Finally get rid of the belly with our best abdominal hacks for a sixpack!
With a clever combination of regular training and a balanced diet, you can get to grips with the unloved belly fat.
Because visceral fat, as it is medically called, is a metabolically active tissue.
In other words, if you exercise regularly, your body will draw energy specifically from this area.
Muscles in particular are considered perfect fat killers.
Pills, crunches, and liquid diets are famous solutions to a flat stomach.
But did you know that there are other, not to mention better, ways to lose belly fat for good?
With these secrets we will be sharing to you in a while, you’ll be on your way to a flat stomach in no time.
So, stick with us, alright? Aiming for a flat tummy isn’t just a matter of looking great on the outside.
These are the best Tips for a FLAT STOMACH [hacks that works]
A six-pack is probably the dream of pretty much every man and woman. To be able to show off a washboard stomach, everyone wants to make it a reality as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.
On the Internet you can find a lot of nonsense when it comes to training the abdominal muscles. A lot of things are claimed there, but which can NOT be made true. That’s why I wrote this article, giving tips that really work.
So it doesn’t mean that you can’t get a six pack. However, a little more effort is needed for this than is usually thought. How to go about it the right way is what I’m going to help you with.
Nutrition hacks to get ripped abs
You can train as much and as cleverly as you like – if you don’t also pay attention to your diet, it’s almost impossible to get under control your body fat.
Your diet should include plenty of vegetables and fruit, whole grains and low-fat dairy products, as well as eggs, fish and poultry, nuts and seeds.
You should avoid sugar and white flour products as much as possible. Red meat should also rarely end up on your plate.
No matter how healthy and balanced your diet is: You’ll only lose fat if you eat fewer calories than you consume.
A major study by Harvard University found that people with obesity lose little or no weight and fat if they just start exercising (source). Exercises for the abdominal muscles and other sports activities then take care of the remaining 50% to make the abdominal muscles visible as a six-pack.
Don’t eat all day long
It’s often drummed into you at a young age that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After all, your body’s fat burning engine needs to be turned on first thing in the morning so that you burn fat throughout the day.
I can literally see you nodding!
But unfortunately…. completely wrong.
Although it may be hard to believe, eating your daily meals spread out over a shorter period of time will increase fat burning. This is also known as periodic fasting or interval fasting.
So how exactly does this work?
It mainly has to do with the hormone insulin.
During the consumption of a meal, the body releases insulin into the blood. Insulin ensures that nutrients can be absorbed by the body (sugar burning).
As long as this is the case, no fat burning will take place. The body then has enough food and energy to sustain itself. Only when the insulin level starts to drop, the body will start to burn fat.
So the body will start burning fat only after you have not eaten for a long time. It takes about 6-8 hours on average before the body switches to fat burning.
This otherwise has no effect on the metabolism. It is only when you don’t eat for more than 3 to 4 days that your metabolism will drop
It has even been shown that metabolism speeds up when you fast for shorter periods.
That’s why you shouldn’t worry about skipping a meal once a day. How about breakfast, for example? Most people who practice Intermittent Fasting eat only within an 8-hour window and eat nothing during the remaining 16 hours of the day.
What is the best way to do this in practice? For example, as follows. You eat only in one of the following periods during the day:
- 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
- 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
- 12:00 o’clock – 20:00 o’clock
Note: This does NOT mean that you eat fewer calories during the day. You do skip breakfast, but you make up the calories lost by doing so at another meal, such as a more sumptuous lunch or by eating an extra meal within the allowed time window.
Fat is your friend
Now please don’t click away right away, because this is not meant as an insult.
This is simply referring to eating fat.
And I’d like to take this opportunity to clear up an old misconception right away. Eating fat is by no means unhealthy, as is always claimed.
Although one was always persuaded that eating fat would make fat, it has now turned out that fat rather helps one to lose weight!
Since the 1930s, numerous health campaigns have been launched in America to make Americans eat less fat. After all, fat was supposed to be a fattener. And since the 70s, these campaigns have actually been successful, much less fat has actually been eaten.
And now it’s getting really fat:
- The number of people who are overweight has doubled since the 70s.
- The number of diabetes patients has tripled.
- Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death (source).
- From this, I think it’s pretty clear that consuming less fat is not the answer.
Why is fat so important for your six pack?
Fat has little or no effect on blood sugar and insulin levels.
Since it does not affect insulin levels, the body can burn fat, unlike protein and carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates in particular have a strong influence on blood sugar and insulin levels. So you make it a lot harder for the body to burn fat if you eat carbohydrates and protein throughout the day.
However, it’s important to eat the right kind of fat. The best fats are fats that are high in omega-3 fatty acids.
These fats stimulate fat burning, which will cause the body fat percentage to drop (source).
The following products contain a lot of omega-3 fatty acids:
- Broken flaxseed
- Salmon
- Avocado
In addition to omega-3 fatty acids, there are certain saturated fatty acids that are quite healthy.
Reduce fast carbohydrates
You should immediately stop eating any crap.
And by ‘crap’ we mean simple carbohydrates such as:
- Soft drinks (sodas)
- Pasta
- Sweets
- Chips
- French fries
The products mentioned here are all processed products and are pure poison for your success if you want the six pack abs.
They are not found in this form anywhere in nature.
The carbohydrates contained in these products are absorbed by our bodies at breakneck speed. As a result, blood sugar and insulin levels will rise very quickly. The body will then convert the excess energy into fat and store it, especially in the abdominal area.
So if you want to have a shapely washboard stomach, it’s better to stay away from these foods.
Fortunately, this does not mean that you can no longer eat carbohydrates at all. There are also many very healthy carbohydrates.
One should think of the following foods:
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Oatmeal
- Legumes
If you’ve been paying close attention, you’ll notice that these products are all grown in nature. None of these products have been processed.
What makes these carbohydrate sources so healthy is the fiber they contain.
The fiber ensures that the carbohydrates in the products are broken down more slowly in the intestines. This enables the body to better regulate blood sugar levels and therefore insulin levels.
The body will be able to use the sugar from the carbohydrates more slowly as an energy source and will not have to store it as fat.
Get rid of all sugar
High sugar consumption alone can cause increased abdominal fat, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Sugar spikes are triggered by any food with refined white sugar.
Thus, if you want to get a slim stomach, it’s best to avoid candy, cakes, and sweets.
You may automatically reach for fruit juices as alternatives, however, these are normally high in fruit sugar.
Again, this can be as fattening as much as it is health-threatening.
To get a six pack, you need to get rid of belly fat (visceral and subcutaneous). You can achieve this by adjusting the quality of your diet and by living healthier.
What are the types of fat?
Visceral and subcutaneous fat… …no, these are not the names of some exotic types of fish.
They are the medical terms for different types of body fat. Subcutaneous fat, is fat that lies mainly under the skin. It is the fat that you feel when you pinch someone’s stomach. And even though it might sound a bit strange, this fat is not automatically ‘bad’ fat. Although we would prefer to get rid of this fat, some fat under the skin also provides extra energy during difficult periods. Only when this subcutaneous fat increases very much will it become harmful to us. The fat under the skin can appear anywhere on the body and is therefore not limited to the abdominal area. Quite the opposite of visceral fat. Visceral fat is much more unhealthy. Visceral fat is fat that accumulates around the organs and is therefore also called organ fat. It’s not as easy to pinch here, and often it’s not even visible. Unless you’re being scanned in a medical machine, it’s pretty much invisible. However, if someone is carrying around a sizable amount of visceral fat, you can see it even without a scan. It can be recognized by a thick, round and firm abdomen.
Fill up your body with soluble fiber
The fiber in foods can be classified into two types: soluble and insoluble.
While insoluble fiber is good for you, this time, soluble is particularly more helpful as it contributes greatly to losing belly fat.
Additionally, soluble fiber also helps modulate blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol by boosting the good bacteria in your gut.
As a result, it will improve your immunity and decrease inflammation.
According to a study, people who consume more soluble fiber had a 3.7% decrease in their belly fat.
Reduce snacks
The belief that we should eat five or six times a day is recent. In the 1970s, most people ate three big meals a day, but this number has been increasing over time.
On the one hand, the nutritional recommendations leaned towards small meals, thinking that this would better control hunger and keep metabolism elevated (both ideas are wrong). On the other hand, the food industry increased its promotion of mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. They knew that if we increase the number of daily intakes we will tend to eat more, and large stomachs are more profitable than small ones. In this way, the average number of meals was increasing, from the typical three meals a day only a few decades ago to the current five or six (detail).
The calories from snacks have increased in all age ranges, contributing to the current caloric excess (study).
In general, more snacks are associated with higher caloric intake and more overweight (study, study). Most of the time we don’t even eat these snacks out of hunger, but out of gluttony, boredom or stress (study).
Obviously it is not the same to eat a fruit than a chocolate bar, but it is in the snacks where we usually put more garbage. As a general rule of thumb, try to eat the fewest meals you feel satiated with, cutting back on snacking between meals.
Weigh yourself frequently
I know this recommendation is not very popular, but the evidence is clear. People who weigh themselves frequently lose more weight and regain it less (study, study, study, study, study).
Some believe that weighing yourself can cause anxiety, but the evidence does not seem to support this idea (study). And if this happened, the fault would not be with the scale, but with our relationship with the weight.
To begin with, you must understand that weight fluctuations are normal, and that your progress is measured by many other variables (measurements, muscle, performance, energy level …). Also, if you gain two kilos of muscle and lose two kilos of fat, your body will look much better, even though your weight has not undergone any variation.
But All this does not imply that you should ignore the weight, but rather understand it and put it in context. And above all, you should avoid linking your personal worth to the value indicated on the scale. If you allow your weight to define you, stopping your weight doesn’t solve the problem.
Another benefit of weighing yourself frequently is that you see the trend more clearly, preventing specific fluctuations from making you make wrong decisions. Don’t obsess over weight, but don’t ignore it either.
Load up on protein-rich foods
Protein provides more benefits than just being a building block for the body muscles.
Eating protein increases your metabolic rate, making your body efficiently burn more calories.
Having protein-rich foods also releases a fullness hormone, effectively decreasing your appetite and making you quickly feel full so you won’t overeat.
Simply put, eating foods packed with proteins is a great way to make flatten your stomach.
What are the best abdominal hacks (no dieting)
Once you have your diet well set up, you should still exercise to get that washboard stomach to appear.
There are different ways with which one can make the muscle strands stand out by means of exercises. You can train the abdominal muscles in a very specific way (isolated) or you can perform exercises that use several muscles (compound exercises).
Compound exercises lead to more fat burning than isolated exercises, because they use several muscle groups at the same time. In this way, the six-pack becomes visible more quickly. However, if you already have little fat in the abdominal area and you want to make your six-pack beautifully visible, then isolated exercises for the abdominal muscles are a very suitable tool.
Especially a combination of both types of exercises, will ensure that the washboard stomach comes to light.
How can i get a six pack fast doing cardio?
Cardio workouts are not ideal for developing abs. It is true, of course, that you burn more calories doing it than not doing it, but the benefits do not outweigh the disadvantages.
Fortunately, however, there is a type of cardio workout that works really well:
This type of workout is called HIIT.
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training, or high-intensity interval training. Now you’re probably not much smarter, so I’ll explain what it’s all about here.
High Intensity Interval Training is a type of exercise where you exercise only briefly but then at a very high intensity, recover briefly afterwards, and then repeat this over and over again. For example, you can think of short sprints of 20 seconds, after which you give yourself 60 seconds of recovery each time, walking slowly and then repeating this cycle several times.
It is a tough workout but it is very rewarding.
Research has shown that HIIT leads to much more fat burning than ordinary cardio workouts. In addition, the test group that completed the HIIT workout gained 1 kilo of muscle mass, while the cardio test group lost 0.5 kilos of muscle mass.
High-intensity interval training, or HIIT for short, has also proven to be an extremely successful fat-burning method. Typical for these programs are short loads and short breaks. In return, the training usually lasts no longer than 20 to 30 minutes.
HIIT burns a lot of calories in this time and there is a pronounced afterburn effect. Even up to 48 hours after such a workout, the fat burning is significantly increased.
Of course, if you want to get a flat belly fat you don’t want to lose muscle mass. So if you want to lose fat but maintain your muscle mass, you should try HIIT, which is ideal for this.
Which abs are most effective?
To get a six pack as quickly as possible, people run in droves to the gym and start doing exercises for the abs. After all, everyone knows that exercises for the abdominal muscles make for a nice tight stomach. Unfortunately, you’re quite wrong. Exercises for the abdominal muscles will certainly help one to get bigger abs. But if these muscles are hidden under a layer of fat, you won’t be able to see them either. What most people don’t know is that you can’t target fat to burn in a specific area. When you work out your abs, fat is broken down all over your body. It is released into the blood and serves as fuel. So that’s how you lose fat. But this process does not take place in a defined part of the body. To get a visible six pack, you need to lose more fat overall.
Do compound exercises
I mentioned it earlier, the best way to train your abs is by doing compound exercises.
These exercises work multiple muscle groups at the same time. These exercises are very good for increasing fat burning and growing the large muscle groups of the body.
In addition, you also activate your abdominal muscles during compound exercises. Without realizing it, you get bigger and stronger abs this way.
Below I will share some of the best compound exercises:
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Bench press
- Pull-ups
- Shoulder Press
What body fat percentage do you need to see a six pack?
For this, the following rule roughly applies. For men: a body fat percentage of about 13 to 16%.
For Women: a body fat percentage of about 19 to 22%.
Full body training are key for success
Doing only abdominal muscle workouts is the wrong way to go.
Even with the best workout in the world, it is not possible to reduce fat in specific areas.
And metabolically active tissue is not only found on the abdomen. That’s why a full-body workout that builds muscle everywhere works best.
Remember, just one extra kilogram of muscle burns an extra 100 calories a day – even when you’re lying on the couch to recover.
What muscles make up your abdomen?
In order to train your six-pack, you first need to know what muscles are in your abdomen. Your abdomen consists of four major abdominal muscles: The transverse abdominal muscle (transversus abdominis), The internal oblique abdominal muscle (internal abdominal oblique), The external oblique abdominal muscle (obliques externus abdominis),
Straight abdominal muscle (rectus abdominis)
Do you know other secrets to have a flat belly?
If you want to spill some, don’t hesitate to write them down on the comment section below.
The 7 Biggest Mistakes In Abdominal Exercise – Avoid!
Do you do abdominal muscle training regularly to expose your six pack for the summer, but the successes fail?
In that case, it is very likely that you made one or more of the following mistakes.
In this article, I’ll show you the 7 biggest abs training mistakes. If you avoid them, you will not only make faster progress, but you will also avoid injuries.
1.) You are doing the exercises incorrectly
The right execution of the exercises is the alpha and omega of strength training.
This is the only way to stimulate muscle development to the maximum and ensure that you do not injure yourself.
When performing the abdominal muscle exercises, pay attention to the following basic rules:
- Full range of motion: For example, if you only do half situps, you will only stimulate the abs half as much. As a result, you will make significantly slower progress. Therefore, make sure that you use the full range of motion. You might be able to do some repetitions because it makes the exercises more strenuous, but you stimulate muscle growth more. Correct execution also reduces the likelihood of injury.
- Explosive positive repetition and slow negative repetition: Each rep has two parts. Namely from the positive repetition (upward movement) and the negative repetition (downward movement). Scientific studies have shown that it is optimal to do the positive repetition as explosively and in a controlled manner as possible. This activates more muscle fibers and thus ensures more muscle growth. The negative phase, on the other hand, should be completed as slowly as possible. A duration of two to three seconds is considered optimal here, depending on the exercise.
- Do the exercise really correctly: In gyms you can always see someone doing the exercise completely wrong. This can lead to a high risk of injury and less success. So check out written instructions and videos for each abs exercise. Make sure that they are published by real experts. When training, you should then film yourself more often. This is how you can check that you are really doing everything right.
2.) Abdominal muscle training too infrequent
It is now known that muscles are only built for 24 to 48 hours after intensive training.
If you only train the abdominal muscles once a week, you are wasting a lot of potential.
A training frequency of at least twice a week is considered optimal. Based on the scientific data, three times a week is probably a little better.
If you want, you can also train the abdominal muscles every day. However, it has not been proven whether this has any advantages compared to three training sessions per week.
3.) You think that abdominal training alone will get you there
The fact that you lose belly fat by doing abdominal muscle training alone is total nonsense.
You also need to hit a calorie deficit in order to expose your abs.
In addition, you should focus on sufficient protein, a natural and healthy diet as well as plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Only the combination of effective strength training and optimal nutrition will really bring you to your goal.
4.) You do not pay attention to keep increasing the stimulus
Put simply, muscle building works like this:
1.) A stimulus is set that is high enough to make the muscle grow.
2.) The body starts to build muscle so that it can cope with the stimulus the next time.
As the body adapts to the stimulus, you have to keep increasing it in order to continuously achieve new progress. That’s why we designed our Flat Belly Challenge so that the training becomes more and more intense.
You can increase the stimulus, for example, by doing more repetitions or more sets. But adding another abdominal exercise is a good method.
5.) You are not doing any basic exercises
The abdominal muscles are not only stimulated to grow through direct training. Even with basic exercises, such as squats or deadlifts, they are heavily used.
For really quick progress you should therefore incorporate basic exercises into your training plan.
At the same time, you shouldn’t just rely on the basic exercises. Isolated abdominal muscle training definitely has its raison d’etre and ensures faster success on the way to a six-pack.
6.) You don’t get close enough to failure when you do abs
We now know that you can build muscles very well even with high repetitions.
Much more important is how close you get to failure.
For low to medium repetitions, stopping two to three repetitions before failure is enough to give the muscle strong stimulation.
With higher repetitions, you should go a little further. With a perfect execution and suitable exercises you can go to complete muscle failure in order to stimulate the abdominal muscles to the maximum.
7.) You’re breathing wrong
If you breathe incorrectly during strength training, you have less strength. With abdominal muscle training, it is also the case that correct breathing can ensure more success.
If you also exhale at the point where you tense the abdominal muscles to the maximum, you can activate the muscles even more.
This helps a lot of people get their abs even better hit. Over time, this ensures more success.
Otherwise you should make sure that you do not use press breathing. Breathe in and out evenly during the repetitions and concentrate on the targeted activation of the abdominal muscles.
Remember, when it comes to losing weight and get a six pack, the concern of most is trying to select the most effective diet. Certainly some diets are more recommended than others, but long-term results depend more on habits than on specific diets. If you see change as temporary, you will surely fail.