Who wants sixpack abs?

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I know a lot of the members here are probably the nerdy types, but I would like to know if any of you have a ripped stomach and how the hell you managed to obtain it. I am confident in my looks and my personality, but I see no harm in 'sharpening the edges'. If anyone has found technique that helps, I think many of us want to know about it.

you have to have the genes to support low body fat and high muscle definition. if you have those, it is just a matter of proper diet and exercise, having a body fat below about 10% thus allowing your ab muscle definition to show through the skin. but even when i was in the army [they starved us] and my body fat had dropped to nothing [6'3" and <150#], i still didn't have defined abs.

I've got 6 pack abs. I can't see them, but I know they're in there, somewhere.

Well, if you're going to have them, do it while you're young. You'll start getting older, and you'll be happy if you can exercise at all. Then you'll be happy if you can move at all. Then you'll be happy if you're on the green side of the grass.

^^^

OK, here's the whole thing: #1, everybody has a sixpack, but as soon as there is a body fat percentage of much over 10%, it stops being visible. That's the bottom line. You can do 5,000 crunches a day for 50 years, and you will never have a visible sixpack until you get the body fat level down to where you can see your abs.

The question is, how much priority do you put on rocking that sixpack? If you want it badly enough, you will have it. Everybody has a different metabolism and hormone balance, so you have to figure out what works for you. #1 is to cut out ALL fried foods, and cut out salad dressings that have oil or milk in them (lo fat Italian is OK). Cut out milk chocolate (dark chocolate is OK in moderation).

And here is the kicker, which I'm sure some people will call me out on: EAT at least 5 moderate sized meals a day, with the biggest heaviest one being first thing in the morning. Eat plenty of fat-free snacks (granola bars, fruit, etc), so that your stomach is always with food in it. When you constantly are eating, your metabolism changes in a way that it will not store fat as much, since you are showing it that famine is unlikely, and you need not store anything. If you skip meals, or eat NOT on a regular timed schedule, your body will respond by storing lots of fat; even at the cost of taking energy away from you to be stored as fat! That's because in nature, you might fall on hard times and not be able to eat for a week, and you'd need all that fat to live on. Eat balanced, including red meat, chicken and grain. Go very low on the bread & cereal (carbohydrates). Lean red meat, or eggs, would be a good choice for breakfast & lunch. And the last tip on eating, is stop eating anything about 3-4 hours before bed. What you eat within 3 hours of bet, will be converted to fats and stored on the body. When you want that bedtime ice cream, ask yourself if that's more important than lifting your shirt next summer and having people say "Whoa... How'd you do that?"

Charles

I'm not a dietician or a doctor, but I have managed to keep a great sixpack even now at age 45... So I must not be too mistaken about how to do it . In the picture, I have appx 4.8% body fat.

If I suck my belly in, I can see a 4 pack at 17% bodyfat, so I have probably have decent enough abdominal hypertrophy. I wanna look like Lu Xiaojun...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IDqX1eMFmA[/youtube]

My problem is I just eat like, a ton. All the time.

Good abdominal definition is a matter of low body fat. A well-developed "six pack" may not be possible for everyone, but "good-looking abs" should be. Unfortunately, low body fat is not sufficient as some degree of mass in the rectus abdominis is usually needed (the "skinny six-pack" is possible but arguably less appealing than "ripped abs").

The basic problem is that as the body loses mass, it prefers to metabolize muscle rather than fat (muscle has higher energy requirements and less efficient energy storage than fat, so metabolizing muscle is a more efficient way to reduce energy requirements).

The goal is simple enough - when you gain mass, you want to gain more muscle mass than fat mass. When you lose mass, you want to lose more fat mass than muscle mass.

In general this is accomplished by convincing the body it "needs" the muscle more than it "needs" the fat. The three general ways to accomplish this are to increase androgen production and decrease cortisol production, to stimulate the relevant muscles, and to ensure a high amino acid concentration in the blood so that the body has an "easier time" achieving muscular hypertrophy.

"Good" hormone production can be achieved with high-intensity complex movements such as heavy squats, heavy deadlifts, pistols, pull-ups, etc. Stimulating the rectus abdominis means doing exercises that involve that muscle. Thankfully most complex movements involve the core (and thus the abdominal muscles) to a high degree, so if you do heavy squats and the like you'll be covered, but you can supplement with abdominal exercises like crunches, planches, levers, and some yoga positions (this may be more effective than heavy low-rep exercises in terms of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which helps if you want a six pack). Good amino acid levels depend on a high-protein diet.

Once you have that down, a caloric intake above your maintenance level will increase your muscle mass effectively, and a caloric intake below your maintenance level will decrease your fat mass. It may be possible to accomplish both at the same time, but I'm only familiar with the "bulk/cut" approach. So long as your diet contains a high ratio of protein to other macronutrients (ie fats and carbohydrates), managing caloric intake should be sufficient to accomplish most fitness goals. If you're seeking extreme results (<10% body fat) you may need to apply some more "advanced" techniques. Be careful because some of these can be unhealthy.

I wish I was 40+ and married, then I'd say screw it all and become a 300lb superheavyweight powerlifter/Olympic lifter.

yes, he could make a lot of moolah if he considered modeling.