can lifting really help flatten a tummy?

Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.

first of all, a flat tummy is made in the kitchen. now, lifting is being proven to increase your energy expenditure aka calories burn, which will as a result turn into more fat burning. however, if good lifting and cardio sessions aren't accompanied by a good diet it becomes useless. I would suggest you to read muscle myths by michael matthews.

so its pretty much diet related i assume, eh?

YES.

You have to reduce overall body fat to reveal what's underneath. Can't spot reduce for "six pack abs" without otherwise having very low bodyfat.

so its pretty much diet related i assume, eh?

YES.

You have to reduce overall body fat to reveal what's underneath. Can't spot reduce for "six pack abs" without otherwise having very low bodyfat.

Exactly. Almost everyone already has six pack abs, but it is buried under fat. You have to remove it to see them is all.

Now, the other stuff everyone is talking about is HOW to best remove that fat to see the abs. Lifting is excellent as well as cardio. The combination you want is whatever you will do consistently to create a caloric deficit and increase your BMR without hating it.

There's a reason why people are answering with "lift."

Partially it's because telling women to lift weights has become fashionable. And partially because way too few people, women in particular, do any resistance training at all.

"I want to lose weight" and "I want to be skinnier" are superficial goals. For a lot of trainers they're also meaningless goals. If all you want to do is lose weight, then eat less. Eat to a caloric deficit consistently for long enough and you will reach your weight goal. No exercise required.

However, at the end of this process you'll likely find that while you're lighter, you're also a lot weaker, or at least not any stronger or fitter. Weight loss is about food. Fitness is about exercise. Where they get all mixed up is that most people who are pursuing fitness goals are also pursuing changes to their body composition.

For instance, I have goals around wanting to be able to do a certain number of pull-ups, run 2 miles in under 20 minutes, etc. I can achieve all of those goals without giving a fig about how much I weigh. If I'm only interested in doing 30 unassisted pull-ups then I can get there by doing pull-ups, increasing the number of reps per set I do over a given period of time. Same for running. To get to my goal I can do so by running. None of that has anything to do with the number on the scale. As a matter of fact, I rode my bike around Lake Tahoe in under 6 hours (100 miles) when I was 45 lbs. overweight. I was a fat guy who could ride a bike really far, and reasonably fast.

I can also have a goal of reducing my body fat percentage so that I look as fit as I am. This also has pretty much nothing to do with what the scale says. I'm at about 16% body fat right now. If I want to see my abs I need to get below 12% at least - 10 is really where they'll start to show dramatically. Easiest way to do this is actually for me to gain weight in the form of increased lean muscle mass by lifting heavy and watching my macronutrients like a hawk. If I eat enough protein, lift enough, get appropriate rest and say no to pizza and cookies (and bread and rice and potatoes, etc.) my lean mass % will go up and my body fat % will go down - but I will probably weigh about 15 to 25 lbs. more than I do now because lean muscle tissue weighs more than fat.

So, that's where you get the more and more common advice that if you want to have six pack abs you should lift. Can you reduce your body fat percentage doing cardio and no weight training? Sure. In either case the key is nutrition and rest.

-Tex

i used to care what the scale said, but now i figured hat im the only one who knows the number, and not anyone else. no one will look at me and say, wow she's 117 pounds lol i want them to say wow she has a banging body :laugh:

Exactly! At a certain point it no longer matters what the scale says. Do your clothes fit you better? Do you like what you see in the mirror? Do you feel good, and strong and healthy? Those are all much more important metrics than the number on the scale.

-Tex

People who say that abs are made in the kitchen. True to a certain extent, we all have abs. sure in the kitchen is where it all depends if they show or not, but they are a muscle just like any other, work it out to grow it and thicken it. Just eating right and never doing abs will not get you the abs or lean look you want! Good luck !

No, spot reduction is a myth . . . . however personally i have found lifting (combined with sensible eating) has really helped me to completely change my body composition so there's more muscle, less fat and therefore everything (including my tummy) looks flatter and tighter