Fitness advice

R2potat2

Hi
I am looking for some advice I am mid 30's and have a body fat % of 16.6. I don't work out but have a fairly physically demanding job with long hours so I'm in decent shape.
I want to try get a 6pack but even been 5ft 9 and 16% body fat and not even close to having the shape so I have started to work on it should I see results soon or is it pointless and my body just isn't build for a 6pack any information would be great cheers

Alf Veedersane

R2potat2 wrote: »

Hi
I am looking for some advice I am mid 30's and have a body fat % of 16.6. I don't work out but have a fairly physically demanding job with long hours so I'm in decent shape.
I want to try get a 6pack but even been 5ft 9 and 16% body fat and not even close to having the shape so I have started to work on it should I see results soon or is it pointless and my body just isn't build for a 6pack any information would be great cheers

You would need to be a lot leaner to see abs. You're not looking for a short term answer so the solution won't be short term but something to work towards and maintain. So it may not be 'soon' but that depends on how short a time frame you mean by 'soon'.

hurleronditch

R2potat2 wrote: »

Hi
I am looking for some advice I am mid 30's and have a body fat % of 16.6. I don't work out but have a fairly physically demanding job with long hours so I'm in decent shape.
I want to try get a 6pack but even been 5ft 9 and 16% body fat and not even close to having the shape so I have started to work on it should I see results soon or is it pointless and my body just isn't build for a 6pack any information would be great cheers

It’s hard to tell from just your simple body fat percentage as to how easy or hard it will be, some people carry all their body fat around their middle and will need to get well into single figures to see ab definition, others carry it in other places and may get some visible abs at a higher percentage.

That being said, you haven’t alluded to what working on it is? Obviously a solid resistance training regimen is important but if you’re not in a good calorie deficit for a prolonged period of time it’s not going to happen

R2potat2

hurleronditch wrote: »

It’s hard to tell from just your simple body fat percentage as to how easy or hard it will be, some people carry all their body fat around their middle and will need to get well into single figures to see ab definition, others carry it in other places and may get some visible abs at a higher percentage.

That being said, you haven’t alluded to what working on it is? Obviously a solid resistance training regimen is important but if you’re not in a good calorie deficit for a prolonged period of time it’s not going to happen

I have started to do HIIT workouts aimed to work on abs at home 3 times a week and after HIIT workout do 20 minutes of sit ups crunches and planks and run 5k 2 times a week and with my work my Fitbit tells me I burn an average of 2800 calories a day and I have started eating healthy not exactly counting calories but eating well and fresh

Alf Veedersane

R2potat2 wrote: »

I have started to do HIIT workouts aimed to work on abs at home 3 times a week and after HIIT workout do 20 minutes of sit ups crunches and planks and run 5k 2 times a week and with my work my Fitbit tells me I burn an average of 2800 calories a day and I have started eating healthy not exactly counting calories but eating well and fresh

Sit ups, crunches and planks are fine but they won't really have much impact on the visibility of your abs.

The important thing is to be in a caloric deficit to lose fat and get leaner.

hurleronditch

R2potat2 wrote: »

I have started to do HIIT workouts aimed to work on abs at home 3 times a week and after HIIT workout do 20 minutes of sit ups crunches and planks and run 5k 2 times a week and with my work my Fitbit tells me I burn an average of 2800 calories a day and I have started eating healthy not exactly counting calories but eating well and fresh

Don’t trust what Fitbit says, it often overstates the calories burned by exercise and activity. Look up a TDEE calculator online, and be conservative with your activity levels.

The other thing is if you don’t start to see results in a few weeks of your healthy eating you need to start properly weighing food and counting calories. This is stuff everyone has heard a million times before but an extra spoon of olive oil here or an avocado added to a healthy salad there will blow a calorie deficit without you feeling like you’ve broken out at all.

Mellor

hurleronditch wrote: »

Don’t trust what Fitbit says, it often overstates the calories burned by exercise and activity. Look up a TDEE calculator online, and be conservative with your activity levels.

Fit bits aren’t perfect but at least they are basing it off of activity and heartrate.
People generally overestimate TDEE using calculators. I’d expect fitbits to be more accurate overall unless somebody knows how to measure tdee properly

The chan chan man

Abs are built in the kitchen, not in the gym.


Thats why I’ll never have a six pack!

R2potat2

I appreciate all the advice maybe I should have been a bit clearer in my goals. I am not looking to be ripped to bit I would just like there to be a slightly visible definition. I have only started to work on muscle building which I have never done before. And on days I am in work I for sure burning more calories than I consume but days off not so much. I guess I was hoping with the better diet and exercise that I would have something to show for it in about 4/6months.

I used to drink alcohol every day and had a big beer belly but I have stopped that now with my work I was able to eat anything I wanted and maintain a healthy weight like I would have take away pizza burger Chinese like 4 times a week in work when I got tired I'd have a full pack of biscuits or 4 Mars bars at a time or 6 packs of crisps. I could eat like that 5 days a week and still maintain a sub 20% body fat. I was a savage but never gained to much weight.

Mellor

R2potat2 wrote: »

I could eat like that 5 days a week and still maintain a sub 20% body fat. I was a savage but never gained to much weight.

Sub 20 should be easy to maintain. It’s still kinda overweight.
You only need to be slightly active and you’d plateau at 20%bf

R2potat2

Also guys I have another query
I have looked into resting metabolic rate and from online calculators I work out mine is 1788
Does that mean I should add that to the amount of calories my pedometer says or is that some how included?
Like right now I have done 8605 steps that's 368.5 calories it's 11:30 am so I will do near 20000 steps today and thats not taking into account the lifting I do in work usually 900 cases average weight 6-10 kg some 25kg.
So if I was to just double the amount of calories on my pedometer and eat within that amount of calories I'd be safe to assume I'm consuming less calories than taking in?
Again guy all information is appreciated

Cill94

R2potat2 wrote: »

Also guys I have another query
I have looked into resting metabolic rate and from online calculators I work out mine is 1788
Does that mean I should add that to the amount of calories my pedometer says or is that some how included?
Like right now I have done 8605 steps that's 368.5 calories it's 11:30 am so I will do near 20000 steps today and thats not taking into account the lifting I do in work usually 900 cases average weight 6-10 kg some 25kg.
So if I was to just double the amount of calories on my pedometer and eat within that amount of calories I'd be safe to assume I'm consuming less calories than taking in?
Again guy all information is appreciated

In theory, the answer to this is yes.

However you need to take calorie estimates with a massive pinch of salt. They can be off the mark by quite a bit.

The most accurate way to find out your maintenance calories is to consistently record your calorie intake and the effect that has on your weight. I'd log food intake in an app like MyFitness Pal or Chronometer.

Mellor

Cill94 wrote: »

In theory, the answer to this is yes.

However you need to take calorie estimates with a massive pinch of salt. They can be off the mark by quite a bit.

The answer is actually no. When a device or calculator says you’ve burned 300 calls through activity. That’s total so it’s inclusive of the energy you would have burned had you been resting.

Resting metabolic rate is not going to vary a lot from calculated values, especially if it considers lean mass.
Errors are usually in overestimating activity.