Diet for 8 Pack Abs

The most crucial ingredient for washboard abs is not thousands upon thousands of sit ups. If you want an eight pack, you have to watch what you eat. There is an old saying that the six pack is not made in the gym but in the kitchen. It is possible to reveal your abs without adhering to a strict diet, but it is a lot harder.

Significance

To get an eight pack, you need to reduce your body fat so that the abdominal muscles are visible. Most people have sufficient muscle development that would be recognized as a six pack, but because of an excess of body fat they are not be visible. There are a number of ways to reduce body fat, including exercise, but diet is probably the most important factor. According to personal trainer Charles Inniss, men will need to be between 5 percent and 10 percent and women should be at 12 percent to 18 percent body fat.

Considerations

As the saying goes, you are what you eat. Your body processes the food that you consume to replenish your body with nutrients and energy, while also repairing your muscles after exercise. During activity, your body uses glycogen stored in your muscles and liver to generate energy. After activity, these glycogen stores need to be replenished. This is done through the food you eat. Protein is broken down to repair muscle fiber and carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and used to replace your glycogen stores. Excess glucose is stored as fat, which is what you are trying to avoid.

How it Works

Doing abdominal exercises works the abs but do not directly burn belly fat. To burn fat, you need to run a calorific deficit, which means you need to be eating fewer calories than you burn off during the course of a day. This can be done by counting the calories you take in and burn using an online calorie counter. During exercise, your muscles will first seek to use glycogen stores to fuel your body before burning fat stores.

Carbohydrates

The most common fat loss diets suggest that you should minimize the amount of carbohydrates that you take in. This is because carbohydrates are the easiest food stuffs for your body to break down and turn into glucose, which is stored as fat in the body. Aside from after exercise, when the body is most in need of carbohydrates, most nutritionists say you should avoid them, especially processed carbs such as pasta and bread. Instead, you should concentrate on eating complex carbohydrates such as green vegetables, which are harder to digest and therefore keep you full longer.

Considerations

Your diet should consist mainly of lean protein and green vegetables. Meals should be small and eaten regularly to prevent you from taking on excess calories at any one time and storing the excess as fat. You should aim for five or six small meals a day. Weight loss is not a rapid process, as you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you consume to lose a pound of weight. Try and keep your meals small and increase the amount of water you drink to stem feelings of hunger.