TOP 6 WAYS TO GET A 6 PACK

As you all know, I am a low carb advocate, however, I don’t believe in being closed minded to any point of view.  I have a facebook friend who has some great ideas about eating and exercise and I offered him a spot as a guest poster this week.  So without further adieu, here is The Fitness Godfather Frank, Loosing Weight, Graham.

TOP 6 WAYS TO GET A 6 PACK

by Fitness Godfather.

 

 

1)THE 24/7 DIET.

 

Having a strict diet Monday to Friday is great but the results from eating right and exercising will be sabotaged, even ruined, when you take the weekend off. You must diet consistently with an exception to 1 or 2 planned cheat meals throughout the week – but don’t use a cheat meal as an excuse to have a cheat day. Make dieting part of your lifestyle – this is challenging for everyone but by doing so you will improve your self-discipline. Another important point is that the dieting phase will not last forever, eating in this way will produce good results if followed strictly and once you have lost the desired amount fat you will only have to maintain your physique not improve it – so the better you stick to the diet phase the quicker you will be able to enjoy the maintenance phase.

 

 

2)GET YOUR PROTIEN IN

 

Many diet plans do not incorporate enough protein or perhaps suggest taking too much. The macro-ratio which has worked best is broken down into 40 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrates and 20 percent fats. I think this is a good rule of thumb to follow when dieting and remember to cut back on your calorie intake. Try to consume 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight and choose lean sources of protein such as fish, chicken breast, whey isolate protein powders and before bed I like to eat cottage cheese, the reason for this is because it contains casein protein which is a fancy name for slow releasing protein which means when you sleep your body will not be in a catabolic (muscle burning instead of fat burning) state. As well as eating enough protein eat most of your carbohydrates earlier in the day and after 7pm eat only fibrous carbohydrates with lean proteins.

 

 

 

 

3)SKIPPING MEALS TO SKIP CALORIES?

 

 

Meal Frequency is an important part of dieting as it keeps your metabolism high which of course burns more calories. People skip meals because they are not hungry, this is a mistake, you must calculate how many calories your need to lose weight and stick to those calories each day and eat at the same time each day, if you do not your metabolism will slow down and you can burn less fat. The most important meals in the day are breakfast, pre-workout, post-workout and before bed. Try to have at least 6 meals a day and eat every 2-3 hours. An interesting study in the University of Massachusetts showed people who skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to have excess body fat than those who don’t so make sure you have a good nutritious breakfast everyday and eat 4-5 other small meals spread throughout the day to keep that metabolism burning fat not muscle!

 

 

4)CHOOSE THE RIGHT EXERCISES

 

A lot of people focus on crunches when trying to get a 6 pack which is a huge mistake! You cannot build muscle when you are calorie deficient such as when you are dieting so your abs will not get much bigger if at all! Therefore focus on eating less calories, performing cardio and exercises that burn more fat like compound exercises, for example, SQUAT, DEADLIFT and BENCH PRESS which also strengthen your abs.

In terms of building bigger abdominal muscles lower abs are harder than upper abs so focus on exercises like hanging leg raises or captains chair or if you do not have the equipment reverse crunches. Finish off your workout with some crunches to stimulate your upper abs. But these abdominal exercises will not give the results cardio and a good diet provide.

 

 

5)CARDIO TIMING AND INTENSITY!

 

The key to a 6 pack is really acquiring some muscle mass through a bulking phase where we eat more calories than our bodies need followed by what is known as a “cutting” phase, most people just call this dieting, where we create a calorie deficit which will burn fat. A good calorie deficit is around 500 calories less than your body uses throughout the day or we can eat maintenance level calories and perform cardio. The best time to do cardio is in the morning as it burns more calories than night time, training intensely for 10-15 minutes is shown to be more productive than low intensity for fat loss. However, if you are already eating 500 calories less than your body needs and performing too much cardio your body will use muscle not fat as an energy source (muscle catabolism). Therefore, it is best to slowly loose “weight” (by about 1lbs to 3lbs per week) otherwise the weight you will lose will be both muscle and fat instead of exclusively loosing fat which is how to show off your abdominal muscles.

 

 

6)FLUIDS!

 

An often underestimated part of trying to achieve the “6 pack” is water consumption. Here are the rules I follow concerning liquids when dieting:

 

1) Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day (do not overdo it or you will be at the toilet constantly)

2) Only drink water or green tea – no sodas.

3) Beware of drinks which have “no added sugar” as they can contain natural sugars.

4) If you drink diet sodas or fruit juice consume before 6 pm and if you consume milk make sure it is skimmed.

 

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Chiropractor, Dr. Joe Leonardi is the author of the life changing book; Fat Then Fit Now;  A life beyond wight loss.

He is available to speak at no charge to any school or any youth group. He will make himself available to any talk radio, internet podcasting or television outlet. He has appeared on Public Television WVIA’s State of Pennsylvania and Call the Doctor; Lisa Davis’ Your health radio; Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low Carb podcast; Hank Garner’s Podcast.

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