17% body fat

The main reason for this article is not to tell people they are wrong. It’s to help them identify why they can’t get their six pack to show. Everyone already has a six pack, but it’s covered in fat most of the time. If you want to get your six pack that you already have to show you need to be around a certain body fat percentage. This is generally a body fat percentage around 7% – 11% for your abdominal muscles to show properly. It also depends on the persons body composition because some people store fat in different areas, so you may need to lose more fat when it comes to your abdominal muscles appearing.

When it comes to getting your abdominal muscles to appear you must be at a certain body fat, but it’s the fact of how does the person get there. Many people believe it’s about going to the gym to train when in reality that’s not always needed. The most important step when it comes to getting your abdominal muscles to show is your portion sizes. This is the sole factor that really makes or breaks if you can get your six pack to show.

The reason that portion sizes is the sole factor is because you need to be able to lose the fat covering your abdominal muscles. Cardiovascular and abdominal workouts help, but you’ll have a tough time getting to a certain body fat percentage if you can’t fix how much you eat at one time. The best place to start is to make sure that you are eating the correct amounts of food at one time.

Did you know that you can get a six pack by eating pizza? It sounds kind of crazy, but if done in the correct portion sizes it’s possible. The reason this works is that it’s not always what you eat, but how much you are eating on a regular basis. It’s based off intake and outtake of your body when it comes to calories. If you are eating less calories than your body burns on a regular basis you will lose weight most of the time. That’s why eating pizza and achieving a six pack is possible. I wouldn’t recommend it though because it’s probably not going to help you much when it comes to being healthy, but it’s possible to lose weight while eating unhealthy foods.

I’d start out by at least just changing the sizes of what you are eating. It’s easier to eat less than it is to make a drastic change to healthy foods all the time. I’m not saying that you need to cut down your intake drastically at the start. Just start to become aware of how much you are eating in one sitting or in a day at least.

The next place that really helps when it comes to getting a six pack is your diet. I’m not talking about portions here I’m focusing more on what you are eating at this point. The less you eat sugary foods over time the less you will start to crave them. You will also have more options to what you can eat on a regular basis instead of going for the snickers bar in the vending machine.

The last couple of tips are a good place to start when it comes to achieving a visual six pack, but you will also want to hit the gym to give you some extra help. I recommend weight training along side cardiovascular.

The reason why cardiovascular is so important is that it helps you burn fat at a much higher rate than weight training would. You could burn three or four times as many calories as you would weight training. Cardiovascular is more important than abdominal workouts and workouts in general when it comes to getting that visual six pack.

The reason I recommend weight training is that any muscle you add on to your frame helps in burning extra calories. Muscle requires calories to help it sustain itself. You don’t have to be a huge body builder instead just add in some lifting regiments.

The last and most confusing one that I recommend is actually doing abdominal workouts. Now people wonder why I don’t put much weight when it comes to trying to get your abdominal muscles to show from the start. The reason why this is because no matter how many or much you do in terms of abdominal workouts you do your six pack won’t show most of the time. The fact of the matter is that abdominal workouts usually don’t help burn many calories and you already have a layer of fat covering your abdominal muscles. If you want to get your six pack to show you need to get rid of that layer of fat and that’s where the portions, nutrition, and cardiovascular comes into play.

It takes a long road of dedication to get a visual six pack for most people. It’s not the easiest task to accomplish especially if you are busy in life. That’s why you should focus on the small steps first and try not to bounce back when it comes to feeling like you failed because you eat something unhealthy or forgot to work out.

I’ve decided to throw in a bonus tip that helps to get your six pack to show a little more. It’s not exactly the easiest task to do because it can be dangerous at times, but if you cut out even five pounds of water weight at times when your abdominal muscles is starting to show than you really can help them to look a little more defined. I’d just be careful with how you go about this because you don’t want to get to dehydrated.

NO Explode (powders) – Energy supplement powders are probably the best deal on the market at this time when it comes to any form of drink. They have the least amount of calories (when looking for taste) and the price for energy is relatively low. You also don’t have to worry about making a stop every day to pick up your favorite drink (unless you enjoy this).

Product: (No Explode) / Price: $35 / Servings 50 = .70 cents per serving

5-hour Energy – Over the past few years this product has grown on the market. It’s in almost every shop you can think of now and for good reason. It’s low in calories and doesn’t have excess sugars that over load the metabolism causing you to feel tired. The only problem is the price of one of these bottles is expensive. You will probably buy one of these and something else to drink later on.

Product: (5-Hour Energy) / Price: $2-3 / Servings 1 = $2-3 per bottle

Red Bull, Monster, & ETC (Energy Drinks) – The only real advantage these products have is the taste. They generally taste better than other energy products on the market. Even though not all energy products taste bad. The huge downsides to these products are the calories and the price. Even though you get more for your buck than 5-Hour Energy it doesn’t mean that it’s a better deal. You get more that your body and most likely your waistline don’t need. These are fine in moderation, but the price and calories really hurt you when you just want some energy.

Product: (Red Bull, Monster, & ETC) / Price: $2-3 / Servings 1 (most people drink the entire can)  = $2-3 per can

Straight Coffee – In general people think coffee is a terrible idea when it comes to getting energy, but it’s actually one of the healthiest ways to get a boost of energy. This is if you drink black coffee without anything added such as sugar, cream, & whip topping. The reason it’s healthy is because coffee is just water that runs over ground up coffee beans. There’s really no calories in black coffee. People often forget that, but the taste is one of the reasons why most wouldn’t want to drink it.

Product: (Cheap Coffee) / Price: $15 / Servings 30 = $.50 per serving

Simple math of what you can expect to pay per month for each product:

Powder (NO Explode): $21

Shot (5-Hour Energy): $60-90

Energy Drink (Red Bull): $60-90

Regular Coffee (Black Coffee): $15

You can see that the cheaper products tend to be the ones that you can buy in bulk amounts and just add water yourself. This makes sense, but that doesn’t mean you always want to do this because there’s other factors that come in when you start doing this such as taste can really affect your feel for the drink.

Where you get your energy from on a daily basis can really hit your pocket hard. If you switch from energy drinks to an energy powder you can easily save yourself over $50 a month. This can be a nice amount of extra change plus the excess calories won’t be in your system as well making it nice for your waist line. I recommend always checking how much you spend a month for energy when it comes to keeping yourself awake and aware.

Lets start with energy drinks because more people are used to some form of energy drink and they are common nowadays. When I say energy drinks I’m talking about monster, full throttle, and/or red bull. The reason I don’t suggest these before a workout or even before work is the amount of sugar that is in them. The sugar put into energy drinks is insanely high and sugar doesn’t exactly give you energy if it’s in such high levels. It will most likely have the opposite effect on you and they will end up making you tired and/or crash later on.

The reason you will crash or feel tired later on is because the amount of sugar your body has to handle in such a short amount of time. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that is best used for short amounts of energy, but not for prolonged energy that last for a few hours. It’s generally only good after a workout to help spike your insulin, but that’s about it. It’s also not good because the sugar count in energy drinks is so high your metabolism won’t be able to handle them all in most cases. The sugar will be stored as fat because it will overload your metabolism and it has no where else to put it.

Now you know a little about why I don’t like energy drinks, but lets shift a little and go to energy supplements. Not all energy supplements are the same, but there’s many on the market and a couple are NO Explode and Jacked. NO Explode in general is my favorite because of the fact that it’s lower in calories and has less dangerous chemicals in it than most energy supplements on the market where as Jacked has chemicals in it such as DMAA that makes it on the more dangerous to take all the time. All though many people swear by this due to it helps with weight loss I’d rather not risk it over a prolonged period of time due to the dangerous side effects such as it can be fatal at times.

There’s also other types of products on the market that are not so bad to take because they have even less while some have even more, but 5 hour energy is not a bad one to use except that it’s so expensive and over time robs your bank account. It is one of the only energy drinks I’d probably use even though it’s so expensive. I’d recommend staying away from pills of any kind though and anything diet due to aspartame is product the main sweetener. Aspartame is just bad in general because it slows down the metabolism and it helps you to crave sweeter foods because the sweetener leaves an empty place that causes you to crave.

NO Explode is the best in my opinion due to the fact that it’s cheaper than buying energy drinks everyday, has less calories than most products, and it’s on the safer side. It’s the best product overall for energy, but just remember that anything you take for energy is just a supplement in general. You should make sure you are getting enough sleep because that’s your main source of energy. It’s also very easy to get addicted to caffeine over time and caffeine dehydrates you, so you should make sure you drink plenty of water after a workout to help replenish the body instead of drinking more energy supplements. The best way to use an energy product is to be hydrated before and after a workout by drinking plenty of water and use just enough of a product to help you get through the workout. I’d also recommend you know what you are using before you start using any product on the market.

When it comes to working out or exercising age is not a factor in most cases. There is more risks that come along with age such as longer recovery times or the older you are the more injury prone you may be, but this isn’t always the case. You could just be more injury prone or take longer to recovery because of the fact that you haven’t worked out in years or your body composition is different. That isn’t always true though because younger people can have the same issues as an older people do.

I’d recommend that people stop using this excuse as their reason for why they can’t workout or exercise. It’s not your age that is the factor, but it’s your mind set of being so negative all the time about not being able to do something. After a while you start to believe that age is the actual reason why you can’t work out or exercise. I also think this is the reason why so many people are amazed a 70-80 year old can run a marathon while a 40 year old can’t workout because they say they can’t.

The only time I would agree with age being a factor is that your body does lose advantages when you age, but with the correct training you can do almost anything. I would suggest that you go see a health professional beforehand, but this isn’t because of your age it’s because you’ve probably been telling yourself for years all the different excuses of why you can’t do something. When you are new or just getting started again it’s always best to get real advice from someone qualified.

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The reason I think you’re going to fail your new years resolution plan is because you were drunk or at least tipsy at the time when you said it. This is one of the worst times to make a change is when you are drinking. You are feeling relaxed and happy which makes it an easier for you to start to think about a change. Once that wears off usually some time the next day you are back to normal. You either will have forgotten what you said the night before or are still thinking about what your goal was.

If you can’t remember what you said the night before than this article probably isn’t for you. If you did remember and you found this article you need to know that your 2012 new years goal needs to be taken seriously. You need to start right away or else the longer you wait the less of a chance you actually will make a change. If you are feeling uneasy at this point about the resolution you made then the alcohol and holiday did it’s job. Now it’s time for you to do your job and step up to what you said you were going to do.

It doesn’t matter where you start for the most part. It’s just about getting started that is basically the hardest part except for keeping your plan going for longer than a week. I also wouldn’t recommend any radical changes because this is where many people will fail as well. They’ll go to strict on a diet or too hard on their workout. Ease yourself into your plan don’t worry about rushing it at the start.

If you want to succeed than you should accept the challenge and keep with it. Know that your change needs to come quick and it needs to stay on target. If you can’t accept that then you pretty much already failed, but failure is not an option if it bothers you every day.

Be Healthy – Is your goal to just stay healthy this year? Well most likely it’s not because you probably want a nice body or improve to become a god at some type of activity. It’s one of the areas you should focus especially if you want a nice body. This is one of the areas that is often over looked because nutrition and exercise together help you to improve. It’s hard if you are just doing one or the other to improve.

Build Muscle – If you are a beginner putting on muscle is generally easier, but without nutrition it can really hurt your improvement. If your goal is to build muscle I suggest getting a gym membership because without a gym membership you can be very limited. You can also find friends who are looking for the same goals to help you improve. At one point one person in that gym was in your shoes back in the day.

Improve Cardiovascular – Do you want to be a better runner or swimmer? First you need to decide what you are looking for when it comes to cardiovascular. Most people decide between two different types of cardiovascular workouts training regiments. The two types of regiments are distance or speed. Distance generally refers to marathon runners while speed refers to short distance sprinters. If you want the best results you should focus on both, but at the start you should pick one or the other. It’s easier to focus on one when you are new.

Sports – You may love sports or are preparing for a sport. This is one of those areas that you need to focus on how to improve in the specific sport. You can either talk to your coach or if it’s just for fun I’d recommend Google for the best advice. You also could check out some niche specific forums for great advice. If you are serious about the sport I’d recommend finding a team that you can grow with.

Weight Loss – This one seems to get people all the time. They assume the only way to lose weight is to exercise, but this isn’t the case. When it comes to weight loss it’s all about intake and outtake. In general how many calories you take in and how many you burn throughout the day. There’s other factors that come into this, but in general it’s all about the intake / outtake. I wouldn’t suggest just eating candy bars and drinking soda in moderation to lose weight.

Good luck with your goals and I hope in the future you can be successful. It also takes planning if you want to be successful, but focus on just going before you anything else. If you can break that barrier I believe you or anyone could find success in their goals.

When you go to the gym just don’t think about anything except focusing on your goals. You don’t need to justify why you are going to the gym or exercising in general. Most likely no one is going to even bother you most of the time and most people in the gym or exercising are friendly. You may run into some people who don’t want to talk, but there usually so focused on their own thing they won’t even notice you.

What makes you think your so special anyways? It sounds more like paranoia when I hear the reasons why people don’t want to work out. They are scared people will laugh at them or something. If someone laughs at you just work harder and use that as your own motivation. I highly doubt you will run into this problem anyways and it’s your own mind playing tricks on you.

The worst problem here is do you always to wonder “what if”? What if I lost the weight or what if I reached my own goals. That’s a horrible mind set that needs to be destroyed. You can play the what if game all day, but you actually need to just let it go. This is your own life do something with it that you actually want to do.

The best way to start is when you are having a snack or drink maybe at work or at home. You probably have a couple of minutes just to check what you are eating or drinking. This is one of the key factors when it comes to losing weight. If you don’t know what you eating or drinking then why are you trying to lose weight?

This is an easier way to break down the package. It can become overwhelming when you are looking at it in general. If you are unsure of an ingredient you can always Google it to find more about it.

Do you really need what’s in this product? The amount of calories in this drink is off the chart. Most of those calories come from carbohydrates which doesn’t make carbohydrates bad for you. The problem here is that these are simple carbohydrates and most of it is just sugar which in mass amounts just helps you to add on fat or makes weight loss very hard.

Every time you go out to your favorite fast food joint you should always have it in the back of your mind that you shouldn’t eat how much you want to eat, but how much your body can handle. It’s not worth it to eat more than your body can handle especially when you bring in medical costs over time. That meal could end up costing you much more than you expect. I’m not saying that you should be fearful though as it’s common for many people to eat out and I said earlier it’s not always fast food joints. Make sure you give it a second thought every time you go somewhere. You won’t become an expert of how much your body can handle, but it can help you to identify how much you may be eating and what you’re eating.

Another great tip that always help people to eat less is to think twice about upgrading your meal to something larger. It may look like a better deal, but that’s your stomach talking. You should never do that because it looks like a better deal. Even though when it comes to money it is, but still you’re spending more money for food you probably don’t need. You’re just over eating because again your stomach is making the decisions.

One great way to avoid over eating is to have a small snack before you go anywhere. It can be just some hundred calorie snack, but it will help you to avoid bad decisions when you go out to eat. It doesn’t have to be anything special. You could have a banana, hard boiled egg, or a granola bar. They are usually relatively cheap and can really help many people to avoid ordering too much food.

Again, I’m not saying that you have to stop eating out because that’s very hard for many people and to accomplish something like this would take time if you planned on quitting. Not everyone just goes out to eat because they don’t want to cook. Sometimes it’s for fun and that’s another place that would make it very hard to just quit eating out because it’s an easy way to relax with your friends or family.  The point here is to eat what you can handle not what you want.

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When it comes to eating patience and dedication is the way to go. You will start to notice after a while how much unhealthy eating was affecting you if you can learn to live without it. If you change your game you may not be as happy with the food or drinks you have on a daily basis, but you will probably be less upset with yourself as you would if you did eat unhealthy. You should also feel better if you are eating healthier and in correct portions.

In the end it’s a matter of would you rather trade 30 minutes of your day roughly eating or would you rather be happy for the most day? Most people have a self image problem of themselves and many of these cases are due to being over weight. It’s one of those things you can change about your life and it starts with your diet.

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