OK, it’s time to get serious here.
It’s May 8 and here in the United States Memorial Day is less than 3 weeks away.
You may be asked to pool parties, or headed off to the beach.
Possibly you’ve been shopping for a bikini or swimsuit and haven’t liked what you’ve seen in the mirror.
So for the rest of May, I’m dedicating the blog to all about abs and how to get them as lean as possible in the next few weeks (except for a special offer for moms on Mother’s Day this Sunday).
Sometimes you need a fresh perspective, so today I’m bringing in another abs expert, Todd Scott, author of How To Get Six-Pack Abs, for a little Q&A.
Scott C: Todd, thanks for joining us today.
Todd S: It’s my pleasure Scott.
Scott C: You said you drank nearly every weekend and got down to 7% bodyfat? How did you do this?
Todd S: Oh man… this one’s a doozy… so I’m gonna have to put a disclaimer on it:
Warning: This is interview is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to treat or cure any illness or disease. I am not a doctor, so please consult your physician before starting any exercise program.
In other words: “Kids, don’t try this at home.”
Okay? Okay. So, let’s get to it.
I can’t say I was doing an experiment, because I was going to drink no matter what. And, like many people, a little bit of alcohol here and there is going to happen, so I just decided to concoct a plan so as to not put on fat… the result was that I continued to lose fat week in and week out.
Basically, I used the formula found in How to Get Six-Pack Abs to calculate the number of calories I needed to eat per day and per meal to lose fat on a weekly basis.
This was just 1 part of my overall program. Since nearly every weekend I’d go out on the town or go to a party, I just did a bit of quick math to figure out how much I could drink and not exceed my daily caloric requirements. My goal was to just maintain my weight at the time, not lose more fat… but it turned out quite nicely.
I’ll use 2400 calories per day for the purposes of this explanation.
Here’s what I did as far as the nutrition part of the program goes:
I designated 1 night per week as a party night where I would drink – it ranged from shots, to beer, to whiskey, all the way to wine – the type of alcohol didn’t matter. The day that was designated as my “party” day, I figured out what I wanted to drink, how much I was going to drink, and the number of overall alcohol calories I’d be taking in that day.
So for instance, let’s say I decided to drink 8 Light Beers at 110 calories each. I’d simply subtract that from the total daily calories I was to EAT that day – 2400 minus 880= 1520 calories.
That’s how many calories I’d consume (1520 calories) for the day from whole foods and supplements. To reach the daily total of 2400 calories, I’d drink 8 light beers. It’d keep me in a calorie deficit AND I’d get to drink beer or whiskey or wine or whatever the heck I wanted.
The key to it was planning it in advance, so I wouldn’t go over the daily calories.
Another key to it is that after you stop drinking for the night, your blood sugar falls rapidly, and you get really, really, really, hungry… you just have to fight the urge and not eat until the next day. If I did give in, I’d ONLY eat protein. And I even planned this in advance, too. I’d make sure I had 2 chicken breasts cooked and waiting in the refrigerator. If I hadn’t planned this in advance, and I did give in, it’d be too easy to just run to a fast food restaurant rather than throwing a chicken breast on the grill.
Scott C: Why don’t sit ups, crunches, and the ab machine gizmos help you get a 6-pack?
Todd S: Think about this for a minute, our muscles are designed to adapt to the amount of stress consistently placed on them, so if sit ups, crunches, and ab machines are supposed make your belly shrink, then that would mean adding additional stress to other muscle groups would cause them to get smaller, too. Yet, when you see someone who is at an advanced fitness level, their muscles are typically larger than the average person.
For example, have you seen a cyclists’ legs? By cycling alone, they place more stress on their leg muscles than the average person. The result? Moderate to Large leg muscles.
Basically, muscles adapt according to the amount of consistent stress you put on them. If you do leg exercises, your leg muscles will adapt to the added stress by becoming stronger and denser. That means they get bigger, and that’s why people who want bigger (not smaller) legs do squats and other leg exercises rather than avoiding them.
We sometimes forget that our abdominals are made up of the same material and are muscles themselves. So by training them (regardless if you’re doing sit-ups, crunches or an ab machine), the same thing will happen, they’ll grow stronger and denser. And in the end they’ll be bigger. It has very little to do with burning fat.
It’s true that by increasing the size of your ab muscles you’ll increase the rate of your metabolism to an extent, but not enough to make a noticeable difference.
You can see undeniable truth that ab exercises, sit ups, and crunches will not help you get a six pack by reading the story of Mark Pheltz at How To Get Six-Pack Abs. He set the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of sit-ups at one time. How many did he do? 45,005 Sit-ups in 58.5 hours… Go see for yourself if he had six pack abs, you’ll be shocked - How To Get Six-Pack Abs.
*note from Scott - when you get to the homepage, just click “women” if you’re a woman, and click “man” if you’re a man to read Mark’s story and see with your own eyes what 6 months of sit-ups 6 hours per day will do for your belly fat.
Scott C: What types of exercises do work to shed belly fat?
Todd S: There really isn’t a “type” of exercise that burns fat better than others. Some will argue that full body movements burn fat faster, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
The fact remains that the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you’ll be able to burn during a given day. So, no matter whether you’re a man or a woman, the ultimate goal is to choose exercises that stimulate the most amount of muscle at a time.
If you want to go with full body movements, that’s perfectly fine.
Generally, I will train Men and Women differently even though both can lose fat by following the same program.
Guys typically like having large, hard muscles overall, so in order to burn the maximum amount of fat while still focusing on smaller muscles, I’ll use both single and multi-joint movements within supersets or triple sets as well as add explosive movements.
Here’s an example triple set I’d use:
Bench Press
Barbell Curl
Explosive Med Ball Push Up
Here you have all three – Multi-joint movement (bench press), followed by a single-joint movement (barbell curl), and ending with an explosive movement (explosive med ball pushup). The single-joint movement is included as the second exercise in the set to act as an “active” rest for the more metabolic demanding explosive med ball pushup which utilizes the same muscles as the first exercise in the sequence. Though, the single-joint movement is an “active” rest, it should still be performed at maximal intensity.
Since the gals typically aren’t concerned with muscle size or hardness and just want the lean toned look, I generally use the same format but with less emphasis on the single joint movements. Here, the single joint movement would be a “true” active rest.
Here’s an example triple set I’d use:
Step-Ups
Bench Dips
Squat Jumps.
The focus of this set is on the legs. The bench dips are thrown in to divert stress away from the legs in preparation for the more metabolic demanding Squat Jumps. Your heart will be pounding by the middle of the second set, so you’ll gladly welcome the Bench Dips as an active rest while being able to focus attention to the back of the arms.
In all if you place more focus on the larger muscle groups, you will burn more fat. But if you want to give your body a metabolic spike, I suggest mixing it up.
Scott C: Most people start a fitness program by walking for 30-60 minutes a day and nothing else. Is this the correct approach?
Todd S: It depends on the condition of the person. If that’s ALL they can do, then yeah, it’s the perfect approach. But by “Start”, I’d say you have 5-7 days to begin increasing the intensity of not only the walking but by also adding some sort of weight training to the program. If the person continues “walking just 30-60 minutes a day” indefinitely, they’re not going to burn much fat.
Let’s look at it from a completely different perspective. If you’re trying to get into shape by just walking 30-60 minutes per day over and over, it’d be a lot like enrolling in college to become a doctor by only taking biology 101 every semester for 4 years. Sure, you have to start somewhere (and every doctor I know started with basic college biology), but at the end of the 4 years, you won’t be getting into med school – you’ll just be a really, really good tutor.
The same is true with walking – it’s only a start, if you don’t continue to increase the intensity at every benchmark, you’ll never lose your belly fat, and you’ll end up just being really, really good at walking 30-60 minutes at a time.
Scott C: What type of foods should you be eating to strip away belly fat?
Todd S: If you want to strip away fat at rapid speeds, whole foods are the way to go. I’m not saying supplements don’t have their place (I love meal replacement shakes), but by simply digesting natural whole foods your body will burn extra calories.
These foods should consist of protein and starchy carbs. I’d go so far as to say not to add any additional fat other than omega-3’s & omega-6’s.
Typically the proteins should consist of chicken breast, turkey breast, eggs, cottage cheese, nuts, pork loin, and if you have access to elk or deer meat, these are great low fat high protein sources. Not many people realize how lean pork loin is. Even though it’s pork, it’s about the equivalent to a chicken breast as far as the amount of protein and fat it contains. And even though it does contain a tad bit more fat than chicken, it’s great to have around to mix things up.
As far as the carbs go, stick with whole grains such as wheat bread, brown rice, sweet potatoes, yams, and even white potatoes. Even though it’s a “white” carb, you can still eat it and not have to worry about storing fat - as long as you don’t overeat.
Not only is the Type of food you eat important, but the food combinations are just as important. What I’ve found to work the best is after calculating the number of calories you need per day to lose fat, calculate your meals so that every meal contains the same amount of protein, and both breakfast and the post workout meal contains double the number of carbs as the other meals of the day.
Scott C: Cool! Thanks Todd, for joining us and sharing those strategies.
By the way, Todd has the full blueprint of exactly what he did as far as exercise, cardio, training, and eating to get six pack abs while drinking & partying at How To Get Six-Pack Abs.
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