Diet – The Foundation of Your 6-Pack

Our How to Get Abs Guide is laying the foundation for you, but you have to build the house. Your diet is absolutely vital to attaining a sexy 6-pack. Everybody has abs, but it requires a loss of fat around the stomach to expose them to the world. Getting your diet in check will provide the fat loss you need, but you must know that the midsection is the “Last Stand” for fat. You will have to go to battle to get rid of it.

There are individuals that can eat whatever they want and still keep their perfect body. If you are reading this, chances are you are not one of those people. These people are rare, and have a natural gift that cannot be replicated, so we will pay them no mind.

People with great abs often hear excuses from others like, “Oh, I work out but I can never get abs like you. You’re lucky!” Rich people hear, “Wow, I wish I was lucky like you so I can buy whatever I wanted.”
Luck has nothing to do with it. People at the top, whether it is physical, mental, or financial, have worked hard to reach their goals. If you want to be on their level, you are going to have to work hard. The reward for your dedication will pay-off ten-fold.

Exercise is Easy. Diet is Not

Diet will be the hard part of getting a flat stomach. We will layout a very simple, easy to follow diet plan that you should stick to for the rest of your life. The hard part is avoiding the temptation of sugars, processed foods, and junk.

You can do sit-ups and crunches until you’re blue in the face, but without a proper nutrition plan, you’re not going to see any results. Diet is the key cornerstone to any workout regimen, but especially when you’re on an abdominal specialization workout program.

The Only Rule of Dieting You Need to Know

If it grows in the ground, or eats something from the ground – Eat it.

If it was made by man, produced in a factory – Do Not Eat it.

So what does that mean? It means that what you eat should consist only of natural foods. Why? Back in the days of cavemen and Neanderthals, food options were limited. Fruits, vegetables, and lean meat were the only options available.

Were there overweight cavemen? No. Were cavemen dying off from diabetes, cancer, and heart disease? No. If cavemen had no natural predators and modern medicine, would they live to be 120 years old? Probably. If you are interested in the science behind this theory, pick up the Paleo Diet book. Otherwise, take our word for it.

We are generalizing, and of course things have changed since then, but eating only natural foods is the simplest diet you can ever be on. You can find natural foods on the perimeter of your supermarket. Do not venture into the aisles where boxes of cereal and bags of potato chips lurk. Stick to that and you will be fine.

Flat Stomach Diet Guidelines

You choose the foods, and you choose the times, just make sure the foods you choose are the right ones. If are truly dedicated to your goal of a sexy stomach, you will know before you put the food in your mouth if it is good for you.

Eat Anything as Long as it Follows Our Rule – Natural Food Only

Lean Meats – Poultry, fish, and lean red meats (pork, game meat) provide the protein and other nutrients you need to grow muscle. Avoid fatty red meats (like hamburger) because the amount of saturated fat is counter-productive to your goal.

Fruits and Vegetables – Fiber for digestive health and vitamins your body needs to be in tip-top shape. Fruits make great snacks throughout the day, and vegetables are delicious when cooked well. If you refuse to eat fruits and vegetables, you need to rethink your lifestyle and the expectations of your life span.

Whole Grains – The only thing you must absolutely stick to here is avoiding processed grains at all costs – enriched flour, bran, and wheat germ. Whole grains only! See this link for a list of acceptable healthy whole grains

Dairy Products – Dairy products are acceptable, but should be kept to a minimum. Just because yogurt says “Hey, I’m healthy!” on the package does not mean you should eat 5 of them a day. Dairy products are generally high in saturated fat, so keep it in moderation.

Diet Rules to Follow

Eat 6-8 Small Meals a Day – Have a healthy, filling breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Snack every 2-3 hours on healthy foods and you will never be hungry. Your body will begin to thank you by shaping itself into a lean, mean, calorie burning machine!

No Calorie Counting – You do not need to waste time calorie counting. Estimates are fine. Analyzing every single gram of food will only stress you out. (Unless you are meticulous and it makes you happy to be so thorough – then fine, calorie count! For the rest of us, it’s just not necessary)

60% Protein, 25% Carbs, and 15% Fats – This ratio is only a general guideline. The point is to eat plenty of protein while avoiding saturated fats (The 15% should come from healthy fat, like that found in fish.)

When you eat balanced meals throughout the day, and eat only the foods mentioned, then you are on track here. You can use a website like FitDay to track your ratio over a week or two, but after that it will come naturally.

Avoid Sugar – The occasional sweet won’t kill you. But when reward your efforts with constant sugar (candy and soda), you are only hurting yourself and ruining your chances of a flat stomach.

No Starvation – Starvation produces short-term results with serious long-term risks. There is absolutely no benefit to starvation, and there are serious consequences that are too many to list here.

But I’m Skinny!

Skinny people, especially men, need to follow along with this diet for a number of reasons. The obvious reason is better health overall. The nutrients and vitamins from natural, healthy foods allow your body to recover faster and develop better immunity towards disease.

The next reason is that this plan dictates a substantial protein intake, which is essential to muscle recovery. You will need every ounce of protein you can get to build the muscles within your abdominals to make that 6-pack pop out.

We’ll go into more detail for skinny men and women with the following ab workouts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 4:38 pm and is filed under How to Get Abs and Show off Your Six-Pack Fast!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.