Six Pack Abs, Weight Loss Diets, and Ab Machines - What the Infomercials Don t Tell You

Six-pack abs, ab exercises, ab machines...all mantras for more than a decade of fitness products and weight loss advertisements in the US. How many variations of the Ab-Name-Goes-Here ab machine, stomach tightener, or whatever you want to call it, have been marketed and sold under the banner of giving the bearer six-pack abs. Then there are the limitless magazine articles with headlines like "Best Ab Exercises", "How to Get Six Pack Abs", or "Tighter Tummy in Just 10 Days". If aliens landed on earth, these would be some of the first phrases they would learn, at least in English.

Here's the truth of the matter that anyone who has spent a good, solid year of fitness and weight training can tell you: six pack abs are as much about what and how much you eat as about how you exercise your abdominal muscles.

I remember an occurrence of "wise older workout master meets the greenhorn" that happened within a few feet of where I was exercising one afternoon in the gym. (It was, of course, around the ab machines.) A solid, well-defined young man, clearly dedicated to what he was doing, asked an older member who had a more defined set of abs how he got them. The young man protested that he was knocking himself out doing every ab workout that the gurus recommended, but he still wasn't getting the results he thought he should given the work he was putting in.

Don't get me wrong: he had a relatively flat stomach, and one that I'm sure most people would love to have. It just didn't match his arms, his chest, or his legs, which were clearly first class for a serious fitness enthusiast.

The wise elder stopped what he was doing, shook his head and chuckled to himself, then said, "I'm not laughing at you. You just wouldn't believe how many times people ask me that. Actually, there's three things going on here. You're already doing all the workouts you need, so that brings it down to two. One is genetic, and you can't do anything about that. The other part is diet. I don't care how much you work your abs, if you're eating too much, or eating the wrong foods, you're not going see a six pack. You'll have great abs, but you're not going to see them."

O.K. I know you're probably not aiming for fitness model abs, but I give this example to make the point of how critical the diet component is. Everyone who makes and markets those ab workout devices knows this too. Just look at the ad carefully, and you will see that each product includes a handy diet program to go along with the ab exercises. At some point during the infomercial, or in the ad copy if it's a print ad, they make it perfectly clear that if you want to achieve the flat stomach of your dreams, you will also need to follow their dietary guidelines.

You have no idea how many guys and gals are walking around out there with text book six pack abs, but nobody's ever seen them because they're hidden beneath a layer (or two or three) of fat.

The other thing they're not telling you: there is no such thing as "spot reduction". You cannot focus fat loss on the abdominal region using exercise. The calorie burn that accompanies any form of muscle workout affects the entire body, which means your gut-busting ab workout will probably be evident first in your face. Then, depending on factors out of your control (genetics), you will lose weight in other parts of your body, the order of which can differ somewhat from person to person.

Don't misunderstand me. If you're working your abs hard, you are certainly making them stronger, and that's a good thing. But they may remain hidden under your belly fat until the time comes for your body to cast some of it off.

For men, ironically the last place you may see the effects of your weight loss workout program is your abdominal area. As we all know by now, Mother Nature has programmed men to store fat in the stomach area. Women get it mostly in the hips, and also in the abs. Mother Nature doesn't give a flip about you looking like a fitness model. She's going to keep some extra around the waistline just to be safe.

In the final analysis, six pack abs are overrated, and too darn difficult to come by. When it comes to building a stronger abdominal section, unless you're genetically gifted in this area, it's probably best to focus on diet management and balanced workouts, which lead to good weight management and better health. Let the ab development sneak up on you over time. If you can gain control of your diet, and get both aerobic and weight training in your workouts, you can build a stronger and flatter abdominal area, which is an achievement you can be proud of.

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