Abs are made in the kitchen?

2»

Replies

  • moesis
    moesis Posts: 874 Member
    Run, run, run. The Army was the only time that I had ripped abs. At the time I was running 16 - 20 miles a week, lifting weights in the afternoon & a montly 12 mile road march with a full combat load during PT. That was life in the Infantry.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
    The statement is a little incorrect. You don't make abdominal muscles in the kitchen. But diet is how you lose the fat to reveal the muscles. You can have rock hard abs covered by fat. If you want to see the abs in the mirror, you need to start in the kitchen.
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
    edited May 2015
    Add me if you'd like :) I lost 15-17 kgs without exercise but by changing my eating habits. I lost the last three by exercising more and still eating a deficit. At that point, my body fat percentage had gotten down low enough that I started to see toning results from working out! I was also lazy in eating and prep. I know how hard it is to find a solution with all those crazy diets out there. My simplest advice:

    - Cut all sodas, alcohol etc. Drink water.
    - Base all your meals as much as you can around fresh produce (vegs, fruit) and protein (lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs). Add a (smaller) carb element, like pasta, rice or some bread.
    - Learn to avoid pre-packaged food or food with tons of ingredients. For example, make your own pasta sauce based on tomato or passata instead of one in a pot, make/bring your own salad/sandwiches, replace cookies/crisps full of random ingredients with dark chocolate, nuts, etc.

    If you find it hard, take it step by step. I started with cutting all the drinks (makes a huge difference in calorie intake!), then added more vegetables and fruit, slowly cut processed foods, etc. etc. etc.

    Whereas I did pretty much the opposite-drank diet soda and alcohol, continued to eat all the foods I liked, including pre-packaged ones, food with long ingredient lists that I couldn't pronounce, fast food etc etc. Oh, and lots of cookies :)

    Lost the weight with no problems just focusing on CICO and eating at a calorie deficit, and as I got my bf% down (currently in the 22% range), my stomach started looking much better. Along with that, I recently finished a 100 pushups challenge and took my profile picture as I was wrapping that up (picture was taken a few minutes after my morning can of diet Coke btw). That's the only exercise I had done, along with the lower weight and bf%, to get my abs visible like they are.


  • astralpictures
    astralpictures Posts: 218 Member
    Start in the kitchen if you have fat to lose, but define in the gym. I know plenty of skinny fat or even just skinny people with flat stomachs, but they have no definition in their abs. Core and strength training by lifting heavy with a solid program goes a long way to body composition.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,366 Member
    I know plenty of skinny fat or even just skinny people with flat stomachs, but they have no definition in their abs.

    I'd probably fall into that category. Even at around 17% BF (female) I had no discernible abdominal muscles.

    Months of standard weight lifting did nothing to change that. I found I had to add some ab-specific exercises to my workout. Fortunately that proved very effective, probably because I was starting at such a low BF.
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    Searched for 'abs' on allrecipes.com. Found nothing.

    Lose weight in the kitchen, build muscle in the gym.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    basically you cut (diet) to expose abs. You have to be at a relatively low BF% for abs to pop. Yes...you have to have the muscle, so you have to exercise...but cutting fat to expose that muscle happens with diet...thus abs are made in the kitchen.
  • FitForL1fe
    FitForL1fe Posts: 1,872 Member
    this thread needs an infusion of lulz stat

    y so srs
  • JeraldTX
    JeraldTX Posts: 42 Member
    edited May 2015
    Uhm, I was going to add something but I think everyone above has it pretty much covered.

    Except for this

    As for contradictory advice on what to eat... How much is more important than what.
    Although you do get more veggies per calorie than pizza, sometimes you just have to have a slice (or not). Just stick to your calorie goals.

    Go to it and Good Luck.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    It's already covered, but I'll share my personal experience on this and a writeup I just did recently:

    A lot of people ask me how do you get abs?

    They say abs are made in the kitchen. That is partially true. It's the calorie deficit that melts off the fat so they show. You can be super strong and have abs, but they are hidden in a layer of fat.

    We all store fat in different patterns and you can't really change that without surgery (personally I wouldn't go there). It's genetic. Some people have beautiful fat patterns and some of that looks better when you are younger. It's not fair but it is what it is.

    Some of those beautiful young girl butt pictures where they say do squats - yes of course squats help but also they have a pretty fat storage pattern. It's not fair but it is what it is. Some pictures are photo shopped for sure. I don't really care about any of that. All that matters is that we have the knowledge that we all have our own unique fat storage pattern that we can only really control with diet and calorie deficit.

    Back to ABS though. Lifting weights in general will build those abs. Heavy all body workouts. You don't have to do a huge amount of core work to get them. If you have too much fat still then the core work will just make you thicker through the waist.

    It's best to focus on two things:

    1) Calorie deficit and diet

    2) All body lifting, heavy some days, light some days; circuits, body weight exercises, pyramid and superset routines, pulse sets, timed sets, different angles, all kinds of changing it up.

    Then once you start seeing some definition you can tweak it to refine those abs.

    Take-Ownership-BnA-hiking-and-PCSO-abs_zpshxxigv7m.jpg


    And once I learned to "tweak" my workouts, the abs show even under my shirt on occasion.

    What-makes-ABS-Roberta-at-persistent-lifstyle-purple-shirt-IG_zpst3rpyyhm.jpg

    FUN stuff!!!!
    -Roberta
  • CoffeeNBooze
    CoffeeNBooze Posts: 966 Member
    I agree with lowering your body fat % at a caloric deficit is how you are going to make your stomach more defined. Do you guys think traditional ab exercises help that along too, or is that more for strength/fitness?
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    TiaBia9 wrote: »
    I agree with lowering your body fat % at a caloric deficit is how you are going to make your stomach more defined. Do you guys think traditional ab exercises help that along too, or is that more for strength/fitness?

    That depends too. Some people store fat under/in the muscle and it pops more, others store the fat over the muscle and it requires lower body fat. For some people doing the extra ab work makes them look more thick until they get lean enough. It really is different for each person and the only way to know is to actually experiment with all this on your own body.

    But you got the gist of it ;)

  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
    edited May 2015
    Add me if you'd like :) I lost 15-17 kgs without exercise but by changing my eating habits. I lost the last three by exercising more and still eating a deficit. At that point, my body fat percentage had gotten down low enough that I started to see toning results from working out! I was also lazy in eating and prep. I know how hard it is to find a solution with all those crazy diets out there. My simplest advice:

    - Cut all sodas, alcohol etc. Drink water.
    - Base all your meals as much as you can around fresh produce (vegs, fruit) and protein (lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs). Add a (smaller) carb element, like pasta, rice or some bread.
    - Learn to avoid pre-packaged food or food with tons of ingredients. For example, make your own pasta sauce based on tomato or passata instead of one in a pot, make/bring your own salad/sandwiches, replace cookies/crisps full of random ingredients with dark chocolate, nuts, etc.

    If you find it hard, take it step by step. I started with cutting all the drinks (makes a huge difference in calorie intake!), then added more vegetables and fruit, slowly cut processed foods, etc. etc. etc.

    Whereas I did pretty much the opposite-drank diet soda and alcohol, continued to eat all the foods I liked, including pre-packaged ones, food with long ingredient lists that I couldn't pronounce, fast food etc etc. Oh, and lots of cookies :)

    Lost the weight with no problems just focusing on CICO and eating at a calorie deficit, and as I got my bf% down (currently in the 22% range), my stomach started looking much better. Along with that, I recently finished a 100 pushups challenge and took my profile picture as I was wrapping that up (picture was taken a few minutes after my morning can of diet Coke btw). That's the only exercise I had done, along with the lower weight and bf%, to get my abs visible like they are.


    That's ridiculous! Very absurd! Everyone knows that Coke Zero is far superior to Diet Coke! This is pretty much me too. Add in ice cream and cheese curds. Can't forget those. I workout 3 times a week for about 1 1/2 hours. Usually includes cardio. When I lost a lot of my weight, I wasn't able to workout at all. You can workout 4 hours a day, 7 days a week, but if you don't lose the fat around the muscle, no one will see it.

    I love coke cherry zero but also love diet coke with lime <3 I'm actually drinking diet grape soda right now, just to shake things up lol.
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,841 Member
    jcalicott wrote: »
    Abs are made in the kitchen?

    Yes, and served hot with farve beans and a fine Chianti.

  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
    Add me if you'd like :) I lost 15-17 kgs without exercise but by changing my eating habits. I lost the last three by exercising more and still eating a deficit. At that point, my body fat percentage had gotten down low enough that I started to see toning results from working out! I was also lazy in eating and prep. I know how hard it is to find a solution with all those crazy diets out there. My simplest advice:

    - Cut all sodas, alcohol etc. Drink water.
    - Base all your meals as much as you can around fresh produce (vegs, fruit) and protein (lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs). Add a (smaller) carb element, like pasta, rice or some bread.
    - Learn to avoid pre-packaged food or food with tons of ingredients. For example, make your own pasta sauce based on tomato or passata instead of one in a pot, make/bring your own salad/sandwiches, replace cookies/crisps full of random ingredients with dark chocolate, nuts, etc.

    If you find it hard, take it step by step. I started with cutting all the drinks (makes a huge difference in calorie intake!), then added more vegetables and fruit, slowly cut processed foods, etc. etc. etc.

    Whereas I did pretty much the opposite-drank diet soda and alcohol, continued to eat all the foods I liked, including pre-packaged ones, food with long ingredient lists that I couldn't pronounce, fast food etc etc. Oh, and lots of cookies :)

    Lost the weight with no problems just focusing on CICO and eating at a calorie deficit, and as I got my bf% down (currently in the 22% range), my stomach started looking much better. Along with that, I recently finished a 100 pushups challenge and took my profile picture as I was wrapping that up (picture was taken a few minutes after my morning can of diet Coke btw). That's the only exercise I had done, along with the lower weight and bf%, to get my abs visible like they are.


    That's ridiculous! Very absurd! Everyone knows that Coke Zero is far superior to Diet Coke! This is pretty much me too. Add in ice cream and cheese curds. Can't forget those. I workout 3 times a week for about 1 1/2 hours. Usually includes cardio. When I lost a lot of my weight, I wasn't able to workout at all. You can workout 4 hours a day, 7 days a week, but if you don't lose the fat around the muscle, no one will see it.

    I love coke cherry zero but also love diet coke with lime <3 I'm actually drinking diet grape soda right now, just to shake things up lol.

    I'm drinking the cherry version right now. And I don't know who made Vanilla Coke Zero, but it is pure crack cocaine. I can't find it in the grocery stores, but I stop at the magic million choice soda pop machine in Wendy's once in a while to get it.

    I've never tried vanilla coke zero.....now I'm on a mission to find it lol.
  • skiclimbdive
    skiclimbdive Posts: 32 Member
    "The best ab exercise is three sets of stop eating so damn much." ~ T-Nation

    This is awesome.
  • betuel75
    betuel75 Posts: 776 Member
    I think working the abs muscles also helps once you get lean enough. There are plenty of real skinny/low body fat people out there without their abs showing. Because they dont work them.