5 Mistakes You Need To Avoid To Lose Belly Fat and Get Six Pack Abs. Discover The Truth Today.

Since I am into fitness and muscle building, one of my major goals is how to get a six pack abs and make them reveal themselves. With time, I am starting to see real progress and those six pack abs are beginning to pop out. The best part is when you contract your abs muscles, you can see them more clearly. You really feel a sense of satisfaction when reaching this goal. In the past years, I didn't have any clue how to achieve this but now I know and I can see the proof everyday in the mirror.

I've received questions before, that the reason I have those abs, is because I do lots of abs exercises. While this is partly true, it's not the only reason. Abs workout for sure are important to build and develop your abs muscles but the real truth to seeing them is not doing an infinite number of ab exercise repetitions. Here are 3 things you should know about how to get a six pack abs.

(1) Perform Cardio Exercises

To get those six pack abs showing, you just need to burn your excess calories known as fat and gradually, your body fat will decrease. Your body has a percentage of body fat and the less you have, your body will have more definition and your muscles will become more visible. Eg a body fat of say 3-4% will get your six pack abs showing really well. Some people who think that just doing ab exercise repetitions will burn their belly fat and get their abs showing are completely on the wrong track. Your body fat is in your entire body and not just in your stomach. When your body fat decreases, it's proportionate in your whole body including your arms, legs, stomach etc... When your body fat reduces gradually, your abs will start to reveal themselves more and more. Everyone has abs muscles but if they are not visible, it means there is a layer of fat covering their stomach.

Now to burn and lose fat, you need to exercise and cardio exercises are recommended. If you go to the gym, you can use the gym bikes and the treadmills(running machines) or do aerobics. If you prefer nature, you can stick to jogging, swimming or riding a bicycle in the park. Do cardio say 2-3 times per week moderately eg 45 minutes on the gym bike. Don't overdo it because you can lose muscles that you've worked hard for, say you're building muscle mass at the same time. But if you aren't concentrating on muscle mass as well but more on the six pack abs, you can do cardio more times per week say 4-5 or even everyday. You have to get your heart beat increasing and your body has to sweat a lot to lose the fat. As a result, your six pack abs will reveal themselves with time.

(2) Pay Proper Attention To Healthy Nutrition

It's of no use paying attention to cardio when you don't care about healthy eating. It's like all your cardio efforts to lose fat will be in vain. For eg, if you just eat tons of junk food and foods which are high in fat, sugar, salt and calories which usually are of no nutritional value, you'll gain too many excess calories and as a result, you'll have a harder time burning fat and getting those six pack abs. You need to do more and more cardio for quite a long time. What if you've eaten more quality and low fat and low calorie foods which have high nutritional value as well? You'll reach your goals much more faster. Tip - Protein, carbohydrates and fats all have calories but fats has the most and this is why foods high in fat have more calories.

Nutrition is a key component to make you achieve your goals much more faster. Pay attention to what you eat and have a proper nutrition. By that, I mean eat quality food. For eg, eat protein to build those muscles. Some good sources come from skinless chicken breast or turkey breast, lean read meat, egg whites, tuna, white fish and salmon. Salmon is highly recommended since it contains omega-3 fish oil which has been proven to reduce insulin levels. When you have high insulin levels, your body is more proned to increase fat storage and the fat burning process is slowed down. So with low insulin levels, your body will use the fat as energy rather than store it. Also, eat good carbohydrates like oatmeal, potatoes, yams or taro, sweet potatoes, brown rice, wholemeal bread, pasta. Eat lots of fibrous veggies like broccoli and green beans and eat fruits like banana(good to avoid muscle cramps) and oranges amongst others. Avoid saturated sats like animal fats but you can opt for unsaturated dietary fats like virgin olive oil. These fats are called monounsaturated fats and are good for the heart. You can easily use olive oil in a salad's dressing.

Eating 4-6 meals in small quantities at regular intervals like every 2-3 hours is advised to keep your metabolism high and reduce your insulin levels. As a result, your body will burn fat more effectively as well. Your body has different metabolism and there is the metabolism of fat. By eating small quantities of calories per sitting means you have less chances of accumulating too much fat. Your liver will then be able to convert any additional fat into energy much more quickly and easily. If you do 3 heavy meals, your chances to store more fat is higher since your body can only store a specific number of calories per meal. The additional calories will be stored as fat.

Water is life and is essential for your daily functions and for releasing any harmful toxins from your body. Drink lots of water at least 1.5-2.0 litres of water daily from a bottle. A bottle is more convenient since it encourages you to drink more. But if you usually drink in a glass, go for at least 8 glasses per day. Water also plays a role in maintaining muscles and it hydrates yourself since you're exercising. In addition, there is some evidence that water can enhance the fat burning process. Anyway, water can just be beneficial for your health, so go for it.

(3) Do Your Abdominals Workout

If you follow the 2 tips above, you're already on the right track to get those six pack abs showing but this does not mean you don't have to work your abs. You still need to train your abs to strengthen them and they will come out more muscular and more visible. Exercises such as crunches and leg raises will work your abs. You don't need to work your abs everyday. Two times per week should do. I do 4 sets of 25 for crunches and 4 sets of 25 for leg raises twice weekly. You don't necessarily need to do the exact same if you're just starting out but rather, you can do less sets or less repetitions per set. You just need to think of a workout that can potentially meet your capability and try it out of course to see if it suits you. You can always adjust afterwards. Also, remember the trick is not to concentrate on your ab workout, like becoming obsessed to do hundreds of ab repetitions every single day because this is not the solution to your abs not revealing themselves. Cardio and proper nutrition are your primary targets.

The above tips are a general guideline but if you are really serious about how to get a six pack abs and want more detailed information and instructions, I highly recommend Mike Geary eBook, The Truth About Six Pack Abs. Well written and illustrated with great ab building techniques and strategies, this is simply a MUST read for anyone wanting to get a ripped stomach and lean muscular body. Go and pick up your own copy right away and you won't regret it.













About the author

Jean Lam is the webmaster of Body Building Resource which provides articles on weight training, nutrition and fitness, body building book and DVDs.