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Here's the formula: 1. Eat at caloric maintenance or a slight caloric surplus to build muscle 2. Do a consistent ab workout routine 3-5x per week (free on You

by awb 5y ago

Here's the formula: 1. Eat at caloric maintenance or a slight caloric surplus to build muscle 2. Do a consistent ab workout routine 3-5x per week (free on YouTube), progressively overloading your body with more resistance through longer workouts, heavier weights or more demanding positions 3. When you want 6-pack abs, cut your caloric intake to be at a slight deficit for a few weeks and try to shred as much excess body fat as possible to let your ab muscles show Easier said than done though.

progre 5y ago
Also, no alcohol, no soda. At all.
- refulgentis 5y ago
  Falls under #1 but starts invoking specific foods in such a way that ultimately ends up confusing people in my experience. Better phrased as a reminder that drinks have calories, including alcohol and soda.
  - progre 5y ago
    Sure, but it's not all about the calories. Alcohol and sugar makes the body store excess water. You swell up. Makes it hard to show of muscle.
    - refulgentis 5y ago
      Very true, I shy away from that specifically because it starts veering into pure bodybuilding practice — the rationale for that leads to the conclusion of avoiding hydrating as much as possible (which sounds silly, but I saw it with a couple clients, and am not ashamed to admit I get a little giddy when I realize I'll claim a pound back the next morning weigh-in when i realize I'm dehydrated at night)
- yupper32 5y ago
  Makes it easier, sure, but not absolutely necessary. I regularly have alcohol when I'm cutting weight. It just gets counted towards my calorie budget. I do find non-diet soda to be completely wasted calories though. Just not worth it.
- RobRivera 5y ago
  i did get a 6pack with 1 glass of red 4 days a week. i also ate about 1800 calories a day and was working out 1 hour daily soooo ymmv
soheil 5y ago
How do you measure calories in food? It takes a herculean effort to know exactly what ingredients are in food and weigh exactly how much of each you're consuming with every meal. Seems like a lot of work to manually keep track of all that every single day and not make a mistake.
- yupper32 5y ago
  1. Count your calories the best you can. Apps like MyFitnessPal help. 2. Weigh yourself every day. 3. After 2 weeks, raise or lower your calorie budget depending on how much weight you've lost. Look at averages, not daily weight. 4. Repeat. The 2 week adjustment takes care of most mistakes you make with calorie counting. I am usually consistent with the direction I'm over or under counting.
- agentwiggles 5y ago
  Weighing food is not really a "herculean effort," but in my experience it is certainly fair to call it a "pain in the ass". That said, dealing with the "knowing exactly what ingredients" part is actually easy enough, if you're cooking your own food. If not, most places have some kind of nutrition information available, and if they don't, a rough guess is definitely better than nothing. Calorie tracking is not much fun, but it is definitely effective. Getting it perfectly right isn't as important as consistency.
- awb 5y ago
  Yeah, that's why a lot of people don't do it, or just ballpark it. If you want to be more exact, some ways to make it easier are: 1) eat prepared food that has caloric info on it, like a pre-made salad 2) cook recipes that provide caloric info 3) make very simple meals (ex. 1 cup yogurt + 1 tbsp peanut butter + 1 banana) where you can do the math yourself But yeah, for most people they'd rather ballpark it and have less stress. Maybe that means a 4-pack instead of a 6-pack, but you're still going to look good.
- nezaj 5y ago
  I've personally been tracking my diet publicly for over a year now. You can see my public record here -- www.joelogs.com Over the years I've been on/off with tracking. But I've been able to stick with it over a year now, the longest I ever have. The big difference between now and then is that I'm okay with being 80% accurate if it means easy consistency. Previously it was very important for me to be 100% accurate. This is especially difficult to do when you eat out. By allowing myself to be imperfect in my logging, it eases the burden to track. Here's what I do now. 1) Take a photo of everything I eat 2) Log right after eating if I feel like it, but usually I log at the end of the day Sometimes I underestimate. Sometimes I overestimate. I think it washes out in the net. If my logging is really off it will show in my scale and progress pics. Doing the above has given me lots of visibility into my diet and unlocked optimizations. Consistency > Accuracy

by awb 5y ago

progre 5y ago

Also, no alcohol, no soda. At all.

refulgentis 5y ago
Falls under #1 but starts invoking specific foods in such a way that ultimately ends up confusing people in my experience. Better phrased as a reminder that drinks have calories, including alcohol and soda.
- progre 5y ago
  Sure, but it's not all about the calories. Alcohol and sugar makes the body store excess water. You swell up. Makes it hard to show of muscle.
  - refulgentis 5y ago
    Very true, I shy away from that specifically because it starts veering into pure bodybuilding practice — the rationale for that leads to the conclusion of avoiding hydrating as much as possible (which sounds silly, but I saw it with a couple clients, and am not ashamed to admit I get a little giddy when I realize I'll claim a pound back the next morning weigh-in when i realize I'm dehydrated at night)
yupper32 5y ago
Makes it easier, sure, but not absolutely necessary. I regularly have alcohol when I'm cutting weight. It just gets counted towards my calorie budget. I do find non-diet soda to be completely wasted calories though. Just not worth it.
RobRivera 5y ago
i did get a 6pack with 1 glass of red 4 days a week. i also ate about 1800 calories a day and was working out 1 hour daily soooo ymmv

soheil 5y ago

How do you measure calories in food? It takes a herculean effort to know exactly what ingredients are in food and weigh exactly how much of each you're consuming with every meal. Seems like a lot of work to manually keep track of all that every single day and not make a mistake.

yupper32 5y ago
1. Count your calories the best you can. Apps like MyFitnessPal help. 2. Weigh yourself every day. 3. After 2 weeks, raise or lower your calorie budget depending on how much weight you've lost. Look at averages, not daily weight. 4. Repeat. The 2 week adjustment takes care of most mistakes you make with calorie counting. I am usually consistent with the direction I'm over or under counting.
agentwiggles 5y ago
Weighing food is not really a "herculean effort," but in my experience it is certainly fair to call it a "pain in the ass". That said, dealing with the "knowing exactly what ingredients" part is actually easy enough, if you're cooking your own food. If not, most places have some kind of nutrition information available, and if they don't, a rough guess is definitely better than nothing. Calorie tracking is not much fun, but it is definitely effective. Getting it perfectly right isn't as important as consistency.
awb 5y ago
Yeah, that's why a lot of people don't do it, or just ballpark it. If you want to be more exact, some ways to make it easier are: 1) eat prepared food that has caloric info on it, like a pre-made salad 2) cook recipes that provide caloric info 3) make very simple meals (ex. 1 cup yogurt + 1 tbsp peanut butter + 1 banana) where you can do the math yourself But yeah, for most people they'd rather ballpark it and have less stress. Maybe that means a 4-pack instead of a 6-pack, but you're still going to look good.
nezaj 5y ago
I've personally been tracking my diet publicly for over a year now. You can see my public record here -- www.joelogs.com Over the years I've been on/off with tracking. But I've been able to stick with it over a year now, the longest I ever have. The big difference between now and then is that I'm okay with being 80% accurate if it means easy consistency. Previously it was very important for me to be 100% accurate. This is especially difficult to do when you eat out. By allowing myself to be imperfect in my logging, it eases the burden to track. Here's what I do now. 1) Take a photo of everything I eat 2) Log right after eating if I feel like it, but usually I log at the end of the day Sometimes I underestimate. Sometimes I overestimate. I think it washes out in the net. If my logging is really off it will show in my scale and progress pics. Doing the above has given me lots of visibility into my diet and unlocked optimizations. Consistency > Accuracy