[Washboard Abs]

[Deleted]

I exercise daily - mainly routine walks and about 100-150 push-ups daily. I can honestly say that my upper body (chest, shoulders and above) are in good condition.

But my stomach or ab area is kinda flabby. I am not overweight ( 185 cm / 78 kg) but I am wondering if maybe thats where most of my fat resides as I used to be bigger few months ago. It just seems to be harder to get rid of fat from that particular area. Plus after few hours of sitting in a chair etc I get red marks on my stomach area that disappears after staying upright.

I am just wondering what is the best way to get the 'washboard ab' look?

[xile]

I exercise daily - mainly routine walks and about 100-150 push-ups daily. I can honestly say that my upper body (chest, shoulders and above) are in good condition.

But my stomach or ab area is kinda flabby. I am not overweight ( 185 cm / 78 kg) but I am wondering if maybe thats where most of my fat resides as I used to be bigger few months ago. It just seems to be harder to get rid of fat from that particular area. Plus after few hours of sitting in a chair etc I get red marks on my stomach area that disappears after staying upright.

I am just wondering what is the best way to get the 'washboard ab' look?

If you're a guy then it's because the way that the fat is stored around the body for most men, is that the first place that fat is stored on the body is (or one of the first) the stomach. I.E. lose more weight usually.

[Deleted]

Low bodyfat.
Abs are built in the kitchen as the saying goes.

I believe that generally, in males, one of the first places we store our fat is around the abdomen, hence it's the last to go.

Abs are usually visible at about 10-12% bodyfat.
Lower than that and they become more prominent even when not flexing.


That said if visible abs are your goal then it's really about getting a good, solid, diet together.
Make sure you burn more calories than you consume so you steadily lose weight over time.

You can calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) here:
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

That's how many calories your body burns if you didn't do anything.
At your height/weight expect it to be around 1800/1900.
You should aim to eat a few hundred calories under your BMR, the walks and push-ups should help burn a few more.
Also make sure you get enough protein in your diet.

[Valeron]

The posts above are correct. A big part is your diet.

[Zyzzyx]

The ab part, as they say, is from losing body fat.

The washboard part is more from actually working out those muscles. I prefer weighted sit ups and oblique exercises to get the craters when flexing. They'll show better unflexed as well.

[Jeffari]

If you eat like garbage, you're gonna look like garbage, live by that.

Diet is 90% of working out. Abs come naturally from various exercises and they will develop. I wouldn't spend too much time working them, maybe a few exercises here and there.

[jimlow]

Kinda sad to see that there isn't more posts in here. Here's a website that helped me figure out alot of this as well as some workouts.
http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/ab-exercises

Like someone said above abs revolve a lot around diet. You can do all the exercises and that will build the muscles, but it wont show up unless your body fat drops. In fact, at first it may seem at first to be having the opposite effect. Due to the building up of the muscles under the fat and the lack of definition, it will give the appearance of you belly seeming to get bigger. Another think you might want to do is alternate weeks make sure you doing at least 45 min of cardio. This is what they call the shrink wrap effect. You work the muscles hard then the next week by doing cardio you drop weight and it pulls the skin over the muscles and gives you that sexy look.

You don't want to eat a whole lot of carbs eaither. If your going to you should consider brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and other whole wheat substitutes. Theses carbs break down a lot better in your system and don't produce as much fructose when digested giving your longer more sustained energy. For protein you want to consider lean meats and or whey protein. Fruits and veggies are good and as far as beer and soda is concerned you can have them every once in awhile but most people will just tell you to stear clear all together unless you are burning a ton of calories. A lot of all comes down to your personal metabolism as well some people will tell you 6-8 small meals a day to boost it others will say 3 decent sized meals, however all of them recommend that your biggest meal be breakfast as when you go to sleep your metabolism slows down which is why having a big dinner is not recommended.

I could go on but this is already turning into a wall of txt.

tl;dr/ the path to sexy abs castle is through the moat of pain

[backseattaxi]

You don't want to eat a whole lot of carbs eaither.

This is what has recently been helping me shed that last annoying layer of fat over my stomach when the rest of my body has little, along with putting 20-30 minutes of moderate intensity cardio at the end of my upper body workouts. Here's the thing too - I am able eat 100-200 calories over maintenance to still help promote muscle growth. Coming from someone who loves fruit and crackers, my calories having to be made up of 35% protein, 35% fat and 30% carb isn't the most easiest thing to do; but I can't wait for the end result. I'd choose Quinoa over brown rice though if you can fit it into your daily carb intake (that's if you decide to go low carb route). Why? It is similar to rice, but has higher levels of micronutrients that are implicated in muscle growth: magnesium, potassium and folate. Also has more protein than brown rice. Sweet potato is also a good choice (: Just make sure to be careful .. you'd be very surprised how fast carbs add up.

[MailEnhancement]

ok if you want a pic I will post one. In order to shread your abs you need 2 do 3 things. Eat Healthy. To be honest you can eat what you want as long as you are doing enough cardio to burn it off. Do not eat after 8pm, it just turns to fat over night. Walk on the tread mill, dont run. You burn more fat walking, you burn more calories running. Once you get that down you can then work on doing ab workouts to make your abs more pronounced. I do abs 3 out of 5 days a week, I do cardio everyday. Abs are like every other muscle in your body, alternate days doing them.




All achieved while taking a gainer also, 3x 1000 calorie shakes a day.

[Deleted]

Do not eat after 8pm, it just turns to fat over night.

No, it doesn't.
That's a common myth though to be fair.

[MailEnhancement]

No, it doesn't.
That's a common myth though to be fair.

It all depends on what you are eating at that time. If you are going to eat it should be fruit or something very low in carbs.

Carbs or any sugar turn into Glucose which is distributed throughout your body as fat. If you arent doing any activity then yes, it does have an effect.

---------- Post added 2011-07-15 at 08:35 PM ----------

Any Sugar, Fat, or Protein you intake is broken down into Glucose. This is what you body reverts to for energy when you are doing strenuous activity such as working out or running. Your brain even runs off of glucose. When you are low on Glucose your body then takes from your body fat for energy. So lets say at 9pm you eat something.. no matter what most likely some part of it will be stored as Glucose. Now thats that much more you need to burn in order to start getting at your fat deposits.

[Deleted]

It all depends on what you are eating at that time. If you are going to eat it should be fruit or something very low in carbs.

Carbs or any sugar turn into Glucose which is distributed throughout your body as fat. If you aren't doing any activity then yes, it does have an effect.

Lot's of fruit is very high in Fructose, which is sugar.
According to you that sugar will be immediately stored as fat if you go to sleep after eating an apple.

Glucose is sugar in your blood that your cells use as energy.
It is not distributed as fat (lol?)

To store fat you have to consume more energy than you burn off.
There is no magical thing that will instantly get stored as fat.

[MailEnhancement]

Im not saying its direct fat but in order to touch your fat storage you need to deplete your glucose stores. If youre eating at 8pm and doing nothing your just adding on to your glucose levels which in turn is indirectly effecting your fat. You are right, fruit is very high in sugar which is why they are really good to eat after a high intensity workout. Fruit raises your blood sugar, which raises your bodies secretion of insulin and insulin is a fat builder in the human body. I minored in nutrition man, youre barking up the wrong tree.

There are cases of people becoming diabetic from eating too much sugary fruit.

[Deleted]

Im not saying its direct fat but in order to touch your fat storage you need to deplete your glucose stores. If youre eating at 8pm and doing nothing your just adding on to your glucose levels which in turn is indirectly effecting your fat. You are right, fruit is very high in sugar which is why they are really good to eat after a high intensity workout. Fruit raises your blood sugar, which raises your bodies secretion of insulin and insulin is a fat builder in the human body. I minored in nutrition man, youre barking up the wrong tree.

There are cases of people becoming diabetic from eating too much sugary fruit.

I know, what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter.
Meal timing is irrelevant for fat loss (and metabolism).
If it fits your macros then eat what you want when you want.

If you're cutting then you'll burn it off if your diet is in order.
If you're bulking then the 100 or so calories in the fruit is meaningless.

[backseattaxi]

Well in order to reach my daily macro-nutrient intake I have to eat around 9pm - in fact, my last 5th meal is usually around 11:30pm.
I don't get why you said to eat fruit though at night? Many of the tastiest ones are full in sugar which doesn't = very low in carbs. P:

[MailEnhancement]

I know, what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter.
Meal timing is irrelevant for fat loss (and metabolism).

If you're cutting then you'll burn it off if your diet is in order.
If you're bulking then the 100 or so calories in the fruit is meaningless.

but the thing is, if youre cutting.. you dont want to eat after 9. Its detrimental to what youre trying to achieve. If youre bulking then its not that bad. If youre trying to bulk with lean muscle mass then it is bad. Can you atleast post a picture of yourself so I know Im not wasting my breath.

[Radux]

Giving a time on when to not eat is silly unless you include a time when they're going to be sleeping. I eat after 9 rather frequently, but then again I don't go to sleep until 1-2. The only time it's bad to really eat before bed is if you're eating a large meal. Your body will be expending energy to digest your food opposed to putting it into a rested fasting state. Even then, if any of it goes towards fat storage, it's because you're getting way too much sugar and are sitting in a caloric surplus or something.

[Xun]

Diet is 90% of getting ripped. Anyone that tells you differently doesn't know what they are talking about.

The only exception is genetics. Some people don't have to follow the same rules but for the majority of the population and those of us over 18, we must eat correctly.

High protein, low carbs. You can think you are eating great but until you actually do hard research, you probably aren't eating what's going to give you the best results.

[Arcadem]

Do not eat after 8pm, it just turns to fat over night.

Actually the only real thing is that eating before going to bed can get you to be incredibly hungry when you wake up, resulting in you eating a lot. (This does not affect everyone)

[Deleted]

Can you atleast post a picture of yourself so I know Im not wasting my breath.

That's argument from authority.
Just because you have a good body or high lifts doesn't mean that any myths and bro-science you say will be correct.

http://imageshack.us/f/10/11monthprogress.jpg/


I've been lifting just over a year.
I'm not impressive right now by any standards but I look better than when I was a skinny shut-in.