So for most of us, getting ripped abs isn’t exactly easy. It does take a lot of work. But if you think the answer is doing a bunch of abs exercises day after day, then you are pretty far off base.  The problem might well be that you are doing TOO MUCH – of the wrong things.

In fact, it might be said that getting six pack abs is 2/3 lifestyle choices and 1/3 exercise.  Why is this the case?  Because you can do all the abs exercises you want for month after month, and still not see a six pack.  Of course, you might well have already tried this and failed.

So why don’t abs exercises work, and since they don’t seem effective, why do so many otherwise reasonable personal trainers and self-proclaimed fitness experts  recommend them?

The answer lies partly in a lack of research and partly in the fact that abs operate differently from most other muscles in the body.  The main difference is that they tend to get covered over is a layer of fat that totally hides them.

Burning off this fat is the real key to getting ripped abs and getting toned.

But how do you burn that fat?   Is the answer in running, elliptical trainers, and other aerobic exercise?  Surely these all must burn calories and by extension burn fat, right?

Strangely enough, while they most certainly burn calories, recent studies have shown that they are all but ineffective in reducing abdominal fat.   Why? Because when you run, your appetite increases, you eat more, and you end up doing as much harm as good.

Surprisingly, even lifting weights isn’t as effective in reducing fat as once believed.  The reason is that, metabolically, muscle simply isn’t a huge player.  Compared to the brain, G/I organs, and liver, muscle burns a small fraction of your overall caloric intake.   So adding muscle helps, but likely not enough to get a six pack.

No, to get ripped abs, you need to change your diet.  The best plans I have used so far are all low carb plans.  And recent studies bear this out.  Eating low carb has now been around for decades, far too long to call it a fad.  And the studies are piling up, showing it helps to reduce fat, improve blood lipids, and keep off fat over the long run.

So to get a six pack, you have to cut the carbs, especially if you want to build muscle and get totally ripped.

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In fact, you can do hundreds of crunches a day and still have no six pack to show for it. The reason? You have to burn off the fat covering your abdominal muscles, or you simply will never have washboard abs.

Of all the fat loss and ab building programs that I have reviewed, one stands out above the rest due to its emphasis on quickly burning off abdominal fat. This program is Fat Burning Furnace, by Rob Poulos.

The most remarkable thing about this program is that it requires excercising only 20 or so minutes 2-3 days a week, yet it achieves pretty incredible results.

Unlike many abs building and fat loss programs, which require hours in the gym or drastic dietary changes, Rob’s program is very easy to follow, and it achieves results in WEEKS.

Check out Rob’s home page for more information and some really inspiring testimonials from people who have used his system to burn off fat and finally get the six pack abs they have always wanted.

So what’s the downside to Rob’s program? Like pretty much every exercise program, it requires dedication and some sacrifice. But if you are at all motivated to get ripped abs, then this is a great system to use to achieve fat loss and get a six pack in very little time. I highly recommend it.

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There are many diet plans out there that claim to help you shed the fat. But I have found that the Zone diet plan is one of the best at helping to shed the fat around your stomach and help you get 6 pack abs

I have found that the very best abs diet – the best eating program for shedding pounds off the stomach – is the 40-30-30 diet, also known as the Zone diet plan.

This diet plan is very effective for taking off the pounds. The theory behind the Zone, as developed by Dr. Barry Sears.

The basic idea behind the Zone diet is that eating the right ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats moderates the amount of insulin released by your pancreas.

Insulin in turn regulates the amount of calories that are stored as fat. The more insulin released, the more fat is stored.

Consuming carbohydrates is believed to promote the release of insulin by the pancreas, whereas consumption of protein and fat is thought to inhibit the release of insulin.

Consuming fat, additionally, is thought to be necessary to burn the body’s stored fat.

Eat the right fats during your Abs diet

While the Zone diet emphasizes eating adequate fats, it also emphasizes consuming healthy fats while moderating the amount of unhealthy fats you eat.

Healthy fats are monounsaturated fats, found in olive oil, canola oil, some margarine style spreads, and in nuts.

The unhealthy fats are saturated fats, found largely in meats, and trans fats, which are especially unhealthy and are found in margarines, shortening, and many packaged goods.

Another more recently emphasized element of the Zone diet plan is the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fats.

Omega 6 fats are most commonly found in nuts, eggs, poultry, cereals, baked goods, and vegetable oils.

Omega 3 oils are found in oily fishes such as wild salmon (NOT in farmed salmon), mackerel, and sardines. They are also found in flax, kiwi fruit, and grass-fed beef.

The ideal ration of omega 6 to Omega 3 oils is around 4 to 1 (the typical Western diet tends to have a ratio of anywhere from 10 to 1 all the way up to 30 to 1). Since many people do not eat adequate amounts of Omega 3 oils, the Zone diet recommends fish oil supplements.

The Zone diet basics

According to the Zone diet, every meal should contain approximately 40% carbohydrates, 30% quality protein, and 30% good fats.

By maintaining a diet within this range, you keep yourself in “the Zone”, producing just the right amount of insulin to burn fat at a healthy rate.

Concentrate on low-glycemic carbohydrates (that is, carbs that are lower in the glycemic index). And concentrate on meats that are low in saturated fat, such as chicken breast, fish, and some low fat beef.

Egg whites are another great source of high quality, low fat protein.

As a general rule of thumb, consume a portion of protein about the size of your fist every meal, along with a similar number of calories of fat. Olive oil is a great primary source of fat and can be used in salad dressings and cooking.

Almonds are also a great source of quality fat and some protein too.

Then round your meal off with some low or moderate glycemic carbs, like a salad with lettuce and assorted veggies. Or have a piece of fruit.

Just read labels and stick to the 40/40/40 ratio of carbs/protein/fat. In a few weeks, you could really be seeing a difference.

Add a program of moderate aerobic exercise (again, consult your doctor before starting an exercise program), and an ab workout routine, and in no time at all, you will see progress, with your fat starting to burn and your abs starting to show through.

Obviously, the more fat you have to burn off your midsection, the more patient you need to be. The Zone is a moderate diet, rather than an extreme one, but I have found it to be the most effective way to shed pounds.

A Warning from the American Heart Association

In the interest of giving you all the available facts and points of view, I want to add this note of warning: The American Heart Association has issued an alert to the potential dangers to the heart from the long-term usage of “high protein” diets, and they included the Zone as one of the diets in this warning.

I would add that this warning seems to lump the Zone in with Atkins, Protein Power, and Sugar Busters, claiming that all these diets promote unlimited amounts of red meat and high-fat dairy products.

From what I know of the Zone Diet, from having read Dr. Sears’ books, the Zone does NOT recommend unlimited or even high consumption of red meats or any other sources of saturated fats. In fact, the Zone advises quite the opposite, recommending such protein sources as chicken breast and fish.

If anything, I see the Zone as not exactly a high protein diet, but rather a calorie-restricted diet, with fewer carbs than the average diet. I find it perplexing when researchers lump the Zone in with other more extreme diets, but this is often the case.

But I wanted you to be aware of this warning so you can make decisions yourself based on all the evidence.

In any case, this warning only seems to apply to long-term usage of these diets, and the AHA statement seemingly acknowledged the short term effectiveness of the Zone in promoting “quick weight loss”.

In my opinion, there really seems to be something to Dr. Sears’ theories about moderating your insulin production by eating within the 40/30/30 ratio.

Therefore, I believe the Zone diet plan is one of the best diets for getting ripped abs (even if you only use it for the short term).

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Male abs can be a guy’s sexiest feature. But men also are far more likely to gain fat covering the abdominal area than women are.

Therefore, it is an even harder struggle for men to get ripped abs. Men need to concentrate both on toning their stomach muscles through ab exercises and burning off that layer of fat that they are genetically predisposed to gain in their abdominal region.

Many men have trouble getting rid of that “spare tire”. It’s certainly not sexy, and carrying abdominal fat is also not healthy. It can even lead to an increased risk of heart trouble.

So how can a guy burn off that layer of abdominal fat?

The best way to lose the spare tire

Traditional logic has held that there is no real way to “spot tone” or to lose fat from a specifically targeted area like the abs or the obliques.

This is still held to be true – we are all genetically programmed to gain fat in certain areas, and, unless we have fat liposuctioned off, we will lose it in the reverse order in which we put it on.

For most guys, this means you put it on first in your stomach, and therefore your stomach will, much to your chagrin, be the last place you will lose the fat.

But recent studies have given a ray of hope to any guy wanting to burn fat from his midsection and reveal his six pack abs.

According to the studies, people who followed an aerobic exercise routine lost a full one third more fat from their midsection and abs than did people who dieted.

So for men, this is great news – you really can spot-target your abs, and you don’t have to diet to do it. You simply have to get off your couch and get active.

Make exercise fun

Aerobic exercise can really be a blast. Do something you really love – play hoops, in line skate, ride a bike, play volleyball. All these are great aerobic workouts, and their far more fun than running on a treadmill.

And studies show that guys are far more likely to maintain an aerobic workout program if they are doing something they love. It’s common sense, really.

So join a hoops league or a hockey league or a water polo league – anything that gets your heart pumping for at least a half hour, several days a week.

Also start working on an ab exercise routine. There is an excellent free one here.

Male abs are easier to be had than you might think. Just start burning off that fat, and you’ll start to see results much sooner than you might expect.

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Is there an exercise or exercises out there that will really let you focus on the lower ab muscles and get them toned?

While many sites and even experienced personal trainers will try and teach you specific exercises that supposedly target the lower abs, and many companies sell products that are also supposed to target this region, I believe in checking the latest research before recommending an exercise.

What does the latest research say?

According to research conducted by the respected American Council on Exercise, in which electromyographic readings of abdominal muscles were taken during a wide range of exercises (from crunches to reverse curls to leg lifts), the test subjects seemed to be unable to “differentially recruit” either the upper or lower abdominal muscles.

What does this mean in plain English? People can’t isolate the lower or upper abs in any exercise. Furthermore, even in exercises where the lower abs might FEEL like it has been worked harder (as in leg lifts), this did not translate into actual muscle isolation according to the electromyographic readings.

This might all seem highly technical, but the net result is that you simply CANNOT isolate the lower abs in any exercise. Instead, the abdominal muscle was shown to be a “continuous sheath”of muscle.

So how do you get ripped lower abs?

Is it possible then to target the lower abs and get that eight pack look? Absolutely! In fact, the above study shows that it is even easier to target the lower abs than was previously thought.

Any exercise that targets the upper abs will automatically target the lower abs too! That means you don’t have to do two sets of exercises to get cut upper and lower abs. Instead, you just need to concentrate on doing your basic ab exercises with perfect form.

So the best exercises for a lower ab workout are the same as for any ab workout. According to another study, those exercises are:

• The bicycle maneuver
• The “Captain’s Chair”
• Exercise ball crunches

To learn how to do these exercises properly, check out this page.

So if you have ever heard from a trainer or read in a magazine that you need to to special exercises to target the lower abs, you now know better.

For the best lower ab workout, simply concentrate on a solid ab workout plan featuring aerobic conditioning, proper diet, and the right ab exercises. It really is that easy!

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For decades, the low fat diet has been the gold standard of weight loss and nutritional help. But do low fat diets really work?

In recent years, trendy diets such as Atkins, Sugar Busters, and the South Beach Diet have questioned the validity of low fat diets.

Others in turn have questioned whether high protein diets are safe and/or effective for long term weight loss.

But putting aside the high protein diets for the time being, the effectiveness of low fat diets has been called into question by a recent study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The results of this 8 year study of over 50,000 women were released in 2006, and they shocked many people in the medical community.

The low fat myth debunked

This study revealed little or no health benefits from a low fat diet, in which the study’s participants lowered their daily fat intake to 24% of total calories, whereas a control group ate a diet in which approximately 37% of the calories came from fat.

That’s right, there was no significant difference in the rates of colon cancer, heart disease, or stroke between those two groups.

But does this mean it is healthy to eat any and all fats in high quantity on a daily basis?

Hardly. This study failed to differentiate between good fats (monounsaturated and omega 3 fats) and bad fats (saturated and trans fats).

Other studies have shown that diets lower in these bad fats and higher in fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

Good fats and hunger

Incorporating good fats from sources like olive oil, nuts, and avocados can lessen your hunger and thus help you eat less.

While fats are more dense in calories than either proteins or carbs, they also tend to make you feel more sated after you eat them, and this can lead to eating less food and thus losing more pounds.

Fat also keeps you feeling fuller for longer after a meal than do carbs or even protein, because fats keep the stomach from emptying too quickly.

So what is the ideal diet?

The science of nutrition is constantly in flux, and what seems etched in stone today might well be revealed as a myth tomorrow.

Therefore, you have to make educated choices based on the best available information. In my opinion, the best diets or eating plans for weight loss incorporate a balanced approach, including moderate amounts of proteins, carbs, and good fats.

Diets like the Zone and the Abs Diet both seem to me to fit these criteria. You should check with your doctor before deciding on the best eating plan or diet for you.

While a low fat diet might not be all it was once cracked up to be, eating a combination of eating a proper diet and doing regular aerobic exercise is still your best bet for weight loss.

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What you need to know to get killer abs

Want to know how to get a six pack? It might be easier than you think, and many of the things you believe to be true about stomach exercises might be totally false.

In the first place, you can do all the crunches, leg lifts, bicycle maneuvers, and any other ab exercises you want and still not get sick pack abs.

In fact, you could buy any machine on the market, use it according to the exact specifications in the instructions, and STILL you would probably not get a six pack.

The reason for this? Simple. You can never have ripped abs until you burn off the layer of fat covering your stomach muscles.

Until you burn off that fat, you can tone and shape your abs perfectly, but they will not be visible under your gut.

Now what’s the point of doing all that work, suffering through all those reps, if you’re never going to see any results?

The REAL secret to getting six pack abs

Despite what all the ab machine marketers and even many personal trainers will have you believe, the very first thing you must do in order to get ripped abs is to get moving.

Get active. Do some form of aerobic exercise every single day (taking one day off to rest per week).

Make it fun – do something you like, such as playing basketball, football, ultimate frisbee – anything that gets your heart pumping for at least a half an hour a day.

This will start the process of burning fat. And studies show that aerobic exercise is 33% more effective at reducing abdominal fat than is dieting, so get moving and you’ll really be targeting your abs.

Change your diet in increments, maybe dropping soda, then swapping fruit for deserts, and then switching from white bread to whole wheat.

Every change you make in your diet will add up, working in tandem with your daily aerobic workouts to burn that fat and reveal those abs.

Consider supplements such as fish oil and green tea extract to further boost your fat burning and lower your appetite, accelerating the process even further.

The FINAL step is the abs exercize routine

Once you are starting to flatten your stomach, THEN start working your abs. A simple, effective and free routine is here.

Follow the ab exercise routine, continue your aerobic exercise, keep up the eating and supplements – that is exactly how to get a six pack.

You now have the knowledge. All it takes from you now is commitment, and you’ll have the six pack you’ve always dreamed of.

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Can green tea help you burn fat and get a six pack?

Green tea weight loss benefits have been claimed for years by many supplement manufacturers. But can green tea really help you burn that fat faster and therefore give you sexy six pack abs?

A Swiss study conducted in 1999 and reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that men given green tea extract experienced faster fat oxidation and raised metabolic rates.

As a result, the men lost more weight than men given caffeine alone or than men given a placebo.

The study concluded that green tea extract might well have fat burning properties and enhance weight loss due to its combination of high levels of antioxidants and caffeine.

Another study at the University of Chicago found that the compound ECGC found in green tea can lower levels of glucose and lipids in blood. Furthermore, the study found that ECGC might help reduce abdominal fat deposits.

Another study at the University of Chicago’s Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research found that ECGC from green tea can lead to a reduction of body weight of up to 21 percent.

Furthermore, ECGC was seen to dramatically lower appetites in rats, leading to the weight loss.

Green tea extract and six pack abs

What does this all mean for people looking to tone their abs? Green tea extract is believed to be a safe and useful aid in helping people eat less and reduce abdominal fat.

By reducing abdominal fat deposits, it can help you reveal your abs faster (when combined with ab exercises and a reasonable eating plan), and this can give you those six pack abs you have been wanting for so long.

Green tea weight loss research is ongoing, but Green tea extract is believed to have wide ranging health benefits, in addition to its metabolism enhancing` and abdominal fat burning properties.

Therefore, while it is always wise to consult with your doctor before starting on any supplement, it definitely seems worthwhile trying this relatively inexpensive supplement as part of your abs routine.

Green tea extract might just provide you with a quicker route to sexy, ripped abs.

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Getting great abs can be difficult for many people. Of course, there are the lucky few who are born with a genetic predisposition for a tight, lean stomach.

For the rest of us, getting that lean, cut midsection can be quite a challenge.

It doesn’t help that there is a good deal of misinformation out there, spread both by people trying to sell various contraptions and by well-meaning personal trainers who simply are ill-informed or who have simply been taught any of a number of age-old myths that were never backed up by scientific research.

Fortunately, much research has been done lately into both the causes of weight gain and the methods of shedding abdominal fat.

Dispensing with the myths about abs

Remember that as recently as 10 years ago, most trainers were still advising their clients to do sit ups in order to tone their abs.

Now, almost everyone knows that sit ups are hard on the lower back and crunches are far more effective at targeting the abs.

So what are the widely held and disseminated beliefs about abs today that are just as untrue as this old advice about doing sit ups? What “facts” about abs are actually myths?

Myth #1 – You need to target lower and upper abs separately. Recent research has shown this to be false. The abs are in reality a continuous sheath, and any exercise that works the upper abs also works the lower abs (despite the fact that some exercises may FEEL like they work one area more).

So concentrate on doing your ab exercises slowly and with proper form, always breathing in and out as you do them. This is the best way to work your upper and lower abs, giving you that sexy “eight pack” look.

Myth #2 – If you eat before bedtime, it goes straight to fat (and to your spare tire!). More recent research has shown that it doesn’t matter WHEN you eat but what you eat and how many calories you consume.

Dr. Barry Sears of the Zone Diet has long recommended a small snack (including carbs, fat, and protein) before bed to rev up the metabolism and burn fat while you sleep.

Looks like Dr. Sears was ahead of the curve on this one. So don’t worry too much about eating a late dinner or snack (though this CAN make acid reflux worse).

Concentrate more on following a sensible, ab-friendly eating plan. And ALWAYS eat breakfast. It definitely IS true that missing breakfast slows your metabolism, while eating breakfast jump-starts your metabolism.

An abs exercise routine

Any routine to tone the stomach and give you ripped abs must include the following three things:

• Ab exercises
• Daily aerobic exercise
• A sound eating plan

If you just do the ab exercises and skip the last two parts, you might have the best abs in the world, and nobody will ever see them.

You have to burn off the fat covering them by doing aerobic exercise (start by just walking 30 minutes a day!) and by eating a good, ad-sensible diet.

Start with the very best ab exercises. Then eat right and walk regularly, and soon you will start to see progress.

If you want to speed things up, consider weight lifting, fish oil, and green tea extract. But stick to your routine, and in not too long, you’ll have great abs.

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This is an absolutely free ab workout that beats hands down all of the gimmicky ab machines and DVDs out there looking to take your money.

Why does it beat them all? Because it actually works!

There are some machines out there that can be effective in helping you shape your abdominal muscles. But these free exercises have been proven in as study to be more effective than any machine or device on the market at sculpting your abs.

Furthermore, you can tone your abdominal muscles all you want, but if you don’t burn off that layer of fat covering them, you’ll never be able to see them – you’ll never have six pack abs.

The exercises

What are the very best exercises? According to a study by the American Council on Exercise, the best ab exercise of them all, both for the upper AND lower abs, is the bicycle maneuver.

You can do this exercise on any carpet or mat, and it is simply the best for toning your abs. It’s also great for working the “love handle area – the oblique muscles.

The second most effective ab exercise, known as the “Captain’s Chair”, requires a heavy frame found at most gyms, but for this free routine, we will use the third and fourth most effective ab exercises, the crunch and the vertical leg crunch.

To perform the crunch, simply lay on the floor, hands across your chest, and lift your shoulders off the ground, exhaling and contracting your stomach muscles, holding for a moment, then relaxing your stomach, lowering back to the ground.

You can also perform the crunch using an inexpensive ($15) exercise ball, but the basic crunch will work just fine too.

To learn how to perform the bicycle maneuver and the vertical leg crunch (if you don’t already know how), see this page.

The free ab workout routine

Perform this ab routine every other day (always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise or diet program):

Crunches – 2 sets of 14-18 reps

Bicycle maneuver – 2 sets of 14-18 reps

Vertical leg crunches – 2 sets of 14-18 reps

And that is it for the abs part of the routine! Simply, but extremely effective. If you are too tired or sore, start out with one set of each exercise. Eventually work your way up to three sets of each.

In order to burn off that layer of abdominal fat covering your stomach muscles, start walking (briskly) 30 minutes a day, six days a week. If you get too tired, start out with 15 minutes a day.

If needed, work your way up to an hour of walking, six days a week, until you see results, then keep up 30 minutes a day to maintain those results.

And that’s it for the exercises! It really works – these are the best exercises, proven to give the most dramatic results.

Add a sensible eating plan

To help burn off that fat faster, cut out all refined sugars and grains (white breads, white rice, and white pasta) from your diet. Eat only lean beef, white meat chicken and turkey, and fish for protein.

Try eating a serving of protein the size of your fist at every meal, along with two to three servings of fruit or vegetables and either whole grain bread, brown rice, or whole grain pasta.

For breakfast, try egg whites or a protein shake and a piece of fruit or two.

If you want a more structured plan, consider the Zone or the Abs Diet. And again, it’s best to consult your doctor before starting any new diet or eating plan.

But if you just stick to the above guidelines, after several weeks, you should start to see results. The combination of sensible eating plan, walking, and the above ab routine should lead to great results in a matter of only weeks.

If you are a person with resistant abdominal fat, keep at it for a while longer and add three sets of twenty pushups two days a week. Start with less if you can’t do twenty. And work your way up to 100 pushups two days a week.

Adding muscle will rev up your metabolism and help you burn fat faster and keep it off.

So that’s a great free ab workout. Give it a try – you’ll love the results, and they’ll be SO worth the commitment.

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