Secrets to Six Pack Abs

Every popular magazine in the grocery checkout line tells you the secret to six-pack abs is crunches crunches crunches. But you can crunch until the cows come home and have nothing to show for it if your muscles are buried beneath layers of fat. The real secret to visible six pack abs? Burn fat. To do that you’ll want to speed up your metabolism.

• Build the muscle. Building muscle increases your metabolism because it uses more energy to maintain it that to maintain fat. To take advantage of this, you’ll want to do full body exercises using your larger muscle groups, such as squats and deadlifts. Don’t be afraid of heavy weights if you’re a female. You won’t bulk up and look manly. Men have to work hard and eat a lot to bulk up, even with all that testosterone. An added benefit of doing full body exercises is that it gets your heart rate up, so you’re adding cardio to your weight training, which burns even more calories.

• Feed the muscle. Muscle needs protein. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to add protein to your diet is through whey powder. It comes in a lot of great flavors, and tastes great mixed into a smoothie. Try blending chocolate flavored whey protein powder with iced chai tea. Delicious.

• Eat often, but watch your portions. To increase your metabolism, you’ll want to eat 5 to 6 small meals a day. Make sure each meal or snack combines a protein and a fruit or vegetable. Examples of snacks are cottage cheese and a pear, yogurt and berries, or peanut butter on apple slices. Examples of meals are scrambled eggs with mushrooms and green peppers, salad with chicken strips, or beef and broccoli stir fried in a non-stick pan. Eliminate simple carbs from your diet, such as rice, bread, flour based products, and sugar. Replace sodas and fruit juices with green tea. Never drink your calories. Don’t use artificial sweeteners, as there are chemicals added to them that are designed to increase your hunger.

• Increase your heart rate. The best time to do cardio for fat loss is in the morning on an empty stomach, or immediately after weight training. The reason for this is that you want your cardio sessions to start right out burning fat. Generally speaking, the first 20 minutes of exercise you’re burning carbs, but immediately after sleep before you’ve eaten anything you’re going to go straight into fat burning mode. Likewise, if you do your cardio right after weight training, you’ve already worked through the carb burning phase and are already in fat burning mode. Be sure to eat after a cardio session to avoid low blood sugar.

If you follow these guidelines, you’ll start losing body fat and your muscle definition will start to show. Those beautiful abs you’ve been building with all those crunches will finally reveal themselves. Your clothes will fit better, you’ll be stronger, have more energy, and move easier. For more info on fat burning, try Josh Hillis’s blog and for strength training, Alwyn Cosgrove’s blog.