jrode

I'm not sure if this is the right section of the forum for this to be in, so I apologize in advance if it's not. But this section seemed fitting.

I'm looking to obtain abs and in general become more toned.

First, a little bit about myself. I'm a 21 year old male, 6'3", 183 pounds. I'm not in incredible, but throughout high school I was pretty active in sports and other activities and I continue to exercise whenever I can, so I'd say overall I'm in pretty good shape. My main problem is my gut. It's not huge, but it's not flat either and I seem to have a problem getting it to where I'd like to. I know that getting a flat stomach requires not only working out your abs, but also mixing in cardio and a healthy diet.

As of right now, I am on an every other day sort of routine. One day I'll go for about a 30 minute run and then the next day I'll do my weightlifting and ab workout. I've been told that to get toned, you should do less weight and more reps, so that's what I've been trying to do with my weightlifting. For my abs, I just do basic crunches on an exercise ball. Can someone give me some better ab exercises? And is this a good routine?

Now for my diet. I read that in order to get abs you should eat a lot of protein and have a lot of carbs. Lately for breakfast I have been having Cheerios with 1% milk in the morning on weekdays and on the weekends I usually have 2 hardboiled eggs and either a piece of toast with peanut butter or a fat-free yogurt and a glass of orange juice. My lunches usually don't have much variety. Lately it's been a Nutrigrain bar and a fat-free yogurt or a ham sandwich on wheat bread with no mayonnaise, just a little bit of mustard. To go along with that I have an apple and a glass of 1% milk. I don't do much snacking throughout the day, but if I do it's usually grapes or some peanuts. I'll occasionally grab a small handful of M&M's as well, but not much. My dinner's vary because I still live at home and will usually eat whatever my mom cooks. The meals she makes are not usually loaded with fat I don't think. She usually tries to keep everything fairly healthy. After dinner, my desert is usually half a grapefruit with a little sugar on top. As far as beverages go, milk, water, gatorade and tea is about all I drink these days. It's very rare that I'll have soda and I haven't had beer or any type of alcohol now for a few months.

I've only been doing this for about 3 weeks, so maybe I am just impatient in the results not coming as quickly as I would like them to. I have noticed that my gut has been reduced a bit, but it doesn't seem to be budging beyond it's current point. Is this a good routine? Any advice or comments would be helpful! Also, maybe I can get a picture of my gut up on here to show you where I am right now, if that would help.

Oh, and I hate to use pictures to show my desired goal and I realize it's going to take A LOT of work to get to this point, but this is what I would like: http://www.virginmedia.com/microsite...unks/img_3.jpg

Call me a dreamer... right?

Thank you!

PGHRam

jrode,

First let me say "welcome". You'll like it here. Lots of good stuff.
Second, use the advanced search and look for posts from Built. Read EVERYTHING she has and then go back and read your questions. I'll bet they all get answered for you

And 1 more thing. Go to fitday.com and start keeping track of everything you eat.

NeilPearson

The whole less weight with more reps thing to tone up is false. Whether or not you can see definition in your abs is going to be maily a function of diet. Cardio just burns extra calories and isn't really that necessary.

Simply eat less calories than you burn in a day and you will lose weight. Lift weights and that weight that you lose will be fat (If you don't lift, your body will burn muscle instead of fat)

As your body fat % decreases, you will see the abs get definition.

You don't need a lot of carbs and should definitely get rid of the M&M's and sugar on your grapefruit. Nutrigrain bars and breads and stuff aren't going to help either. Proteins, good fats (fish, nuts) and vegetables are what you should focus on. Breads, pastas, anything with high sugar will hurt your goals

NeilPearson

It's 90% diet

The ab exercises are fine. There are others out there but the ab exercises really aren't the important thing. We need to work on diet and proper weight lifting (make sure there is a leg day) before you get too worried about different types of ab exercises
That is 100% false

Hardboiled eggs are much better than Cheerios. There are better, lower calorie, higher protein cereals that Cheerios. Do you weigh out your cereal? How many servings do you eat? You can pack a way a lot of calories eating this stuff.

Toast? Again, these grains aren't the best for losing fat. You are better off with celery and peanut butter... oh and make sure it is natural peanut butter. The only ingredients in it should be peanuts and salt.

Orange juice... is horrible. Juice is packed with sugar and is probably one of the easiest ways to put on fat.

gatorade is sugar too... cut out all the added sugar. Fat-free yogurt? Fat is not your enemy. How much sugar is in it?

You need to weigh your food, know exactly what you are eating and know exactly how many calories it is.

chris mason

Check out the TNT diet and training program at Men's Health - Men's Guide to Fitness, Health, Weight Loss, Nutrition, Sex, Style and Guy Wisdom. It is truly the best program of its kind I have ever read. I also suggest you get the book from Amazon.com.

Chris

www.atlargenutrition.com
Supplements for the strength athlete!

dreadhead01

Well, to start out with, most of the people I know with Abs will tell you it is ALL about your diet, and its true, 80% diet, 10% mental, and 10% workout. I don't mean your traditional diet, I mean eating good food and sticking to it. Also, when you work your Abs, don't work them for long peroids of time, short peroids of time, 2 times a day is what works best for me. I usually do this in the morning, and at night. Below is something that should be part of your diet if your wanting to maintain a body like this.

You need to at least consume 1 gram of protien for every pound you weigh. So if you weight 200 pounds you need 200 grams of protien for that day.
You should also take in at least 2000 Cal a day, but then again, this depends more on your body weight too, you may be fine with a bit less or may need more, but if your going to be doing heavy workouts and the suck its better to have more.
Drink tons of water, I don't know exactly how much water your suposed to consume, I think it was ether 60 Oz. ot 120 Oz. of water per day, I just stick around 1 gallon a day, thats what I would advise.

I would say get your diet proper first, if you don't you wont keep the Abs when you get them. Get your diet down, then do some Cardio 3 times a week. I wouldn't do it more then this, to much of a good thing can be bad.

Make sure to do different workouts for the Abs, in order to target all areas of the abs. Some people will tell you not to do Ab workouts every day, but to me this is one set of muscles that can be done daily, it works for me. Just don't over do it. Once you get your diet better, getting a fat burner could help, but I don't think it is needed.
My two cents.
Jered