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If men's fitness can be summed up in one word it is six-pack. A man with
a six-pack is almost hero worshipped by his friends. He is seen as a demigod
by women (or so men think) and his fitness prowess can never to brought
into question.
But ask him a question as simple as "So I do I get myself one of
those?" and he will either be stumped (he never does anything - it's
genetics at work), real off a thousand and one exercise tips (he's never
away from the gym) or he'll be so busy thinking about food (he rarely
eats) that he'll miss the question asked in the first place.
Well the answer is simple yet the results are often noticeable by their
absence. The simple fact of the matter that is in order to see a six-pack
you must exhibit a low level of excess body fat around the belly and sides,
or love handles if you will.
And this is the area that confuses some gym rats. They seem to think that
the visibility of their six-pack is proportionately linked to the number
of sit ups or crunches they perform. It's not.
If you don't believe me then next time for see your skinny 12 year old
nephew ask him to lift his shirt up so that you can see his abs. I bet
he's got a six-pack. And this from a kid who has never performed a crunch
in his life.
Now obviously I'm not suggesting for one minute that you need to weight
in at 8 stone to display a six-pack. I'm merely highlighting the fact
that the key isn't thousands up thousands of crunches.
The best method of dropping excess weight or body fat is to attack the
issue in three ways:
. Monitor and reduce the amount of calories
you east (and drink) each day.
. Step up your aerobic work. This burns
excess calories quickly and safely.
. Add resistance exercises to your exercise
programme. Weight training increases the metabolism, making it easier
for you to burn excess calories in double quick time.
The average male should eat approximately 2000 calories a day. However
as you plan to work out as well you may need to eat a bit more, although
not a lot more. Your goal is to lose your belly and do so quickly. If
you look to burn a total of 500 calories each day with a combination of
diet and exercise you can drop at least 1 lb. of body fat each week.
To gain results twice as quick it should be noted that you can safely
drop 500 calories a day from your diet alone and burn up the same amount
during your fitness work. This would equal a lose of 2 lb. a week - or
14 lb in just 7 weeks!
Now this may include crunches and sit ups; after all they do tone up the
stomach muscles. But it should also include exercises for the body's major
muscle groups - legs, back, chest and arms. This way the body's metabolism
is pushed into hyper-drive and the fat lost in dieting and aerobic work
is likely to stay off for much much longer.
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