best way to achive for holiday in april

[DeepSeaBiker]

hi everyone, i am looking for some advice on the best way to train for the results i want. i am only 2weeks into training and right now i am aiming to cut until i at least have a flat stomach. then i going on holiday at the end of april so i want to gain as much as posible untill a couple of weeks before it then completely tone my abs for going away. i am new to this so any advice would be greatly appriciated. cheers

[Doublehelix]

This is an impossible question to answer since we don't know where you are sitting right now. Do you know what your body fat percentage is? If not, post here and let Doug calculate your BF%:

Calculate your body fat


A decent cut is losing 1 pound a week, so if you are hoping to have a flat stomach by April, how many weeks do you have to go? Let's see, 2 weeks left in February, 4 weeks in March, so that makes 6 pounds by April 1st. Will that be enough to give you a flat stomach? Without more information, there is no way to tell for sure.

If you are looking for a "six-pack" of abs, the common perception is that you need to have a bodyfat % down below 10% (6-8%) which is not an easy task to accomplish in 6 weeks unless you are VERY close already.

Toning your abs can be done, but will 6 weeks be enough to give you the look you desire? Hard to tell since we don't know where you are now, what your routines look like, what your diet is like, etc.

If you want to lose that 1 pound per week, you will need to be eating in a caloric deficit of about 500 calories per day. So how do you know how many calories you need? Go here and calculate your BMR:

BMR Calculator

Now you know how many calories each day you need to MAINTAIN your current state. Subtract 500 calories from that number, and that is what you need to eat each day.

You cannot guess on the number of calories, you MUST track it!!! I use FITDAY.com, but there are other ways to do it.

This is not an easy thing to do, and you have to invest the effort to do it right.

Best of luck to you, and I hope you have a great vacation!

[DeepSeaBiker]

thanx for all that iformation, i leve on the 28th april so i think i have 11 weeks, i living in a hotel as i am working away from home. this makes it hard to get a proper diet but i am 5ft 11" i weigh 80kg. i estimate i am eating 1500calories at the most a day. doing 20mins shadow boxing and abs,press-ups in the morning then about 40min high intensity interval cardio plus 3-4 sets on select muscle groups plus more abs training 5 or 6 days a week.
i will try get a tape measure to find out my fat%, i have uploaded photos to my profile if this helps.
im also using
: promax diet
:thermebol
:CLA-1000

[Doublehelix]

I am no expert, but I am 5'10", weigh about 73Kg, and I am at 20% bf.

My BMR is about 2500 calories, so I need to eat about 2000 calories per day to lose a pound a week.

Don't overwork your muscles! 2 days a week is PLENTY for your abs (3 days maybe?). The muscles need rest in order to rebuild and grow.

Like I said, you cannot guess at your caloric intake. No offense, but when you say "i estimate i am eating 1500calories at the most a day" does not inspire confidence that you really know what you are eating. It is your choice of course, but you really need to track it. I fought that for a long, long time until I finally gave in and started tracking. I was SHOCKED to see what I was eating. You also need to look at your PCF ratio (protein/carbohydrate/fat). You need to maintain a 20/50/30 ratio, and there is no way to guess at that. Look to consume about a gram of protein for every pound of body weight.

[DeepSeaBiker]

i am 21yrs old
height= 175cm
weight=80kg
waist= 36.5 inches
wrist= 7.5 inches

i say i estimate because i worked out what i can eat to not go over 1500calories with as much protein,enough carbs and fats.
because i am staying in a hotel i am only eating about 3 different meals through the week because i dont have facilities to store or cook food.
you recomend having a few rest days to let muscles recover. instead of doing this can i not just work through the muscle groups? thus giving the ones i work on a monday 2 or 3 days to recover?

[Doublehelix]

A multi-day split is a great idea, and it sounds like you are doing just fine there. I was just referring to your comment about doing abs 5-6 days a week.

Your body still needs rest, so for a beginner, 4 days a week max of lifting, and maybe a fifth day with cardio only. The rest is not only for your muscles, which need them, but also for your central nervous system. Work hard, but remember, more is not always better. Sometimes rest is what is needed.

Good luck on the diet! Living in a hotel will certainly be a challenge.

If you want your BF% calculated, you will need to enter those numbers in the thread that I linked to, and you will need to use Empirical units (inches and pounds).

[DeepSeaBiker]

cheers for the help, i have entred them just wating for the results.
i will take ur advice on letting myself rest a bit. i think im pushing it because i am being impationt and looking for results to quickly. i cant train to hard when we have been doing long or deep dives at work so i am just taking advantage of time off while the boat is stuck somewhere els in bad weather lol. cheers

[Spartigus]

Im about 5"11 and weigh 80kgs, my waist is 31 inches, and im about 11%bf. I can see my top two abbs, but i wouldn't call it a 6pack abbs lol. To get the good six pack and some muscle people desire isnt something you can just hammer out in 11 weeks. It also isnt a hobby. Its a lifestyle, and it takes many months of hard work to achieve a 6 pack and some decent muscle. And it takes serious dedication and training, your diet needs to be spot on! If it was easy everyone would do it. Im not trying to discourage you, im just trying to be realistic.

You need lots of dedication, a perfect diet (6 meals per day, and keeping it under your BMI with lots of wholesome healthy food), a good routine and plenty of rest. There are no shortcuts or easy methods. You gotta nuckle down hard and you will achieve.

[Doublehelix]

I have to agree with Spartigus, but it does sound like you are an active person. Dedication to your body is needed to do this the right way, but that is not what you asked, is it? You asked specifically about getting ready for a vacation. All of us have different needs and goals, and not all of us are about becoming body builders. But his comments are spot on, there is no way you are going to have a six-pack by April, but if you work hard, you will see *some* improvement.

From reading your stats and seeing your pics, I would have to say that you are at *least* 20% bf or so, maybe a bit higher. So, using empirical units again, let's call that 176 lbs at 20% body fat, so you conservatively have about 35.2 lbs of fat on your body. So in 11 weeks, IF YOU LOSE A POUND A WEEK through proper diet (6 meals a day, 30/50/20 PCF ratio, etc.), you will be at 165 lbs. Now if 100% of that weight loss is fat (not likely, your body will also burn some muscle in a caloric deficit), you would have 24.2 pounds of fat remaining. At 165 lbs, your bf% would still be at 15%, which would still not be showing any abs! As I said in my earlier post, you need to be in the 6-8% range for a full six-pack.

All the exercises will help, and you will be developing ab muscles, but they will be hidden below the fat!

These are of course rough estimates, and that is assuming that you are losing only fat, which is never the case, and assuming your diet is 100% clean and spot on. I will also say, that as you get lower in bf%, it gets harder to lose the weight, so bf% reduction is not a straight line function, meaning that you will have to work harder as time goes on to continue to lose the body fat as you body will naturally try to resist. It wants to maintain a certain percentage of body fat to protect itself against starvation. This is why you should stick to the 500 calorie deficit, and not try to starve yourself. If you go below the 500 calorie deficit, you body thinks it is starving, and will start storing fat as an emergency measure. It will also start slowing down its metabolism, and even begin to burn muscle as an energy source. Another example of why Spartigus says you need to do this the right way and that it takes dedication.

One other thing... Working hard on ab exercises DOES NOT help you lose belly fat more quickly. Your body burns fat equally all over your body, and there is no way to target specific areas of fat on your body. As Spartigus says, this is a process, and takes time.

Good luck! Let us know what your bf% is after Doug calculates it. This will certainly help you make realistic goals.

Cheers!

DH

---

[DeepSeaBiker]

Originally Posted by Spartigus

Im about 5"11 and weigh 80kgs, my waist is 31 inches, and im about 11%bf. I can see my top two abbs, but i wouldn't call it a 6pack abbs lol. To get the good six pack and some muscle people desire isnt something you can just hammer out in 11 weeks. It also isnt a hobby. Its a lifestyle, and it takes many months of hard work to achieve a 6 pack and some decent muscle. And it takes serious dedication and training, your diet needs to be spot on! If it was easy everyone would do it. Im not trying to discourage you, im just trying to be realistic.

You need lots of dedication, a perfect diet (6 meals per day, and keeping it under your BMI with lots of wholesome healthy food), a good routine and plenty of rest. There are no shortcuts or easy methods. You gotta nuckle down hard and you will achieve.

Cheers for ur help, to be honest a full six pack doesnt realy bother me as long as i have a reasonbly flat stomach, i just wana not look fat,then start bulking up no matter how long it takes or how hard it is. when i put my mind to something i stick at it so all information is a great help.