Diet or gym?

[DarkNick]

Hello everyone! :D
For 2 years now I'm doing abs exercises and I have build (I think :P) them enough but I have a bit of fat so you can't see them properly

My question is: Should I do a normal diet (by saying that I mean eating less calories,salads etc) or something different?
Also except aerobic exercises, should I do anything more (I stopped exercising my abs 'cause I read somewhere that they will ''shrink'' if I exercise them while I'm not eating properly)

Thanks a lot! :)

[HAWAiiAN 808]

what most people dont understand is that for any type of muscle to form and be seen, you gotta get a proper diet and pound weights. You said you were doing ab exercises for 2 years now, but you cant see them properly because you have some fat around the midsection.

I would say that if you are working out an area as complex as the abs, you have to watch what you eat. My first suggestion to you would be to count your calories and if you want to slim down your midsection, you gotta start eating lightly but staying healthy. One tip would be to get your body weight, multiply it by 20, then the ending number is how much calories your body needs to gain 1 pound. After you got that number, you want to drop 100 calories of your daily caloric intake to start with a healthy weight loss diet. after a few weeks, you should start seeing some difference in your midsection. But what ever you do, maintain the same caloric loss for everyday. You cant lose 100 calories one day, then lose 400 calories the next day. If you pick to lose 100 calories, only lose 100 calories everyday or you will get sick if you keep changing the amount loss.

Next, you cant be doing the same exercises every single day. If you got 8 exercises, you split it so one day you do 4, the next day you do the other 4, then if you want, you can either do all 8 on one day or split it so you have 2 from the first set and 2 from the second set. The reason for this is that if you do all 8 exercises everyday, your body will start getting conditioned to the same exercise every time you do it so after a while, you will notice that you can maybe 200 crunches without feeling the burn and you will feel like you can do 200 more. If that happens, that means you either gotta add resistance to your workout, or you gotta do a different workout until you drop down to where you can do 150 crunches and you feel the burn.

And like i said in the previous statement, if you reach a stand-still in your gains, you might have to add resistance to your workout. What i mean by that is you might have to start adding some weights to what your doing. Easiest way to add some resistance to your workout is if your doing situps, place a weight plate or anything that has some weight to it and put in on your chest so you have some negative resistance so that you have to really work your abs to get your body off the ground. If you can do 100 situps without pausing and maintaining good form, you should add a 10-pound plate and try to do 50 situps. After you do that, you will definitely feel the difference and you will feel your abs getting a good burn.

If you need any more assistance, let me know and i can give you some of my knowledge, lol.

[Apollo.]

It's part of each one, eat a diet of 40% protein 40% carbohydrates and 20% fats, depends what you want to do do you want to build muscle or cut fat? If muscle building you need a "caloric deficit" (I think that's what it's called) so that means eating more calories than you are burning off, if you want fat loss you need to burn more than you way either way I Recommend gym and some diet changes

[doris.split]

just don't eat after 6 p.m. and alles gut :D

[DarkNick]

what most people dont understand is that for any type of muscle to form and be seen, you gotta get a proper diet and pound weights. You said you were doing ab exercises for 2 years now, but you cant see them properly because you have some fat around the midsection.

I would say that if you are working out an area as complex as the abs, you have to watch what you eat. My first suggestion to you would be to count your calories and if you want to slim down your midsection, you gotta start eating lightly but staying healthy. One tip would be to get your body weight, multiply it by 20, then the ending number is how much calories your body needs to gain 1 pound. After you got that number, you want to drop 100 calories of your daily caloric intake to start with a healthy weight loss diet. after a few weeks, you should start seeing some difference in your midsection. But what ever you do, maintain the same caloric loss for everyday. You cant lose 100 calories one day, then lose 400 calories the next day. If you pick to lose 100 calories, only lose 100 calories everyday or you will get sick if you keep changing the amount loss.

Next, you cant be doing the same exercises every single day. If you got 8 exercises, you split it so one day you do 4, the next day you do the other 4, then if you want, you can either do all 8 on one day or split it so you have 2 from the first set and 2 from the second set. The reason for this is that if you do all 8 exercises everyday, your body will start getting conditioned to the same exercise every time you do it so after a while, you will notice that you can maybe 200 crunches without feeling the burn and you will feel like you can do 200 more. If that happens, that means you either gotta add resistance to your workout, or you gotta do a different workout until you drop down to where you can do 150 crunches and you feel the burn.

And like i said in the previous statement, if you reach a stand-still in your gains, you might have to add resistance to your workout. What i mean by that is you might have to start adding some weights to what your doing. Easiest way to add some resistance to your workout is if your doing situps, place a weight plate or anything that has some weight to it and put in on your chest so you have some negative resistance so that you have to really work your abs to get your body off the ground. If you can do 100 situps without pausing and maintaining good form, you should add a 10-pound plate and try to do 50 situps. After you do that, you will definitely feel the difference and you will feel your abs getting a good burn.

If you need any more assistance, let me know and i can give you some of my knowledge, lol.

First of all thanks a lot for your response (all of you) Well I count my calories 2 years now and I've done all these.The fact is that I was eating about 1700 calories so it's really difficult to eat 1400 (that's how many I should in order to lose the fat that I want) and I won't lie but I'm hungry so I'm afraid that if I keep like this my body won't lose any body fat 'cause of its defences (If you're hungry then you will burn less calories etc) also my abs are toned (you can see a square on my belly) and the first 2pack is shown but when I'm doing the exercises I can see some fat between the other 4.I'm doing many different sets everyday 'cause of the thing that you said and yes I feel that damn burn and it's a pain sometimes!!! :P

It's part of each one, eat a diet of 40% protein 40% carbohydrates and 20% fats, depends what you want to do do you want to build muscle or cut fat? If muscle building you need a "caloric deficit" (I think that's what it's called) so that means eating more calories than you are burning off, if you want fat loss you need to burn more than you way either way I Recommend gym and some diet changes

The thing is not to burn out my muscles while I'm losing fat! :/

[HAWAiiAN 808]

First of all thanks a lot for your response (all of you) Well I count my calories 2 years now and I've done all these.The fact is that I was eating about 1700 calories so it's really difficult to eat 1400 (that's how many I should in order to lose the fat that I want) and I won't lie but I'm hungry so I'm afraid that if I keep like this my body won't lose any body fat 'cause of its defences (If you're hungry then you will burn less calories etc) also my abs are toned (you can see a square on my belly) and the first 2pack is shown but when I'm doing the exercises I can see some fat between the other 4.I'm doing many different sets everyday 'cause of the thing that you said and yes I feel that damn burn and it's a pain sometimes!!! :P

now i know more about your needs so i can help you more on this. But without intruding, it would be helpful on knowing your bodyweight because if you weigh anything above 150 and your barely eating 1800 calories a day, that is basically starving yourself and you definitely wont see any results. One thing i try to tell people that need advice is you need to eat a lot of protein and pack on the calories if you are working out because even if you are doing something as simple as abs, you are still burning calories like if you were doing any other workout. And your statement "if you are hungry then you will burn less calories" is partially true. It is only partially true because even though you don't burn calories if you are hungry, your body will not get enough food to feed your muscles so after a while, your body will act negatively to your muscles and all your gains will go to waste. Main thing, you have to eat to make sure your muscle gains are there. I know, it might sound weird, but trust me, it is true. And if you actually mean that you work your abs everyday, that is already not helping you out. If you do abs everyday for a week with only 1 day of rest, your abs will actually be strained to much to where you are tearing your muscles, but not letting them to repair themselves. My advice since you been doing abs for 2 years would be to take a break for a week so your abs get relaxed and have time to repair, then hit them hard next week. If you dont lift and you basically only do abs, i would suggest doing abs on monday, wednesday, friday, and a small burn-set on saturday. And last thing, the burn is good. I always say "if it aint burning, your not working hard enough". Remember that the burning you feel means that your abs are getting a good workout and your doing something right.

[DarkNick]

now i know more about your needs so i can help you more on this. But without intruding, it would be helpful on knowing your bodyweight because if you weigh anything above 150 and your barely eating 1800 calories a day, that is basically starving yourself and you definitely wont see any results. One thing i try to tell people that need advice is you need to eat a lot of protein and pack on the calories if you are working out because even if you are doing something as simple as abs, you are still burning calories like if you were doing any other workout. And your statement "if you are hungry then you will burn less calories" is partially true. It is only partially true because even though you don't burn calories if you are hungry, your body will not get enough food to feed your muscles so after a while, your body will act negatively to your muscles and all your gains will go to waste. Main thing, you have to eat to make sure your muscle gains are there. I know, it might sound weird, but trust me, it is true. And if you actually mean that you work your abs everyday, that is already not helping you out. If you do abs everyday for a week with only 1 day of rest, your abs will actually be strained to much to where you are tearing your muscles, but not letting them to repair themselves. My advice since you been doing abs for 2 years would be to take a break for a week so your abs get relaxed and have time to repair, then hit them hard next week. If you dont lift and you basically only do abs, i would suggest doing abs on monday, wednesday, friday, and a small burn-set on saturday. And last thing, the burn is good. I always say "if it aint burning, your not working hard enough". Remember that the burning you feel means that your abs are getting a good workout and your doing something right.

Thanks a lot

As for my body weight I didn't exactly understand what I have to do :P
And I was 70 kg before 3 days now I am 67 (I don't really know what happens to my body at the moment :confused: I'm probably losing ''water-pounds'')

[HAWAiiAN 808]

Thanks a lot

As for my body weight I didn't exactly understand what I have to do :P
And I was 70 kg before 3 days now I am 67 (I don't really know what happens to my body at the moment :confused: I'm probably losing ''water-pounds'')

no problem. And now that i know of how much you weigh, it will be easier for me to help you. First to find out your caloric intake, you must take your body weight of 70kg and transfer it to pounds. After you transfer over, you will be around 155lbs give or take 1 or 2 pounds. Then, you take the 155lb number, and multiply it by 20. If your correct, it should come out to 3100 calories. That number is used to tell how you much calories your body needs to gain 1lb. So now that you have your caloric intake number for gaining a pound, you then want to start eating normally, but making sure your calorie-count does not go above 2800 or else your body will take longer to process all the food and that is where solid-weight comes in.

2 years ago when i was serious about my diet and lifting weights, i only weighed 132lbs, but i could eat 6 meals a day with snacks and i would be able to maintain my weight in the range of 130-140 for about 6 weeks straight. I was able to eat a lot and barely gain weight by making 6 smaller meals with less calories and more protein, instead of 3 big meals full of calories and fat. It may seem hard for some people to do this because maybe they dont have the time or they feel like it is to hard, but nothing in life comes easy, especially muscles. My strongest advice is just put forward a good workout regimen, start eating smart, and if you feel like giving up during a workout because it is getting hard, just think to yourself "i have been working this hard and this long to get good results, i cant give up now and risk losing all of my results".

[DarkNick]

no problem. And now that i know of how much you weigh, it will be easier for me to help you. First to find out your caloric intake, you must take your body weight of 70kg and transfer it to pounds. After you transfer over, you will be around 155lbs give or take 1 or 2 pounds. Then, you take the 155lb number, and multiply it by 20. If your correct, it should come out to 3100 calories. That number is used to tell how you much calories your body needs to gain 1lb. So now that you have your caloric intake number for gaining a pound, you then want to start eating normally, but making sure your calorie-count does not go above 2800 or else your body will take longer to process all the food and that is where solid-weight comes in.

2 years ago when i was serious about my diet and lifting weights, i only weighed 132lbs, but i could eat 6 meals a day with snacks and i would be able to maintain my weight in the range of 130-140 for about 6 weeks straight. I was able to eat a lot and barely gain weight by making 6 smaller meals with less calories and more protein, instead of 3 big meals full of calories and fat. It may seem hard for some people to do this because maybe they dont have the time or they feel like it is to hard, but nothing in life comes easy, especially muscles. My strongest advice is just put forward a good workout regimen, start eating smart, and if you feel like giving up during a workout because it is getting hard, just think to yourself "i have been working this hard and this long to get good results, i cant give up now and risk losing all of my results".

Thanks a lot for your advices m8! I really appreciate your help! :)

My only problem to what you say is that before the diet that I follow I used to eat 2000 calories max and now I'm eating 1600-1700 in order to lose weight, so should I fix something ? and also how should I fix it if it is needed? :what:

[screamtobeheard]

I haven't completely read all prior posts, so this may seem a little off the wall. But I do know that yes, you will need to "diet" to lost a little bit of fat. However, "diet" really isn't the proper word. And from my experiences, I'd prefer not to use it. In order to figure out how many calories you should eat, you need to take into account your height, weight, and the amount of exercise you do/calories you burn daily.

Without all that information, the best I can tell you is that you should probably try eating six meals a day. Small, healthy meals. Lots of protein, and the more colors on your plate, the healthier your meal is. You need the vitamins and such when you commit to this sort of change.

Also, wherever you read that your abs will shrink if you keep exercising them while not eating properly was probably not a particularly reliable source for several reasons. First, you should always be eating properly. You can change how you eat to contain less calories and be healthier to lose weight while still eating properly, and that's always the way to go. Second, your abs will not shrink if you keep working them out. If you want to keep your muscles strong and toned, you need to continue exercising them no matter what you're doing as far as eating is concerned. Trust me, I know from experience.

[DarkNick]

I haven't completely read all prior posts, so this may seem a little off the wall. But I do know that yes, you will need to "diet" to lost a little bit of fat. However, "diet" really isn't the proper word. And from my experiences, I'd prefer not to use it. In order to figure out how many calories you should eat, you need to take into account your height, weight, and the amount of exercise you do/calories you burn daily.

Without all that information, the best I can tell you is that you should probably try eating six meals a day. Small, healthy meals. Lots of protein, and the more colors on your plate, the healthier your meal is. You need the vitamins and such when you commit to this sort of change.

Also, wherever you read that your abs will shrink if you keep exercising them while not eating properly was probably not a particularly reliable source for several reasons. First, you should always be eating properly. You can change how you eat to contain less calories and be healthier to lose weight while still eating properly, and that's always the way to go. Second, your abs will not shrink if you keep working them out. If you want to keep your muscles strong and toned, you need to continue exercising them no matter what you're doing as far as eating is concerned. Trust me, I know from experience.

Thanks a lot for your advices Scream! I don't know why but they made me feel somehow ''knocked''!
Anyway as for the abs part (it's the only part that I disagree :P ) I've heard that if you workout while you're not eating properly (when I don't eat as many calories as I need it won't matter if I only eat protein or healthy,in the ) the muscles burn themselves 'cause they can't get ''fueled'' properly! :yummy:

[screamtobeheard]

Thanks a lot for your advices Scream! I don't know why but they made me feel somehow ''knocked''!
Anyway as for the abs part (it's the only part that I disagree :P ) I've heard that if you workout while you're not eating properly (when I don't eat as many calories as I need it won't matter if I only eat protein or healthy,in the ) the muscles burn themselves 'cause they can't get ''fueled'' properly! :yummy:

I'm doing AP work right now, so my mind is in science mode, but what do you mean by "knocked"?
Also, you're correct in that not eating properly, your muscles will "eat" themselves. However, this is kind of what happens whenever you exercise. Exercising is destroying your muscle cells, so that when they rebuild, they rebuild stronger, put in simple terms. Yes, you're right that working out will destroy your muscles. And you're also right that not eating properly will not allow them to rebuild properly. However, this should not happen even if you're (for lack of a better word) "dieting" because a good "diet" requires you to consume enough calories, proteins, and other nutrients to allow them to rebuild. And if you're not eating properly, your muscles will destroy themselves on their own, whether you exercise them or not.

[DarkNick]

I'm doing AP work right now, so my mind is in science mode, but what do you mean by "knocked"?
Also, you're correct in that not eating properly, your muscles will "eat" themselves. However, this is kind of what happens whenever you exercise. Exercising is destroying your muscle cells, so that when they rebuild, they rebuild stronger, put in simple terms. Yes, you're right that working out will destroy your muscles. And you're also right that not eating properly will not allow them to rebuild properly. However, this should not happen even if you're (for lack of a better word) "dieting" because a good "diet" requires you to consume enough calories, proteins, and other nutrients to allow them to rebuild. And if you're not eating properly, your muscles will destroy themselves on their own, whether you exercise them or not.

I agree,though if I exercise the process will be faster!
As for knocked I wanted to say that I felt like this words where right out of your heart ,they touched me like when my mother is giving advices (the good ones I mean! :P).I didn't want to offense you in any way of course! :rolleyes:

[screamtobeheard]

I agree,though if I exercise the process will be faster!
As for knocked I wanted to say that I felt like this words where right out of your heart ,they touched me like when my mother is giving advices (the good ones I mean! :P).I didn't want to offense you in any way of course! :rolleyes:

I suppose it could theoretically work that way, though the destruction done to your muscle mass by exercise is not quite the same as that done by depriving yourself of proper nutrients.
And ohh, alright haha. (: I wasn't offended, just slightly confused.

[DarkNick]

I suppose it could theoretically work that way, though the destruction done to your muscle mass by exercise is not quite the same as that done by depriving yourself of proper nutrients.
And ohh, alright haha. (: I wasn't offended, just slightly confused.

hah :)
Thanks a lot for your advices anyway! I'll follow them! :cool:

[TheMJS]

"eat less, do more"

[bensmith0988]

To make a perfect body. You should take a good diet and do exercise daily.

[Zebadiah]

Both have the importance at their own end. We have to consider the both when we have the attention to lose the weight. If just join the gym and not care the use of the food then all will be useless.