How to shed the unshedable abdominable bits.

Acid_Violet

I'm sure most people have this problem of having an 'icklt pit at the bottom of their abs where there's a bit of fat that they just can't shed. My upper abs appear quite wight-free but it's just the bit at the bottom which I'm having probs with and crunches only get me upper abs, so can anyone give me any really good excercise advice for toning the lower abs so that my tummy is fairly flat and level?

Boru.

Hi Acid,

What you describe is extremely common, and also very simple to deal with. The layer of fat in general just below the top 2 abs is essentially your body's emergency survival food kit. The body has a tendancy to retain this small amount of fat (that prevents you from displaying a perfect 6 pack) juts in case the apocolypse, natural disaster, famine or som such occurs. It will you this fat to feed you and keep you alive after it's eaten all your non essential muscle tissue etc. It's a survival mechanism.

The only way to get rid of it in a safe and healthy manner is slow progressive weight loss achieved using a combination of cardiovascualr and resistance based training. This is breathing heavy and lifting heavy, in combination with a calorie controlled balanced diet (aimig towards a deficit - eg taking in less calories than you use). As simple as this is, it cna actually be a bit difficult and involves a steady systamatic and scientific approach that will take a few weeks of sweating and effort before you actually see a notacable difference in your appearance (the LAST thing your body wants to do is lose that bodyfat).

Incidentally "tone" doesn't exist - there is only a high muscle to low body fat ratio. The more fat you have covering your lean heard muscles they wobblier and more jelly like you appear. The less body fat you have the harder and more defiuned and muscular appear - thus the problem is bodyfat.

The best way to achieve this look is to read all the stickies posted above on diet and nutirtion. Determine your calorie needs and then simply outline an eating plan for two weeks based on that. Post that here with your full body composition details, age, height, sex,bodyfat % if you know it etc. We can then make suggestions and modify it to be more efficent if you wish.

If you are relatively new to exercise take a look at Transforms beginners workout program and try that in conjunction with your new nutritional plan and work at if for 6-8 weeks. You weight loss should be slow and steady.

There is no 1 exercsie that will produce the results you are looking for I'm afraid - it won't make any difference on the appearance of your abs - only slow and steady weight loss based on a total body workout and clean nutritional program. Fast results lead only to faster failure.

Best of luck.

Acid_Violet

Thanks for the help. Problem is I don't think I should lose a lot of weight as I'm normal to skinny as it is, I've just got a few problem areas where all girls usually have some problems (tummy and upper arms) but I don't want to put on weight so I'll look into this plan. Thanks for the advice, it was really helpful.

Sleepy

Acid_Violet wrote:

Thanks for the help. Problem is I don't think I should lose a lot of weight as I'm normal to skinny as it is, I've just got a few problem areas where all girls usually have some problems (tummy and upper arms) but I don't want to put on weight so I'll look into this plan. Thanks for the advice, it was really helpful.

Try not to think of it as weight. It really is the biggest distraction for people when trying to get in shape. What you weigh is a hugely irrelevant number. Two people at the same bodyweight and height can have *vastly* different bodies.

Have a read at the stickies at the top of this forum. The advice in there is a distillation of all the material read, researched and lived through by all the really knowledgeable people who post here, some of whom (Boru included) are industry professionals and a few of whom hold national and world records in their chosen fields. Or in other words, it's everything you need bar the hard work itself.

Acid_Violet

I'm literally talking about weight though as I've been gaining.....and gaining.....even though I don't look big at all! I'm currently somewhere between 10.5-11 stone and about 5' 6.5''. I must be quite dense or something that I'm not in any way able to put my finger on. So my bmi is approaching overweight and I'm scared of putting on more, solely from a health perspective. But I'll look into said plan to keep weight off and try to lose fat tissue from my problem areas.

PeakOutput

bear in mind that muscle is something like 4 times heavier than fat being heavy with muscle as far as i can see is not a problem in the slightest.........

also iv heard that the bmi index is not a great standard (im 21 now and have been 6'2 since i was 14 i was maybe 10% bf until i was 19 and the bmi still said i was overweight) and you would be better off measuring your fat%

but im only a beginner at this myself so im sure boru will back to clear that up

Sleepy

BMI means nothing when applied to a single person. It's a statistical tool which has a limited use when applied to large groups of people but that's all.

As PeakOutput says, muscle weighs more than fat. So in reality, a healthier person will be heavier than an unhealthier person of similar height and frame (one of the very reasons you should never pay attention to the scales or things like the BMI).

I know this probably goes against everything you've ever heard and it can be hard to de-program the head from the 'lose 6lb's in a week' weight-loss nonsense that exists in the media. The fact is that most of the people writing those articles haven't a fvckin' clue about healthy eating, nutrition or health. Most of these diets will in fact make someone fatter in the long-run (cos, hey, that's good for business if your business is selling people magazines that tell them how to lose weight, isn't it?).

Acid_Violet

Right so, I'm going to look at the diet dealies now and come up with a plan. Some basic facts, as are generally required/requested;

Female, 5' 6.5'', 16, somewhere between 10.5-11 stone, no idea what my body fat index is or how to find it!

Aims; get a smaller waist by working at the ould obliques and less flabby arms and more toned thighs and ass.

And don't worry, I'm not an idiot who believes in fad diets or anything to that effect, as a matter of fact I incessantly warn my sister in law against them.

So anyone know of any particularly good exercises for those areas? Any tips or tip offs about how feesible it is, anything?

Roper

Sorry I didn't really understand the details, are you saying you're 16 years old? Correct me if I'm wrong!

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. The small layer is totally natural and it would take a massive dietary commitment to rid yourself of it and to be quite frank, at 16 it wouldn't be the correct thing to do. Just train and enjoy it, eat right and let your body make its own mind up!

Sleepy

Acid_Violet wrote:

Right so, I'm going to look at the diet dealies now and come up with a plan. Some basic facts, as are generally required/requested;

Female, 5' 6.5'', 16, somewhere between 10.5-11 stone, no idea what my body fat index is or how to find it!

Aims; get a smaller waist by working at the ould obliques and less flabby arms and more toned thighs and ass.

And don't worry, I'm not an idiot who believes in fad diets or anything to that effect, as a matter of fact I incessantly warn my sister in law against them.

So anyone know of any particularly good exercises for those areas? Any tips or tip offs about how feesible it is, anything?

Unfortunately there's no such thing as spot-reduction. In order to lose fat off any part of the body, you have to lose it everywhere. So you can do as many sit-ups as you like but it won't achieve a six pack unless your diet's in order and you're working the rest of your body.

At 16 I wouldn't recommend working with very heavy weights (though I'm sure there are those here who would disagree). Is there any sport you enjoy? Swimming / Martial Arts / Hockey etc?

cavanmaniac

I'm intrigued by all this I must say but I'm somewhat bewildered by all the info in the diet and nutrition thread...

I train hard three times per week, cardio, weights, abs, and like to think I eat fairly well but yet have quite a sizeable ned kelly hanging over my jeans although I'm quite slim-looking overall and reasonably toned elsewhere.

I know I'm putting in enough gym effort to see better results and need to change something but sometimes though I just get plain confused with the various messages out there about what's good to eat and what's not, and when, and I really, really struggle with the whole six meals a day concept - further complicated by not knowing what's good to put in those meals anyway.

In an effort to keep eating al the time I scoff a banana between meals or a handful of nuts but that ain't really gonna do the business is it...?

I'd really appreciate it if somebody could post up their diet that combines all the right things of six a day, proteins and carbs, and how they vary it for gym and non gym days and so on. I suspect this has been asked before so if someone could throw up a link that'd be great.

daveirl

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cavanmaniac

do you combine this with a normal working day, say, office-bound? I'd never get the time or facility to prepare that much food!

Guess I'd have to grill some chicken fillets etc. at night and bung em in a lunchbox!

I see you don't eat any bread whatsoever, I steer clear of white and panini and wraps and so on, but do have a wholemeal bread sandwich with turkey after a workout.

What's the rules on pasta? Ok to have a few hours before a workout or not at all? I was told to cut it out along with white bread and all the obviously bad stuff...

daveirl

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cavanmaniac

I presume you mean minced beef, yes?

This is all very interesting. I guess I need to do some maths in the diet and nutrition thread and find out what I need to be eating.

Alternatively, does anyone here work as a dietician so I could get a 'designed' diet or proper official advice on this. I don't mind paying - don't be fooled by the name!