There is no question people ask me more than: “How do I get good looking abs and flat belly?”
If only the answer to these questions was as simple as: “Do some 100 crunches per day and you will get great abs!”. But things don’t usually work that way.
Abs, the visible ones you want are hard to get.
Hard, but not impossible of course.
We all have abs, our abdominal muscles, but mostly they can’t be seen because of the extra body fat.
What you basically need to do is shed the fat so you can finally reveal your abs.
It is also very important to know that there is no specific area of the body that you can work on to get results and shed fat only in that particular area. You need the whole body workouts to get results in your abs.
There are three main rules you need to follow in order to shed the extra fat and get those abs you always wanted.
Clean your diet
I know this is nothing you never heard of before. But getting a clean diet is the most important step in getting your desired abs.
Abs are made in the kitchen. This means that you’ll need to clean your diet, throw the junk food away and start eating unprocessed and whole foods.
Eating a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables, meat and fish and slowly processed carbohydrates like brown rice and oats will help you shed the fat much faster.
You also want to make sure to drink enough water. Try aiming to at least 8-ounce glasses (around 2 litres) per day. Hydration will help to get the less bloated belly that is a common problem these days for almost everyone I know.
Try to avoid the food you know will make you bloated and don’t substitute water with juices or sodas. Nothing can be a substitution to water.
Don’t skip your meals. Try to have 6 meals per day. Having more smaller sized meals per day is making your metabolism faster and is helping you shed that belly fat faster.
Make sure to include healthy fats in your diets like olive oil or coconut oil, avocado and nuts. You can use this as a snack or as sides to the main meal.
Enjoy your food, find the right balance between healthy food and junk food which can be an occasional treat. Don’t be afraid of food – rather enjoy in it.
Shed the fat with HIIT training
There is nothing better for shedding fat than HIIT training.
High-intensity interval training or HIIT is a short burst of high-intensity workouts alternating with low-intensity workouts.
This kind of workouts is firing your metabolism and helping you shed fad even 24 hours after your, usually, short workout.
Even better, HIIT is more effective with low body fat so it is perfect when you want to lose just that little bit that is not letting your abs to
HIIT is not an easy workout so keep in mind that you will need at least some level of endurance. You can adjust workouts for beginners and also for advanced athletes.
Your results will depend on how much do you push yourself during the one minute that you do high-intensity interval so try your best to do a maximum of reps.
You can make HIIT even harder if you add weights.
This will make fat-torching even faster, and at the same time, you will be sculpting your muscles and gaining them.
You should do HIIT at least 3 times a week, and if you combine it with strength training you’ll have amazing results, no doubt in that.
Abs isolated exercises
After you’ve cleaned your diet and shredded extra fat, abs exercises are just to sculpt your abs a little bit more.
You can be surprised that you can have abs showing even if you don’t do any kind of abs isolating exercises. This is because they will show as soon as the fat is shredded.
Your abs are already there, you just can’t see them yet.
Abs isolating exercises will help you sculpt them and make them more noticeable. These exercises alone will do nothing to help you get abs. They just don’t work the way most people would like them to.
Your abdominals are working with every movement you do, and especially hard during strength training and compound movements that are having an impact on your entire body. Your abs are working and you might be surprised that there is no need for extensive ab workouts.
You can do abs workouts as often as you wish, but once or twice a week is more than enough.
Remember, your diet and shedding fat is much more important than ab exercises.
What’s not effective?
Doing a few hundred crunches every day is not effective and won’t give you abs. It will make your abs stronger, but if you have extra fat, you will not see them.
Eating junk food and not taking care of your diet is obviously bad and you’ll not have abs even if you do workouts regularly. You can’t expect to eat whatever you want and have a flat and toned belly.
Waist trimmers, abs promising belts, waist binders. These will not give you abs or a flat belly. They are not effective in giving you anything other than a sore belly and can actually be very dangerous if you wear them more than a few hours per day. They will also give you a flat wallet.
Fat loss pills, teas, smoothies or powders. Supplements that are promising fat loss and flat belly are not to be trusted and can be dangerous for your health.
Don’t trust the adverts that just want to take your money. Before taking any kind of supplements make sure to check what is it and what are the ingredients in it. Check its effect on your body.
Don’t compromise your health for a flat belly! There is nothing better than a healthy and balanced diet in a slight deficit for weight loss and shedding fat.
Waist slimming creams, lotions or serums. The same goes for these. There is very little evidence that these things even work. It would be great if they did, but their effectiveness is questionable to say at least. They often cost a lot of money, so before you decide to spend your money on an expensive cream ask yourself is it worth it?
With these tips, you’ll know the basics to get that abs you always wanted.
Don’t forget that weight loss and getting abs is not going to happen overnight, you’ll have to work for it. You’ll have to take care of your diet and make exercise a regular thing, not an occasional hobby.
Work hard and stay consistent & the results will come!
