my guide to flat abs

trim

FLAT TUMMY

The popular belief that exercising the stomach muscles alone will result in an attractive, toned tummy is very very false. You could have well developed lovely toned abdominal muscles but these muscles would still hide under the layer of fat covering them. Without exercise and the right types of food, you simply won't lose the fat that overlies your tummy. Like I said in the metabolism section, you have to burn as many calories as you are taking in, else you will not change the appearance of the fat tissue surrounding your abdominal muscles,
Now if you are thinking of spot reduction, forget it, those are myths. We cannot reduce fat from only one part of the body. When you lose body fat, you lose it from everywhere, and there is no way to target one particular area. Funny enough, the first place where we gain weight is the last place where we lose it. Once we lose fat from our body, we lose inches everywhere even where we do not want to lose such as in the breasts.--
The most important aspects to a flat tummy include
1. Diet first
2. Exercises
Unlike popular beliefs, exercises work as well, but diet modification is the most important step to losing belly fat. Just because strong abdominal muscles do not directly translate into a toned, abdomen does not mean that you should avoid exercising them.


Your diet should include the following:
1. dark green vegetables,
2. fresh fruits,
3. fish,
4. lean red meat,
5. Egg white.
6. Beans
7. Moi-Moi (Nigerian)
8. Lots and lots of water. If you can, drink a glass of water each hour.
Foods to avoid:
1. Rice
2. Pastries
3. Sugar
4. Saturated fats
5. Pizza
6. Bread
7. Chocolates
8. Pounded yam(Nigerian)
9. Eba (Nigerian)
10. Semovita (Nigerian)

Start exercising

Note please: these exercises help you to make your abs stronger, but does not reduce the layer of fat. So if u like do them 24 hours a day, they’ll only make you have strong abs, but the layer of fat still hides the abs
Aerobic and weight training will raise your metabolic rate thus making your body burn more calories. Note that overuse of crunches will only shorten your abs, pull your head forward and gives you a bad posture. Here are some exercises:
A. Sucking the gut in: This is the easiest exercise. It works very well and is very easy to do; you could do it anywhere anyplace and anytime.
1. Exhale. Suck your gut in.
2. Maintain the contraction for 10 to 20 seconds.
3. Repeat 10 to 15 times, as often as you like throughout the day (for example while in the shower, sitting at your desk, while driving or in the bus).
B. The bicycle crunch exercise:
1. Lie on the floor with your lower back pressed into the floor.
2. Bring the hands behind the head.
3. starting with the legs bent at a 45-degree angle bring the right knee towards the chest and touch your left elbow to your right knee
4. Then switch so that the left elbow goes towards the right knee.

C. Reverse Crunch:
1. Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground.
2. Put your hands beside your head or extend them out flat to your sides -- whatever feels most comfortable.
3. crossing your feet at the ankles, lift your feet off the ground to the point where your knees create a 90-degree angle.
4. Once in this position, press your lower back on the floor as you contract your abdominal muscles. Your hips will slightly rotate and your legs will reach toward the ceiling with each contraction. Exhale as you contract; inhale as you return to the starting position.


Like i said in the beginning, dieting is the most important step, try to loose the abdominal fat, then u can do the crunches, to make those abs look strong and sexy.

cozmik

A healthy diet should also include whole grains.

Study Shows Whole-Grain Diet Good for the Waistline

A diet rich in whole grains may help fight your belly bulge while lowering the risk of heart disease.

A new study shows people who followed a weight loss program incorporating whole-grain breads, cereals, and other foods lost more body fat from the abdominal area than those who ate only refined grains.

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20080225/whole-grains-fight-belly-fat

eclectichoney

cozmik wrote: »

A healthy diet should also include whole grains.



http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20080225/whole-grains-fight-belly-fat

In fairness that study only relates to the merits of whole grains vs refined grains, rather than the merits of whole grains per se.

cozmik

eclectichoney wrote: »

In fairness that study only relates to the merits of whole grains vs refined grains, rather than the merits of whole grains per se.

I’m not aware of any controversy over the benefits of whole grains.The evidence for their nutritional benefits is quite strong.

Macha

Proponents of the neolithic diet would advise against eating any grains.

EileenG

And while it's not a study, I've got a huge amount of accedotal cases of women who reduced tummy size by 2-4 inches when they dropped all wheat from their diet. Most of them would have been very careful about eating wholegrains rather than refined.

cozmik

taconnol wrote: »

Proponents of the neolithic diet would advise against eating any grains.

Really? and do these proponents have any scientific evidence to back up their claims or are we talking more anecdotal fluff here aswell?

Macha

You said you were not aware of any debate. I'm telling you that there is one.

I personally don't agree with it, because it's based on the idea that humans didn't eat grains thousands of years ago, ergo we shouldn't eat them now. But of course the same argument can be made against dairy but most of us have managed to develop the genes to digest it (not us personally...you know what I mean ). So I put those who are intolerant to grains in the same category as those who are intolerant to dairy - genetically unlucky.

Note: Of course I'm not saying I'm genetically luckier than them in general, just for these two things.

Davei141

You will always find people against something...

aare

Just a couple of tips I picked up over the years:

ALWAYS exercise your abs with your stomach muscles held in, otherwise you risk developing a beautifully toned convex belly.

Make sure you aren't eating anything that disagrees with you. I know that not everybody has my truly "special" metabolism, but on the other hand, I am not (quite) an alien from another planet with a coupla hearts, and my stomach usually goes flat in the final few dietary tweaks rather than purging major intolerances. Costs nothing to try it.

And look at this:

EileenG wrote: »

And while it's not a study, I've got a huge amount of accedotal cases of women who reduced tummy size by 2-4 inches when they dropped all wheat from their diet. Most of them would have been very careful about eating wholegrains rather than refined.

cozmik

taconnol wrote: »

You said you were not aware of any debate.

No. I said I was not aware of any controversy. There is a difference.

eclectichoney

cozmik wrote: »

No. I said I was not aware of any controversy. There is a difference.

Main Entry: controversy
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: debate, dispute

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition

cozmik

Well imho in order for it to be controversial there needs to be actual scientific evidence supporting the argument against whole grains.

Without any evidence the debate is about as controversial as cream cheese.

Edwardius

Hmmm, Have a look here:

taconnol, I think this sort of thing is what you're talking about:

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/cereal article.pdf

it's heavy enough at 50-odd pages but there's a lot of info in here. A few things though:

There's emphasis on the drawbacks of using wholegrains as a high percentage of dietary intake as opposed to wholegrains as such. I'm aware that this is not what we're talking about

There's also some stuff on inflammation, lectins and other antinutrients, oxidation of ldl particles, inhibition of enzymes actions and other associated bad juju (this is why I steer clear of the feckers)


Edit, better post something on-topic too.

Heavy compound exercises (the usual squat/dead/overhead squat), leg raises, knees-to-elbows, rollouts (from the knees or standing), decline/inverted/weighted situps, l-pullups will also tax the **** out of your midline muscles. Mine started poking out a fair bit once I threw in some rollouts and negative gymnastic holds.

cozmik

Dead Ed wrote: »

There's emphasis on the drawbacks of using wholegrains as a high percentage of dietary intake as opposed to wholegrains as such.

So this is the big controversy? is it? lol

Haven't these neolithic proponents heard of everything in moderation!! duh!

Instead of trying to find faults with whole grains maybe they should spend a little time learning the basics of healthy nutrition.