Need abs...

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diego_obando10
diego_obando10 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So right off the bat, I know abs are overrated and hard to get. I got no problem with working hards towards them. I just feel like im not going the right direction with dieting even tho I have made some progress.. im really stressing over it lately even if im hitting the weights and HIT training hard every week. Im 5'11 1/2 at 161 lbs. any recommendations for macros count to finally start to see some serious results? Or keto diet maybe?

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  • diego_obando10
    diego_obando10 Posts: 4 Member
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    Also I believe my body fat% is sitting somehwere between 15-12%
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    Getting abs means building the muscles in your abs which are fairly easy to do with time. Do planks, crunches, hanging leg raises, etc. Not rocket science. I've been doing those things for over a year, and I can feel the six pack under the loose skin left over from my fat days lol. The problem for me is that there's that loose skin and a tiny layer of fat still there covering them up. I'm at around 12% body fat (honestly I test a bit lower than that but I figure the calipers aren't that accurate because of that loose skin) now and you can't see my abs very well because of it. Nothing I can do but keep up the fat loss and wait and see. Without removing the excess skin I likely never will have washboard abs like people who never were fat in their lives lol. In general though, and as I understand it, if I want a chance at them showing well, I will need to be around 10% body fat or lower. That's going to take another cut for me, and will likely mean being in a slight deficit for another six months to a year. Since I'm working on building muscle in other areas at the moment I am not ready to do that yet.

    So your best bet is build those ab muscles, and lose body fat.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    With those stats, you don't seem to have that much muscle. You really need to determine you calorie deficit and start there. All the workouts & macro break downs aren't going to get you anywhere if your calories are too high. A recomp is probably not a bad option for you either.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach/p1
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    rybo wrote: »
    With those stats, you don't seem to have that much muscle. You really need to determine you calorie deficit and start there. All the workouts & macro break downs aren't going to get you anywhere if your calories are too high. A recomp is probably not a bad option for you either.

    I'd have to agree. If you want results inside of say a year or so, I'd set yourself at a .5lb/wk loss, adjust your macros for fat loss (try iifym's calculators), increase strength training as well as a mix of cardio and be careful to eat back your exercise calories (staying within your macro goals) to fuel muscle gain while losing fat. You won't get huge being in a slight deficit but it'll be re-composition. Once your body fat hits 10% or so you should start seeing some results. Watch the weight, you're in a normal BMI range now, try not to go much below say 20 on the BMI chart before shifting into no deficit (or a slight surplus) and increasing weight training. Visible muscle definition is all about body fat. It would also help if there's some muscle to show once you get the body fat down. Be warned, reducing body fat is a long road if you're trying to retain or even build a little muscle at the same time. Be patient.
  • bigfatguy13088
    bigfatguy13088 Posts: 21 Member
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    Achieving ab visibility is tough. You need to get your bodyfat pretty darn low, maybe 6-8% ? I only achieved this once in life. Now im back up to about 17%bf, trying to get to a more manageable 12ish

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