Every day we are flooded by ads for fast and long-term removal of undesired fats in the abdominal sphere and the love handles, they suggest to us that if we take this pill or use that belt, we will burn the fats in this area.
The truth, however, is that there is no easy way to achieve that! The visible abdominal muscles depend on the percentage of subcutaneous fat in our body.
The bigger part of the adipose tissue in the body is subcutaneous (it is located directly under the skin, above the muscles), respectively it hides the way your muscles are ripped. The muscles are there, but as long as there is high percentage of subcutaneous fat, there is no way that they could be visible.
With what percentage of subcutaneous fat will the abdominal muscles become visible? This is strictly individual for everyone.
- It depends on the way of distribution of the fats in one’s body.
- It depends on how big and how well-trained the muscle under the fat is.
I advise everyone to measure periodically the percentage of their subcutaneous fat, except the mirror, this is the other most precise reference point for progress. Here you may read how to measure the percentage of your subcutaneous fat in home conditions.
The first and most common mistake is that we should train our abdominal muscles every day. The daily performance of sit-ups will not lead to any result whatsoever. You will only waste your time. Abdominal muscles as well as any other muscle in the body need rest and recovery. Depending on how intensively they are trained, they need from 48 to 96 hours of rest. Two to three trainings for the abdomen are completely sufficient in most cases.
Doing sit-ups alone will not result in success as abdominal muscles are comparatively small and will not provoke sufficient energy deficit in the body, light training with a lot of repetitions will not help us to build up nice muscles under the fat, which should become visible at its reduction.
We do not pay attention to what we eat. Eating is the most important part if we strive to develop a six-pack, more than for any other muscular group. This is so because most frequently the body “stores” the superfluous fats exactly there. Your body will burn out the abdominal fats only if there is a deficit of calories. And this happens only when you intake fewer calories than you use. This compels your body to use the fat depots to
compensate the deficit.
Further to that it is of great significance what foods we take these calories from. Some foods facilitate the preservation of fats whilst others do not. In the first place refined sugars and pastry contribute to the accumulation of superfluous fats in the abdominal area.
You think that sauna is a place for burning out fats. Sauna is a complete waste of time if your objective is to burn out fats. One may lose weight in the sauna losing liquids, but this is not loss of real weight coming from the body fats and will return back because the body will recover its water balance.
You think that the food additives will do the work instead of you. Yes, there are additives which could give a little impetus in the combat with the superfluous fats, but they do not function if there is no calorie deficit or appropriate dietetic regime combined with a training complex and rest.
A lot of people think that aimed at their having a flat abdomen with well-defined abs they should do a lot of cardio training. This is not mandatory or necessary. Cardio trainings burn out calories at the moment of their conduct, it is absolutely necessary but it is insufficient in itself. The total loss of weight and fats may result in a situation in which we will lose weight but our abdomen will remain the same.
To have a toned belly, you should keep a diet with no carbohydrates for a long time.
It is a much better and healthy option for us to limit the carbohydrates, depriving ourselves of those which require a lot of insulin – sweets, starches and so on at the expense of carbohydrates which are slower – potatoes, oat flakes, whole grain rice and so on. Also it is good to rotate the intake of carbohydrates alternating days with low carbohydrate intake and such with more of it.
My name is Valentin Petkov. I have been dealing with fitness and bodybuilding more than 15 years. I have been dealing since 2002 with competition activities. My greatest achievements in competitive plan are one World Cup and two European. I became champion of Bulgaria 9 times in different categories. I have prepared and are currently working with athletes from different sports. And also I have helped hundreds of people to live a healthy and fulfilling life. I think, there is nothing in the human body, that is foreign to me. If you want to change the way you look and feel, or you want to achieve sports results, you need advice related to nutrition and exercise, or just you want to live a healthy lifestyle and you give the best of yourself, I promise you, that we will achieve everything you are striving together.I don't promise it would be easy, but I know, that there is nothing better than feeling of accomplishment.