ABS? Body fat?

butterflymarks

I want that nice abs look for women that look like this ( I know I could never get THIS, but a girl can dream!)


Alright. So I am farely new to MFP, and to actually working out. I do general cardio and some calisthenics, and a little pilates (which I log as calisthenics).

Do you HAVE to eat healthy (I know how to eat low cal, but it's hard to always eat healthy food like veggies and such) ALL the time?
Also how often should I work out?
What kind of workouts do yall do?
Have any of yall gone from my body shape to that?
Should I be eating more?

I'm 5ft 7in. I weigh 102lbs ( I know I should weigh more, but I'd rather gain the weight in muscle and not fat so I really don't know what to do about calories)




Any answers to my questions or any insight would be greatly appreciated!

SergeantSunshine_reused

To get a body like that you need to eat a lot more. To gain muscle you should be strength training and eating a surplus of calories

Lift_hard_eat_big

Lift super heavy, look into strong lifts 5x5 routine, and eat at a surplus with lots of protein. Then when you've gained a sufficient amount of muscle mass and you are happy with your strength and mass, slowly transition to a cut to shed body fat to reveal your abs.

Shizzman

Work on training for strength. See about learning deadlifts, squats, and body weight exercises. Start eating more...down the road you might end up trying bulking and then cutting (losing fat that might have come with muscle).

Don't worry about fat, just focus on gaining muscle...plus in general consider height weight it seems like you could use more food/fuel.

MeadowSong

Get the book "New Rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Schuler. So worth the $20. I've gotten my plan together and am starting in the morning. This guy has got all the research and experience and none of the hokey junk. You might not have the genes to look like the woman in the pic, but you can look the best for you--and more important--it's real. It's health. It's strength. I've done a lot of reading and I've ran for years and finally am realizing why I haven't been getting the results I've been wanting. I'm buying this book (guy's version for the guys) for all five of my kids (young adults). And you can do it at home with basic equipment if you live to far from a gym like I do. I just bought my weights and bench of craigslist. Or get a membership at a really good gym where they can teach you how to eat for health--not to be skinny. The girl in your pic works, she doesn't look like that from dieting. More power to ya!

insalt

Eat to gain muscle for a couple of months and try doing some exercises which work your abs, increase protein intake to maximise the muscle gain here and you will need to up protein in general to roughly 1g per pound of your bodyweight.

This woman does other exercises though, I see that she has firm arms as well as abs. She probably does some training with resistance - the best thing here would be to do free weights but if that seems intimidating; try situps and planks for your abdomen, perhaps pushups to keep your arms in check, bodyweight squats whilst tensing your abs to work your legs and glutes.

Once you've gained enough muscle (you will gain fat too), cut down using myfitnesspal's "lose one pound per week" with your new weight entered in and you should end up lean, and more toned.

Remember, you cannot gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously. "Toning" is a combination of these things and is impossible to do at once due to the nature of our bodies.

qtiekiki

You need to eat well more than you do now to gain muscles, more proteins. You need to eat at a surplus to gain muscles. For the look without gain weight, I would eat at your maintenance and do strength training.

nikkiprickett

Thinking like that "I know i can never get this" you never well. You can do it.

this!!

nikkiprickett

To get a body like that you need to eat a lot more. To gain muscle you should be strength training and eating a surplus of calories

and this

kevin3344

You also may want to try Jillian's Michael's "6 Week 6 Pack". My gf bought the DVD, I think it was $9 at Target and her abs are amazing! There are a lot of core exercises that work your abs.

cherrytulips

Lift super heavy, look into strong lifts 5x5 routine, and eat at a surplus with lots of protein. Then when you've gained a sufficient amount of muscle mass and you are happy with your strength and mass, slowly transition to a cut to shed body fat to reveal your abs.

thanks for this advice!

sunray11julie

i think Chalean Extreme would be the perfect program to reach your goals... message me if you want to learn more

sollyn

bump, some really interesting advice on here! Thanks for posting.

mikesa3

You won't be able to gain muscle til you eat way more calories especially protein. You can get protein bars or protein powder to make shakes to help get enough protein in. I just bought powder at Walmart called Body fortress. It has 26 grams protein per scoop. Eggs are great protein too.You have to feed your body well to get muscles and you can't do that eating under the recommended calories per day. As other have posted weight lifting is the way to get muscles. Push ups and planks are great for abs. You can get abs like the girl in picture but you do need to eat more. Good luck.
Nancy
PS You have the body shape, you just need some muscle to look like picture .

butterflymarks

Thank you all for the information!

I'm trying to eat more, recovering from an eating disorder, and instead of wanting to look fragile, I want to look like her!

People on this website help so much so yay! Hopefully one day I'll be able to post a picture of my abs!

Katie3784

If you are recovering from an ED, you should not be using this site at all. How can you not be totally focused on your weight when you are on a weight loss website?

kneeki

As I'm sure it's stated above, you can easily get the abs in that first pic so long as you have the correct diet and LIFT weights. *DO NOT DO CARDIO!* You're lean enough. Increase your weight training, and train your abs using weights to increase the muscle belly in your abdominals. You already have the figure, you just need the training.

spammyanna

If you are recovering from an ED, you should not be using this site at all. How can you not be totally focused on your weight when you are on a weight loss website?

This isn't called my weight loss pal, it's called my FITNESS pal. People are here to get healthy, not just lose weight.

And good for you for wanting to look healthy! There is some great advice in this thread.

Huffdogg

@Katie: MFP is only a weight loss website if that is what you want to use it for.

@OP: abs are made 80% in the kitchen. Lowering BF% is the only way to get visible abs. I would suggest, personally, doing this through eating at maintenance and lifting heavy weights. High protein diet with plenty of nutrition to fuel muscle growth.

queenbeejulie

Marking, there is some great advice in here that I want to come back and read!