Chazz Weaver

“Six-pack Abs…”

May 11, 2009 General Fitness
Posted by Chazz

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me over the past 30 years, “How do I get abs like yours?” I would have long settled into the most lavish mansion on easy street. This questions I get though are often fraught with confusion and desperation: “Do I need to do thousands of sit-ups? What about The Ab Roller or The Six Miinute Ab Machine – do they work?” While some of these may help improve and define your abdominals, the answer to the question of whether or not these products will visibly reveal your abs is a big NO!!! No matter how much money you spend on products or how much you exercise, you cannot spot reduce fat without surgery.

What all of these questions and queries divulge is a misunderstanding of the role that body fat plays in revealing muscle definition. You can do crunches until the cows come home but if your stomach is covered in rolls of fat nobody will be able to appreciate your efforts. You have to understand how to remove the layer of fat between your abs and the skin covering them. Sadly, body fat is often highly resistant to just exercise.

The bottom line is you must know three basic facts:

1. How many calories your body needs to function – your Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR)
2. How many calories you intake on a daily basis
3. How many calories you expend on a daily basis

I use the Harris-Benedict formula to figure out the first fact. You can find a BMR calculator on this website under “Useful Information” which uses this  formula. To learn the second fact just requires good old calorie counting. You must write down your total daily caloric intake at least at the beginning until you get a handle on this. And for figuring out basic fact number three there are all kinds of websites out there that will tell you approximately how many calories the average person burns during practically any activity. One great product which constantly monitors your calorie usage is the BodyBugg. Plus, most cardio equipment has a calorie counter built in. Obviously you can’t use these numbers as absolute values but you can get a pretty decent average from them.