What is a good way to get abs while losing body fat at the same time?

[Bored]

What exercises should I do to get abs? I have abs but they don't show.

What exercises should I do to lose body fat? I have small abs, but I have a layer of body fat over them. I want to remove this layer.

I also have small love handles that I want gone. How would I go about doing that? I have a treadmill, a glider, a bike, and some weights. The weights only go up to about 35 pounds.


What foods are good to eat?

Are these foods good to eat and drink?

-Tuna fish sandwich
-milk
-pistachios,cashews
-hotpockets
-green tea/diet green tea

Those are things I usually eat and drink often.

 

[justsimon]

Hotpockets are not good for you.

 

[chrisw87]

to clear up some mis-information you might have received in the past.

1. You can not spot-reduce fat. The only way to show abs is to lower your body fat percentage until they are uncovered. I am currently at 15% and only my top 2 rows of abs are showing, my genetics are proving annoying, my lower abs are still covered in flab.

2. Work out your calorie requirements and cut them by 500-750 calories. Very basic and still with some faults but it provides a good base level for fat loss.

3. STRENGTH. Lifting weights is the best way to burn fat and build lean muscle tone. Muscle fights fat and you get a hell of an endorphin rush doing it.

4. CARDIO. Cardio is great for general health and well recommended, but please adjust your diet as you will risk losing your strength/muscle gains without adapting your intake to refuel your body.

5. Food... ok this will be a bit long but hold in with me.

6. AB EXERCISES. They won't give you abs, but they will help develop them further. Everyone already has abs, exercises and machines like the ab-whatever-2000-mega-pro-etc are a gimmick in a slight way. If your abs are covered by fat... the fat is the problem. Ab size is a different thing all together though, you SHOULD always exercise your abs and related muscles because they are your 'core strength' and help in nearly every day to day task you encounter.

7. Fat loss without strength training results in messy bodies. Strengthening and building your muscles will result in a firmer and 'tighter' body that tends to hide that you have lost weight.

I tend to eat a diet rich in protein, healthy fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) and complex carbs. Carbs are unavoidable, veggies, fruits, etc they are all carb rich but in the good way. The carbs you want to remove are things like sugary crap, sodas, candy, and processed foods.

Hot pockets are not productive to your goals...

A good well rounded meal would include a good portion of lean meat such as chicken, seafood or other white meat (red is fine, but I prefer whiter). Load that up with plenty of colour from veggies, greens are brilliant, but include the full spectrum from red, purple, orange and the rest. I did not eat a lot of grains and simpler carbs like rice and pasta until I started a lot of cardio, now I eat plenty of rice and pasta to help refuel my body easier.

The best thing you will ever do is to change your food intake to be high in protein (keeps you full, maintains your muscle) and also full of healthy fats (avocado, fish oils etc). But first thing is first, re-evaluate your diet and remove all the garbage. That alone will provide a good boost to your ability to lose fat.

My experience has only been from trial and error as well as corresponding with my relatives in the health and medical field. But through the basics I have written about I have lost 40kg (88lbs) in 12 months.

 

[chrisw87]

Ok now for the exercises;

If you want to build your abs up, start from the ground up!

Do some lower body exercises such as squats or deadlifts. Basically round out your entire body with weight training, it will provide a good boost to your progress as well.

When it comes to exercises that work my abs, these are what help most and what I do daily;

1. Pushups till failure.
2. Decline situps till failure (usually with 10-20kg weight on my chest but without is fine too)
3. The plank... put yourself in a pushup position but with your elbows on the ground. Hold that position for at least a minute. It sounds easy but it will burn you like you won't believe.
4. Heaves / Chinups till failure. While they are primarily for upper body, I find I feel it in my stomach too when I stabilize myself mid-lift.

There are many more but those are my main 'ab' related exercises. Most free-weight exercises are complex movements that use many muscles in your body so naturally will tend to incorporate your abs.

edit: and if anyone tells you milk is a bad thing (I re-read your initial post) verbally slap them. Milk is brilliant if you are not lactose tolerant. While it is high in saturated fat, it is full of concentrated awesomeness (ok maybe not that much). However I do drink probably 2-5 litres of milk per fortnight. Full fat too, however reduced fat is perfectly fine. Skim I find useless, might as well drink water.

 

[codeerror]

Any reason why you do all exercises to failure?

I know you can get gains by training to failure, but personally I got more gains from stopping before failure.

 

[chrisw87]

Any reason why you do all exercises to failure?

I know you can get gains by training to failure, but personally I got more gains from stopping before failure.

On strength exercises I stop before failure, but on calisthenics/bodyweight stuff like pushups and situps I usually group into sets of 25 until failure. Chinups I can still only do 10 so it is more of an interest to see how far I can go.

Oh weights, I usually keep it as 8 reps where 10 is failure.

 

[Bored]

Those are interesting. The food thing is going to be a problem because I can't always afford all of these foods.

What foods would be good to eat? Would canned white tuna be good? pb&j? Should I eat before or after I workout.

 

[Bored]

This is what I am gonna try and do tomorrow.

First, I'm either going to walk/run on my treadmill, or ride my bike for like 20 minutes or so. Maybe an hour or two later I will do some situps and pushups then lift some weights. Finally, whichever I did not do in the morning (treadmill or biking) I will do last.


That would really be it for the day. Is that enough?

 

[chrisw87]

I advise the following;

1. Pushups (try for 25, if you can do 25 easy, do multiple sets)
-harder pushups can be things like putting a ball under your toes (medicine ball, exercise ball etc) or a ball under 1 hand only to put your body off centre and activate your core muscles for stability.
2. Situps (as per pushups)
-Harder pushups can be with weight, decline etc.
3. Plank for 1-2 minutes.
4. Treadmill, find your 'cruising speed' where you can run for longer distances without wearing yourself out too much. Run at that pace for a while with alternating spurts of faster running. Aim for 20-40 minutes of this.

If you are going to do weights, reduce the amount of pushups and situps you do, and focus on muscle groups (push exercises, pull exercises and legs) make sure you group similar exercises but not opposing ones. That way you can work different muscle groups different days allowing for a rest period for your body to fix itself up. Over exercising will not grow muscle.

 

[Bored]

This is what I will do:

-2 sets of 25 pushups
-30 minutes of running and walking (switching up as I get tired)
-15 sets of lifting my weight. I will lift it 10 times per set
-15 sets of situps. 15 situps per set. I might do half situps half crunches
-If I can, I will ride my bike. It's raining today.


As for food. I plan on having a green apple, a tuna fish sandwich, some cashews, and some milk right after or before I work out.

 

[Bored]

Wow, new forum and I can't edit it later?

I'm not doing all of those at one time. I will do situps and pushups together then later I will run.

 

[Bored]

This is what I did:

Ran for 10 minutes on treadmill at 5mph, walked fast for 2 minutes at 4mph, walked for 3 minutes at 3mph, ran for 5 minutes at 5mph, walked fast for 5 minutes at 4mph, ran for 5 minutes at 5mph, and finally walked for 3 minutes at 3mph. Came out to about 33 minutes. I'm now eating a green apple and drinking water.

 

[chrisw87]

Good start, don't be afraid to push your boundarys as your cardio improves.

I was in a similar position to you in terms of treadmill speed, in about 2-3 months I progressed to

10 minute running @ 8mph
1 minute jogging/walking @4mph
2 minute running @ 11mph
7 minute run @ 8mph
10 minute cooldown jog @ 6mph
10 minute cooldown walk @ 3mph

Basically I have been focusing on the 1.5 mile run time, so I don't have a lot of stats for longer distance running however I started around the 14-15 minute mark for 1.5 miles, currently sitting around the 12m 15s mark for 1.5

Cardio will improve steadily and fairly quickly if you haven't run much in the past, so keep upping the ante to challenge your body.

 

[chrisw87]

currently having breakfast;
small bowl of oats, 2 pieces of wholegrain toast with avocado, glass of berocca, coffee.

Will have to wait till after work for the gym, but doing push/abs/cardio today so;
(pics related, free eye candy )

1. Starting off with 25 pushups

2. Bench press

3. Incline dumbbell press

4. cable fly tricep extensions

5. decline weighted situps

6. plank or side plank

7. light walk/jog on treadmill to warm up, followed by 1.5mile run test, followed by probably 10-15 minutes jogging and then cooldown.

 

[Bored]

It isn't that I get tired, It's more that my foot ends up hurting. It is like a warm tightening pain.

This is what I have done for food today.

Morning-A bowl of Pops cereal
Sometime around 11:30-Bowl of beans
Around 4:30-Tuna fish sandwich, apple, and cashews

I've had another apple at one point during the, day but I can't remember the time.

As for the planking, I couldn't do it for more than 10 seconds at a time. I did it for like 5-10 seconds each time and I did them about 10 times.

I manged to do all of the exercises I said I would. I even got a chance to go ride my bike for like 20 minutes. About 20 minutes on on a bike trail, and like 10 going to the dentist.

Should my muscles be sore? They aren't.

 

[Bored]

I feel a little hungry. I also think I ate too little today. I don't want my body to eat away at my muscle, so I'm going to have a small bowl of frosted mini wheats and some cashews. I'm sure it isn't the best thing, but I think it is the healthiest I have right now.

 

[chrisw87]

next time you get paid, invest in some higher protein healthy foods.

Nuts are great in moderation, however I usually snack on the following;

*cottage cheese.
*milk
*oats (though high in simple carbs, still good for you)
*Muesli mixed into yogurt (Ehh... Vanilla, I know its full of sugar and not good for me, but I can't stand natural yogurt)
*Honey and almond al bran cereal (tasty stuff).
*Baked beans (frrrt) High in sugar, but not that bad.

How are you warming up and cooling down with running? It will improve over time, you have only just started, so don't worry, take your time and things will improve.

For warming up I always stretch first, then walk for 3-4 minutes, then up the speed for 2 minutes, then slow again for 1 minute.

The burning pain, if immediate is usually a result of over exertion or lack of warmup, if it is halfway through, it is normal to an extent, but your body will adapt. I get it too especially on fast long intervals.

edit: if the treadmills you have access too aren't great (no flex etc for impact absorbtion) try the elliptical runners or cycles at the gym too, they are also good. Rowing machines are one of my absolute favorites, but be careful because it is easy to overtrain on them.

 

[Bored]

I don't think I'm going to do any weight lifting today because my muscles are still sore. I will do situps and run on my treadmill for about 35 minutes.

 

[Bored]

This is what I did:

-stretched for like 3 minutes
-walked on treadmill for 3 minutes. 3mph
-ran for 27 minutes (had no pain). 5mph
-walked for 3 minutes. 3mph
-walked for 3 minutes. 2mph
-walked for 1 minute. 1mph

I am now eating 1 can of tuna while drinking water. How did I do?

 

[codeerror]

Sounds like you did a good job!

However, I would suggest a quick warm up before stretching.
It's also nice that you'r getting used to running.

The last 3 entries, are those in any way combined with the other exercise?