Eat to Get a 6 Pack
If you are hoping to develop a six-pack, you will have to eat well on top of performing those ab crunching exercises. Keep in mind that you need to burn more calories every day than you take in if you want to get Get-Six-Pack-Abs. It may help to Calculate-How-Many-Calories-You-Need-to-Eat-to-Lose-Weight before you get started.
Contents
Steps
- Day 1: Eat 1 cup of oatmeal and 1 cup fresh fruit for breakfast, a Make-a-Healthy-Sandwich and a cup of veggie sticks for lunch, and a Make-Chicken-Stir-Fry for dinner. This menu will provide fiber, antioxidants, protein, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats with minimal calories.
- Make your own oatmeal to avoid the added sugar and salt from pre-flavored packs, sweetening with honey or brown sugar and topping with fresh fruit, a tablespoon of nuts or seeds, and/or ground cinnamon or nutmeg.
- Use whole grain bread and vegetables (preferably with no mayonnaise) for the sandwich and consider vegetables like celery, red peppers, carrot sticks, or cucumbers. If you prefer to have a dip for the vegetables, opt for Make-Lentil-Hummus or homemade white bean dip instead of salad dressing or sour cream dip.
- For dinner, add as many fresh vegetable variations to the stir-fry as you like, but do not increase the recommended amount of oil. Season with spices like fresh herbs and chillies to add flavor and eliminate the salt. Substitute whole grain noodles or brown rice for traditional processed starches.
- Day 2: Make Make-Muesli for breakfast, a Make-a-Spinach-and-Strawberry-Salad with a hard-boiled egg for lunch, and Grill-Salmon-Fillets and vegetables for dinner. This menu will provide plenty of protein, carbohydrates, healthy fat, fiber, and vitamins and minerals to help give you enough energy to keep performing well during your workouts. Add a glass of low-fat milk to lunch or dinner to help your muscles heal from your ab routine.
- Use fresh instead of dried fruit in your muesli (they’re filled with more air and water to give you the illusion of being fuller faster), low fat milk or yogurt (healthy fats are essential – you don’t need to cut them out completely), and do not exceed a quarter cup of nuts or seeds in the recipe.
- Add additional fresh vegetables to the spinach salad if desired and use a vinegar and oil or fruit juice based dressing. If you want a richer dressing, add some Dijon mustard or turmeric powder to it.
- Glaze the salmon fillet with fruit juice or olive oil and sprinkle with herbs before serving with brown rice and roasted or Grill-Vegetables such as zucchini, tomatoes, or eggplant.
- Day 3: Prepare an egg-white Cook-an-Omelette for breakfast, a Make-a-Grilled-Veggie-Panini for lunch, and Make-Lentil-Soup for dinner. Use no more than one tablespoon of olive oil or vegetable oil for each recipe and buy low-fat cheese to avoid unnecessary saturated fat. This combination of meals will provide tons of nutrients with very few calories, and supplies the appropriate amount of fat for the lean diet you need.
- Try a variety of vegetables in the omelet such as asparagus, tomato, and mushrooms, and serve with a side of fresh berries, half a grapefruit or a quarter of a pomelo.
- For the lentil soup, add extra vegetables, such as mashed carrots or tomatoes, and top with {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} of fat-free sour cream instead of cheese.
- Day 4: Mix up a Make-Yogurt-Parfait for breakfast, a Make-a-Healthier-Tuna-Salad-Sandwich for lunch with a cup of fresh veggie sticks, and Grill-Kabobs for dinner. This menu is packed with protein, a few carbohydrates to supply energy, a healthy amount of essential fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
- If you would like to add cereal to your parfait, select a brand with no added sugar and made with whole grains. If you want to boost your protein intake, substitute plain yogurt for unsweetened, fat-free Greek yogurt.
- Avoid using mayonnaise in your tuna salad by swapping in Make-Vinaigrette and adding red onion, low-sodium pickle juice and a handful of fresh dill.
- When making skewers, limit your meat to 3 oz. for women, and 4 oz. for men per serving. Fill up on vegetables, such as bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and zucchini.
- Day 5: Prepare whole grain cereal with low-fat milk and 1 cup of fresh fruit for breakfast, a brown rice and Cook-a-Veggie-Stir-Fry bowl with tofu or lean sliced beef, and Grill-Halibut with Make-Tropical-Fruit-Salsa and baked sweet potato for dinner. This menu supplies carbohydrates in the morning and afternoon followed by healthy fats, protein, fiber, and a variety of antioxidants and other nutrients. Your body will need these extra carbohydrates to get you through the last day of both cardio and muscle training before you rest your abs for a day or two.
- Sip on low-fat milk with lunch for extra protein, whey, and nutrients your muscles need to repair damage and build new muscle.
- Top the baked potato with powdered ginger and cinnamon, low-fat sour cream and pepper, or caramelized onions and garlic in a balsamic vinegar reduction.
Snacking & Resting
Snack smartly. Your meals should be timed between 3 to 5 hours apart. In between meals, have a nutrient-dense snack. Avoid snacks high in calories, sugar, fat, or salt. Opt for fresh slices of fruits or vegetables, whole grain crackers with low-fat string cheese, a homemade coffee with skim milk, an apple or banana, or 5 sheets of nori.
- Maintain your healthy diet on rest days. After a long week of hard work, it can be tempting to binge on restaurant foods, snacks, and sweets.
- Eat a little less on your rest days to compensate for the lower level of calorie burning. On rest days, it’s more important than ever to load up on vegetables and lean protein.
- Resist the temptation to consume alcohol on rest days.
- If you are eating away from home, limit portions and select lean options in small quantities, such as grilled chicken sandwiches, baked potatoes with vegetable toppings, vegetable soups, and salads with dressing on the side.
Tips
- Quit-Junk-Food, soda, and alcohol. Your goal is to eliminate all calorie-dense, nutrient-deficient food sources. Candy bars, fries and beer will only make it harder to shed the layer of fat hiding your abs. The sooner you quit junk food, the faster you’ll see the results of your efforts. If you find this step hard, ask yourself how long you’re willing to keep up this intense 6 pack ab program before you achieve your goal. The more you cheat, the harder it’ll get, and if you haven’t noticed, it already starts off pretty hard.
- Make-Healthy-Breakfast-Meals. Many people skip breakfast because they don't have time for it but eating breakfast actually jump starts your metabolism and deters you from eating too many calories later in the day. Prepare-Cereal don't take much time to prepare and consume, and there are lots of healthy options from which to choose. And if you are extremely pressed for time, consider purchasing a box of breakfast bars or a smoothie and throwing one in your bag when you leave for work or school. Some Bake-Breakfast-Cereal-Bars out there are also excellent Add-More-Fiber-to-Your-Diet. Even an apple or a yogurt is better than nothing.
- Learn correct Properly-Portion-and-Plan-a-Healthy-Meal-with-Charts. It’s not about eating a lot of the food you know is healthy. It’s about eating the right amounts of the right foods to get 6 pack abs. Print out a guide sheet to help you estimate proper portion sizes for grains, lean meats, fats, carbs, dairy, fruits, and vegetables and make sure it’s easy to access when you’re preparing meals.
- Increase-Your-Metabolism. Eating one small meal every three waking hours (assuming you sleep at least 7 hours each night) will not speed up your metabolism; rather, it will keep it going. Your metabolism slows down when your body isn’t fueled properly, so eating something small every three hours will keep that metabolism burning calories efficiently to help you lose weight. Every meal should include lean protein, so that your body won't need to break down your muscles for fuel, which would shrink your abs as well as slow down your metabolism.
- You can still eat lots of food and lose weight, you just need to avoid exceeding the recommended amount of fat and calorie intake per day while getting as many nutrients as possible.
- Take a multivitamin for your age daily with calcium and iron and all other nutrients and vitamins in order to make sure you are getting enough.
- Switch out refined grains for Eat-Whole-Grains-for-Health. In a scientific study, people who ate all whole grains (in addition to 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 3 servings of low-fat dairy, and 2 servings of lean meat, fish, or poultry per day) lost more belly fat than another group that ate the same diet, but with all refined grains.
- Drink more water every day. To find out how much water you need to drink as a minimum per day, halve your weight (in pounds); that is how many ounces of water you need to drink. A 150lb person would need to consume a minimum of {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} a day. It sounds like an absurd amount of water, but you get water from the food you eat, and you can drink teas and pure fruit juices to make up some of the quota.
Warnings
- Supplements can be useful, but they are just what they advertise themselves to be: supplements. There is no magic pill to make you lose weight with no work.
- Do not restrict calorie intake excessively. This can be dangerous and actually decrease the speed with which you lose weight.
- You can't eat extra fat and carbohydrates because you are working out. Although you may need to increase your caloric intake slightly if you are becoming considerably more active, you will still need to burn more calories than you consume in order to lose weight and fat. Provided you eat a balanced diet with a variety of nutrients, you will not necessarily need to increase the amount of carbs or fat you take in; doing so will slow you down from getting 6 pack abs.
- All supplements still require consumers to watch their diet and increase their level of physical activity. A simple multivitamin or mineral pill is likely all that most people will need.
- No fitness video, machine, pill, or workout routine will miraculously give you 6 pack abs as quickly as you would like. A bit of protein powder in a shake or a multivitamin may help make up for certain protein needs or minor vitamin deficiencies, but pills promising weight loss or muscle growth are typically not approved by regulatory boards and are generally fail to fulfill their expensive promises.
