I used to have a nice SIX-PACK, but now that has been taken over by a layer of FAT?

Question

What's the best way to get back in shape?

Answer 1

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you exercise them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

Aloha

Answer 2

Well, the simplest formula is to take in less calories and exercise more. You have to tailor this to your specific body and habits. The biggest thing to remember is you have to make PERMANENT changes to your lifestyle. Otherwise, you will be right back where you are now a couple months after you stop.

If you only have a little bit of fat and need to lose it fast, it could be as simple as eating more fruit and less junk food.

If it is more that just a little, you will need to look at your whole nutrition and exercise habits.

Answer 3

If you want to get rid of the fat then a healthy diet is the only answer. If you want your six pack back then get down to the gym.

Answer 4

Well as a personal trainer I hear this one a lot. ;-) Don't worry it's not actually that hard to get back in shape.

Your body remembers the way you were and will strive to return to that state.

Now as for taking action - the advice of the other posters is bang on, its about proper nutrition and exercise. That said all the crunches in the world won't help shift the fat.

The best way is to enjoy a brisk walk at 60-70% of your max heart rate. I outline all of this in more detail in my Walking for Weight Loss article on my website. You can look at it here - http://www.isometric-training.com/walking-for-weight-loss.html

I'd also recommend you look at my articles on Easy Ab Exercise - http://www.isometric-training.com/easy-ab-exercise.html

and finally my complete guide to the Best Exercise to Flatten Abs, here - http://www.isometric-training.com/best-exercise-to-flatten-abs.html

Best of luck, and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Yours,

Paul

Answer 5

I know how to avoid it in the first place: don't get married and don't have kids. Both will make you fat. :) (I signed the marriage license and I swear I put on weight....)

As for fixing it now.... stop drinking soda pop, increase water, drink green tea, stay away from artificial sweeteners, walk everyday for an hour, watch the calorie intake, and see how that works.

Answer 6

u shouldn't compose your daily calorie intake of more than 15% of it being fat foods. A average calorie intake, daily, would be 2000, so you should only eat 300 fat calories a day. Also, do alot of exercises, cardio, as it will burn fat. Conbine that witha few jack knife sit up(THE BEST TYPE OF SIT UPS), and you'll see results!

Answer 7

do 100 sit ups every day, 50 when you get up, 50 before you go to bed. you'll have a 6 pack in no time

Answer 8

I used to have a six pack. Now it's a barrel. Accept the inevitable lad.... and crack another tin o Stella open.

Answer 9

The six pack is the muscle, and any muscle can have fat over it...

Answer 10

more excersice basically do waht u used to when u was trying to get ur 6 pack