in while your body, no matter of it's current state, waking or asleep is constantly using calories. Throw a lot of cardio in along with a good FOREMENTIONED "fullbody workout" using supersets (which in my opinion are the most effective way to burn maximum calories and save time) regimen should kill the weight fairly quickly.


As far as my body goes.. Yeah.. I love it. I love being slender and being able to see every muscle in my entire body. As for my weight I'd say it compliments my height perfectly. I'm pretty quick on the soccer field and at 140'ish I have an overhand along with a straight right that handles all sorts of trouble I might get into. I also dabble in graffiti and I've never met a cop that could keep up, but that's not saying much.

Lifting weights for size gains never mentally worked for me. I had 15 1/8 inch biceps and was throwing up 255 lbs. bench sets but I was always thick and chubby no matter how strong or how much mass I put on. I started doing intense cardio and weight was falling off of me. I dropped from an all time high of 180 (and I think maybe more because I was in fat kid denial) to a low of 133 in 5 months collectively but saw drastic results when I began my altered diet and cardio routine which consisted of 1000 calories burned in 1 session, every other day, if not everyday, at least 5 days a week. The drop to 133 was also due to a 10 day "cleanse" I had started around 142 lbs.

Hopefully this is detailed enough for you, Badge01. This is that whole grey area I left out for times sake.. Hope you get off on it.

(Yawn.)

Huh? Well thanks for the really unnecessary foray into what -you- did for your body. As I said, good job.

However we were talking about how to get a six-pack in general.

Look at Penn and Teller's BS video on working out and those Bo-Flex videos and they'll explain it quite well. 90% of athletic talent is genetics. It's no. 2-12 Exercise vs. Genetics from Aug 26, 2004.

Nuff said.

(just kidding around with ya...you have some good points)


[edit on 22-9-2007 by Badge01]

to have a full six pack u do know u have to do different exrcizes for the upper and lower part of ur stomach right guiz?^^
why dont you try holding a 5 litre bottle of mineral water behind ur head like a pillow and do sit ups,it really makes u suffer^^

reply to post by Badge01


Penn and Teller are also magicians...


But agree to disagree, or agree depending... No hard feelings. Haha.

just do sit-ups every night after work
im 17years old and go to school and work
and when i get home at night i do a couple hundred sit-ups it has been about 5 to 6 months now and i see definition in my stomic now, i have abs, and i like it....it takes a while but its worth it at the end,
it makes meconferable in my body even with my girlfriend

I know all this has already been said but I'll say it in the most simplest way.

We all got six packs, it's just you have to lose enough weight to show them, you also need to work on the six pack so that when you do lose enough weight they show even more.

So a lot of FULL BODY exercise, good diet and good abs workout. Remember you can't traget weight loss, it has to be full body.

It's simple, just keep consistent, it only gets hard when you make it hard.




[edit on 22-7-2008 by _Phoenix_]

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
I know all this has already been said but I'll say it in the most simplest way.

We all got six packs, it's just you have to lose enough weight to show them, you also need to work on the six pack so that when you do lose enough weight they show even more.

So a lot of FULL BODY exercise, good diet and good abs workout. Remember you can't traget weight loss, it has to be full body.

It's simple, just keep consistent, it only gets hard when you make it hard.

We do all have approximately three sets of ab divisions under our fat, which look like six squares. Some people show 8 and some even show 10! Some guys have an offset pair and seem to show an odd number of ab blocks, like five or seven.

I think you have to be more specific than say lose weight and you'll get visible abs. We all know 'skinny fat people'. The root cause is hormones (corticosteroids, Thyroid, hGH, Testosterone, Estrogen). The hormone levels are generally determined by genetics (unless there's a disease state, which can override)

I won't go so far as to say that some people have more fat cells than others, but some may have more 'stubborn to lose' fat around the abs area. Some bodybuilders get extremely lean and still have fat deposits in certain places. They usually try to get liposuction, but sometimes this makes them look worse as the skin ends up sinking and looking pockmarked.

Fat distribution does seem to vary depending on genetics.

Some women tend to put fat on their upper thighs and no so much on their waist. Some guys tend to deposit fat on their love handles and lower abs.

If you take 50 female long distance runners and do a BF% test and find they all have about 10-12% and be of similar size, some will show definite cuts, and abs and others will not. They just have a smoothish looking female type waist (with a six pack under there, sure).

If you look at 10 athletic black guys and 10 athletic white guys most of the black guys will show abs, most of the white guys will not.

I have German and Swedish ancestry and even when I was 118lbs and running, marching biking and had very little skin to pinch, I didn't have abs, though I could feel them.

If you've seen the Jackie Warner show and Skylab reality show, a new guy shows up and he takes off his shirt and he's got some of the most amazing abs ever seen. All the trainers look at him and freak.

Gregg Plitt: (warning. Guy with shirt off)

In contrast Lance Armstrong one of the leanest guys you'll find, has only barely visible abs. (he's a little heavier here), but you look at pics of his face and he's got paper thin skin.

Lance Armstrong - 2

Gregg Plitt says he's always been like that. Low fat and not much around the waist and even when he over eats he doesn't seem to store fat.

Top bodybuilder Jay Cutler says the same. (though he does 'roids, allegedly, so it's hard to tell)

So just saying 'lose weight' as in what you have on the bathroom scale doesn't seem to have a good correlation with getting lean enough in the abdominal area to have cuts and a 6 or 8 pack.

Another example is calves. Some black guys have 'small and high' calves. They could do a zillion calf raises and they'll always look like that. German guys tend to have large and full bodied calves. Genetics.

Even if you work hard enough to overcome genetics some Northern European types can not 'hold' that lean waist look with defined abs.

But you're right we all have 'abs' and a sixpack under there.

And, it's true that generally if you cut calories and keep protein high, you can lose enough 'weight' (read: fat loss) to show at least a four-pack.

But some guys cut calories and do tons of waist work and never show that great abs. Some black guys (a lot of 'em, really) show abs and never have done a sit up, or counted calories in their life.

YMMV, 2 cents.









[edit on 22-7-2008 by Badge01]

reply to post by Badge01


Wow long post, and of course your right.

Genetics does come into it, you just gotta work with what you got.

I think full body workout is the most important, try not to focus TOO much on getting a six pack, it isn't that important, it's just an added bonus.


[edit on 22-7-2008 by _Phoenix_]

hey I have a six pack now but it took ages and ages to get one. Since high school i wanted one. I remember doing alot of cardio at the gym and being not happy at it really affected my strength. So I switched after another two weeks. I did some abdominal exercises followed by the pilates stuff my girlfriend showed me.

Hey doing just abdominal muscle training doesn't help. Make sure you do cardio to cut off the weight. Drinking too much water can leave you bloated. Make sure you do also some form of back training (dead lifts or squats) as problems with your lower back can affect your lower abdomen.

And make sure you eat right. I hardly ever eat out now days. If I do its sushi or some form of fruit salad. I eat like a horse at home and I mix a lot of stuff together that leave my family feeling a bit squeamish.

Plus it is also pretty hard to maintain one don't forget.

Wow, just stumbled upon this thread looking for one last post for the night and I must say, great info Badge.

All these exercises but nobody really focusing on the only realistic way to obtain six pack abs. When it comes to body composition, diet is 80% and exercise is 20%.

www.nutritionandmetabolism.com...

This is just one of many recent studies that conclude exercise alone does not improve body composition by any significance. In fact, this particular study demonstrated that after 10 weeks of training, subjects saw a very minimal change in body composition.

What does that mean? Focus mainly on your diet. If you don't have that sexy 6 pack ab look after a month, then all you need to do is a few exercises to build abdominal strength and hypertrophy.

Bridges, Planks and some type of twisting motion. And if you really wanna step it up a knotch, front squats will do the trick. Crunches and sit-ups just don't cut it. If you get a chance, see how many bodybuilders and powerlifters do crunches.......

-Dev

[edit on 15-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]