 |
Ripped Abs? Know your DCR!Ripped abs? Simple, but not easy... Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
A calorie deficit is best achieved by combining both nutrition and exercise to achieve your body fat loss goals. For you guys who really want it, your abs will start to become 'visible' when you reduce your body fat percentage to about 10 percent. By knowing your current body fat percentage and using a typical ideal body weight formula, you can estimate how many pounds of body fat you need to drop, and how long it will take to lose this amount of fat-- It's simple, but not easy. It's going to take a lot of work and a strong commitment. It's often been said that six pack abs are 'made in the kitchen'. To a large extent, this is true. Let's take a look at the critical role nutrition plays in achieving ripped abs...
You simply cannot achieve your goals haphazardly. Many people dislike counting calories and even fewer keep a nutrition log. Yet to understand how you are progressing or to be in a better position to 'tweak' your program along the way-- you need to know how many calories you are burning and how many calories you are taking in. The first step to ripped abs is to calculate your daily caloric requirement (DCR). This is the number of calories your body needs to maintain physiologic functioning plus all of the energy requirements to fuel your physical activity level. This number depends on factors such as your age, body weight, gender, basal metabolic rate (amount of calories your body burns at rest), and of course, how active you are. Technically, your daily caloric requirement represents the amount of calories you need to maintain 'balance', i.e., the range where you neither gain weight nor lose weight. To lose weight you must reduce calories beyond this amount, to gain weight you must increase calories above this amount. There are several different methods you can use to approximate your daily caloric requirement. Each uses a different mathematical formula and all are just 'estimates'-- they all therefore, carry a margin of error. I use a method that requires you to know your body fat percentage in order to make the calculations. However, If you don't know your body fat percentage, I've provided a Calories Per Day Calculator you can use that calculates your calorie requirements based on your weight, height, and age instead. If you prefer to keep things really simple, you can use the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines... --If you're 'sedentary', i.e., office job, light work, almost no exercise-- you need approximately 14 calories per pound of body weight (or 31 calories per kilogram). --If you're 'moderately active', i.e., some physical activity and weekend recreation-- you need about 15 kcal per pound (or 33 kcal per kilogram). --If you're 'very active', i.e., exercise regularly at least 3 times per week-- you need about 16 kcal per pound (or 35 kcal per kilogram). --If you're a competitive athlete, you may need more than 17 kcal per pound or 38+ kcal per kilogram of body weight.
Technically, this is their maintenance level. Eating any calories above 2400 would cause weight gain and vice-versa, anything less would cause weight loss. I've tested my preferred method against the calculator and the AHA guidelines. Using my own weight, height, age, body fat percentage, and physical activity level-- my daily caloric requirement varied by 10 percent between the highest and lowest result. Therefore, some adjustment will always be necessary. Especially if your goal is as ambitious as achieving ripped abs. The second step to ripped abs is to subtract the proper amount of calories from your DCR. Recall that 1 pound of fat represents 3500 kcal. This means to lose 1 pound a week, you will need to reduce 3500 kcal less than your maintenance level (DCR)-- or 500 kcal per day below maintenance. This is an important point. It's often overlooked by fitness articles that simply say that to lose one pound of fat requires you to reduce your weekly calories by 3500 or 500 kcal per day. It has to be below maintenance. And this is why it's so important to calculate your daily caloric requirement-- a step often skipped-over by many of us. Case in point... If you've been getting a little bit heavier over time, gaining a few pounds each year-- chances are you're continually overeating like so many of us. Suppose for example, you've unknowingly been eating 600 kcal over your maintenance level. You read somewhere that if you cut your calories by 500 kcal, you'll lose a pound of fat. You try it. However, after a few weeks you weigh yourself and realize that instead of losing a few pounds, you've gained weight! How can this be, you ask yourself? Well, if you've been eating 600 kcal over your maintenance level and reduce it by 500 kcal-- you're still 100 kcal over maintenance. At 700 extra calories a week (100 kcal x 7 days), you will still gain a pound of fat 5 weeks later. In effect, you're not really losing weight-- you've only slowed down your rate of weight gain. So it's not as simple as reducing your calories by 3500 kcal to lose one pound of fat. You have to reduce your calories by 3500 kcal below your daily caloric requirement. To lose two pounds a week means reducing your weekly calories by 7000 kcal below maintenance-- or 1000 kcal daily. You should never reduce your daily calories to below 1200 kcal per day without medical supervision. And herein lies a classic problem. Suppose your DCR is 2000 kcal daily-- the average caloric dietary intake upon which % Daily Values on almost all food labels are based on. You decide that to achieve ripped abs, you want to lose 2 pounds a week but this means reducing your daily calorie intake BY 1000 kcal TO 1000 kcal-- far too low below recommended safety guidelines... What do you do? This is where exercise comes in. Remember that creating a calorie deficit can be achieved not only through reduced dietary intake but also by burning more calories through exercise. Indeed, combining both nutrition and exercise presents a more flexible and effective approach to achieving ripped abs. What then, are some of the best ways to achieve this work?
We already said the way to achieve ripped abs is to build strong abdominals and then to reveal them. It's important to train the stabilizer muscles of the core region first. As you progress, you'll want to include both loaded and unloaded ab exercises to optimally train the movement muscles of the core region. Some hypertrophy of muscle fibres is what will help produce a strong delineation between the muscle bellies and the tendinous bands giving rise to that washboard abs appearance.
This is because cardiovascular exercise employs large muscle groups in a continuous, repetitive, uninterrupted manner to train your muscles to use oxygen more efficiently and burn fuel as energy. Cardiovascular activities include walking, hiking, jogging, running, cycling, stair climbing, rope jumping, swimming, rowing, dancing, skating, cross country skiing, and all types of aerobics classes or other endurance activities. Your intensity level or how hard you work, coupled with the duration of your workout will largely determine the number of calories you burn per session. For example, an average 150 pound person walking at 3 mph will burn approximately 4 calories per minute. If you walk for 20 minutes you will burn about 80 calories. At a duration of 30, 40, and 60 minutes, you would burn 120, 160, and 240 calories respectively. If you walked for 40 minutes five days a week, you would burn a total of 800 calories a week. A pound of fat represents 3500 calories. Therefore, walking at 3 mph for 40 minutes five days per week will take you quite a bit of time to achieve your goal. This is why ripped abs is simple, but not easy. By comparison, a 150 pound person running at 8 mph will burn roughly 16 calories per minute. If you run for 20 minutes you will burn 320 calories. At a duration of 30, 40, and 60 minutes, you would burn 480, 640, and 960 calories respectively. If you ran for 40 minutes five days a week, you would burn a total of 3200 calories a week. Running at that pace for a frequency of five days per week means you have to achieve a fairly high level of fitness first. Even then, you would still be a few calories short of losing one pound. Imagine trying to lose two pounds a week. This is why achieving ripped abs is hard work and requires a strong commitment. This is also why nutrition plays such a critical role in body fat reduction. The next time you feel like having a fast food lunch, keep in mind that a typical double cheese burger with large fries, washed down with any medium-sized soda of your choice will cost you about 1250 calories-- enough to undo more than a week's worth of walking or two 40-minute sessions of fairly vigorous exercise! Not only is it important to pay careful attention to the quality of the foods you choose, but you will also need to be mindful of your daily caloric intake. Achieving ripped abs will also require a serious commitment to regular cardiovascular and resistance training activities. For those of you who like step by step guidelines outlining how to implement these principles, follow this link... Washboard Abs In 5 Simple Steps
Jump from Ripped Abs - Six Pack abs Part 3 back to Abdominal Exercises Section
|
While you will naturally want to include resistance training as part of your approach to achieving ripped abs since it facilitates the use of fat as fuel and may assist in minimizing any lean muscle loss that may occur with caloric deficits-- the 'best' exercise for burning calories is still cardiovascular exercise.
