Tips & Advice on Getting Six Pack of Abs
Q. What is the number one component to getting six pack Abs?
A. Your training style, nutrition, and mindset are all extremely important if you want to stand a chance at getting a six pack... However, if I had to choose 1 component that is most important, it would probably have to be nutrition. Maybe you've heard the saying before that "abs are made in the kitchen".
It really is true, and that's where the majority of people go wrong in the goal to lose unwanted body fat and get 6 pack abs. Of course, this also ties into mindset, because you really have to get your mind in the right place in order to have the discipline to be able to eat consistently clean enough to get six pack abs.
There's a lot of confusion out there these days about calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrates... every "expert" disagrees with one another on proper ratios and types of diets. I think people make this way too complicated... If you are just to focus on a good balance between fats, carbs, and proteins, and make sure to eat only natural unprocessed organic foods (as close to their natural state as possible) instead of packaged, processed foods, a lot of the problems that most people have with cravings, sweet tooth, overeating, blood sugar swings, etc all take care of themselves.
We still can't lose sight of the fact that you can overeat on healthy foods and gain fat even while eating healthy. Therefore, your caloric intake needs to be controlled to a level that will promote fat loss if that's the goal.
Q. What is one thing I might be doing, unknowningly, steering my quest to lose unwanted body fat and get six pack abs in the wrong direction?
A: I'll give 2 things that may be steering you in the wrong direction...
" Too much cardio and Too Many Ab Exercises"
Some people, in their efforts to try to get lean, focus way too much on hours and hours of cardio exercise. Plus spending way too much time doing specific ab exercises doing crunh after crunch does nothing to help you lose unwanted body fat. The problem is that this can backfire on you by making you lose lean muscle mass over time, which decreases your resting metabolic rate.
Once this happens, it becomes easier to pack on body fat than ever before. I've even seen many people that do too much cardio and end up getting that "skinny fat" appearance, where they have very little muscle tone, yet they have excess stomach fat (even a "gut" possibly).
Instead of excess cardio and endless ab exercises, focus more on high intensity weight training (yes, even during a "cutting" cycle). This will help maintain your lean muscle mass throughout your body, so that you don't experience the metabolic rate decrease. Maintaining as much lean muscle mass on your body at all times is one of the most important things for you to lose unwanted body fat so you can see those six pack abs.
" Not eating enough healthy fats"
This is another area where I see people go in the wrong direction. They are trying to lose body fat and they end up going WAY too low on their fat intake. When you decrease your fat intake too much, you are basically messing up your fat burning and muscle building hormones. It's not uncommon to see people decrease their fat intake too low and end up reducing their testosterone levels significantly.
Try to get some sources of healthy fats with every meal to make sure you don't go too low... This could be avocados, any and all nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc), seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds), nut butters (almond butter, natural peanut butter, etc), virgin coconut oil (good source of medium chain triglycerides), extra virgin olive oil, grass fed beef (good source of conjugated linoleic acid and omega-3s), whole eggs (yes, whole eggs...not egg whites), etc.
Q: What is one unique way of boosting your metabolism, to finally burn fat, that I might be overlooking?
A: Incorporate any form of clean & presses into your routines twice per week. This could be barbell clean & presses or using kettlebells or dumbbells. If I had to choose one exercise that burns the most calories and has the biggest impact on increasing your metabolic rate, I'd have to choose high intensity clean & presses (with squats and deadlifts being at the top of the pack also). I like alternating the use of barbells for C&P's one workout and kettlebells for another. By using high intensity exercises gets your metabolic rate up and keeps it there long after your workouts is over. This means losing more body fat quicker, which in turn means seeing those six pack abs quicker.
To get more tips and advice to lose unwanted body fat and ab exercises go to Six Pack Abs
