How close am I to having abs?

csd5

New Member
Just wondering how close I am... These are random pictures from December and this month... Im 5 7...150lbs...and taking in about 1850 calories a day and doing 300 calories of cardio....if it means anything when I jump straight up and down in can see a 6 pack....
 

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It is hard to say with any certainty but I'd guess you'd have to drop anywhere from 3-6 lbs before seeing prevalent abs. It depends on a few variables, such as the order in which your body sheds body fat from areas. My arms shoulders and abs seem to lose fat before my legs and lower back for awhile. It also depends on the size of your abdominals, the larger they are, the greater they can be seen in higher bf percentages.
 
It is hard to say with any certainty but I'd guess you'd have to drop anywhere from 3-6 lbs before seeing prevalent abs. It depends on a few variables, such as the order in which your body sheds body fat from areas. My arms shoulders and abs seem to lose fat before my legs and lower back for awhile. It also depends on the size of your abdominals, the larger they are, the greater they can be seen in higher bf percentages.

agree with the last part of this^^^ for sure

Based on the way your chest looks, you just haven't developed your core enough if at all.

But really your question is pretty impossible to answer, what do you want a guess??
20,000 crunches or 2 months.....whichever comes first :)

You'll get there just keep going... use ab wheelsz, do more dead lifts
 
Looks like youre almost there. I would suggest going into ketosis or constantly jump. I havent seen my abs in years so props to you for getting to that level.
 
IMO close. Just out of curiosity did you lose a a considerable amount of bodyfat from your midsection recently or quickly? You have the obliques going on. As a former personal trainer I wouldn't recommend a calorie deficit diet or spot reduction. Looks like you just need develop your core more. I think crunches are kind of over-rated. I believe Ronnie Coleman said for his abs he did 3 sets of 50 crunches. Almost a token exercise. Try working on your serratus muscles (the ones on the sides of abs). You could try hanging leg lifts, alternating from center to right to center to left to center, etc. I like to try to incorporate my abs in any exercise I can. Like when doing lat pull downs you can contract your midsection at the midpoint and keep them tight as you let bar go back up. I don't believe you necessarily need to do ab specific exercises. If you use good controlled form your abs can and should be brought into play during many exercises. Like cable tricep pushdowns (especially with rope) can be used to stimulate abs. After I do overhead tricep extensions on a cable. I like to grab a pad and kneel on it, then holding the ends of rope approx. sides of head I find a few sets of say 20 crunches with about the same weight I was using for the extensions gets a good ab burn. With about half as many reps as if not using extra resistance. If you want your abs bigger than you have to hit them with more resistance than they would normally experience doing a sit-up. To sum it up though everyone has a six pack. It's just a matter of getting rid of the fat covering them. And to do that sometimes you need to use a thermogenic to trick your body to burn it.
 
Thanks for the input so far. I've been working out for about 4-5 years but ate like crap for most of that time. I would say summer of 14 I started eating cleaner and December 14 is when I started meal prepping and doing interval cardio for 25 mins a day. I never really did ab specific exercising until March 2014..so my core is probably under developed... But I have a trip to vegas in 6 weeks and summer right after so I don't want to pack on the lbs now... I want to see what I see when I jump straight up and down when I'm just standing idle lol. Thanks for the input so far I'm at about 350-500 a day caloric deficit since December 14 so my abs probably won't even grow right now who knows... Maybe they will i do weighted decline situps. It's weird bc I started this at 151 and I'm only like 148 lbs so only lost 3lbs in 3 months on 500 a day deficit.. But I look totally different... Unless my maintenance is wrong who knows....think I got a shot to have them in 6 weeks? More input would be appreciated
 
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You ever had a Charlie horse in your abs. Like a severe muscle cramp that last about a min. Most people get them in calves when swimming. This one time after a possibly over zealous ab workout. One side of my abs or maybe just one ab muscle, contracted like a rock. It hurt like a bitch and freaked me out. It looked like half my stomach caved in. Not fun at all. I've had that happen in biceps a couple times. Usually after workout in shower. That shit sucks. If you want to get ripped fast you might want to add an ECA thermo to your diet. One first thing in morning and go cardio on empty stomach, except for liquids. One b4 lunch and if it doesn't cause insomnia maybe another 3-5pm. An ECA stack is usually about 200mg caffeine, 25mg ephedrine or ephedra alkaloids. I forget the aspirin dose I prefer herbal formulas that contain white willow bark. Maybe an 81mg aspirin. I've never given too much credence to the aspirin part. But it will tell your body to burn calories. Calorie deficits don't work sometimes because of genetics. Your body thinks your starving and it simply lowers your metabolism as to not give up your fat storage. You body doesn't understand that you will have food the next day. Your fighting your body's survival instinct and it doesn't know or care your not a caveman anymore.
 
As for the muscle cramp you mentioned. I've never had that and I hope I never do lol. As for thermos and caffeine. I take evogen carnigen and evogen lipocide. It's a stack that has all that stuff. I also drink 3 cups black coffee and I take 18 to 24mg of albuterol a day...I've being doing albuterol for 6 weeks now so. It's probably not even working anymore. If you're saying caloric deficit didn't get me where I am now or won't help me anymore then I might be out of options? Pretty sure I'm taking everything I can that's legal. I would take juice but don't feel like losing my hair..... I also never did cardio once while fasted. I always go to gym with a decent meal in me as ive read article that it doesn't matter. Anymore I put would be appreciated. Maybe I just gotta stick with what I've been doing I mean it's only been 3 1/4 months. Idk
 
As long as your making progress you're on the right track. You might want to cut sugar and most carbs. Just eat healthy fats/oils, proteins and fruit/vegatables. It's the refined sugar and white flour that will make you fat. Give up all soda and fast food. Maybe give yourself 1 cheat day a week if you need to not to get burned out.
 
I'm Def making progress but I'm just wondering how much longer this will take. I don't eat white starches or sugar or drink any calories or have any fast food. My only cheat would be straight vodka once a week or a piece of chocolate. I do take in a out 130g carbs a day from whole wheat or sweet potatoes.. Vegetables etc.
 
The more you lose the harder your body tries to conserve. The last bit is the hardest. Do you ever measure your bfi or body fat %. That's probably the way to proceed rather than a scale at this point. If you can find a personal trainer to give you multiple caliper measurements. I should know how to do this since I used to do it many times a day. Speaking of which I can't even remember who I leant my caliper to, dang it! It's more accurate than those electric current type to use with your hands or have built into scales. There's a more accurate method than the calipers, but that involves being put into a vat of water and measuring the displacement. Anyway get some bodyfat calipers and learn how to take the measurements for some accurate data. It's not rocket science takes about 5 min. I'm thinking since your close and training the scale isn't going to help much you might even gain weight while losing b.f.
 
Yes, about 10 lbs. Because your body loses fat systematically and not in just "spots." It takes more than you think, definitely 10 lbs there to go. I'd say 8-10 wks of additional dieting to have what I'd consider good abs, obliques and all
 
does it matter that my legs and arms pretty much have no fat on them? lol
so stay around 1500 calories after cardio than for the next 8-10 weeks?
 
Typical days diet. 3 or 4 egg whites with whole wheat toast and slice or 2 of Turkey bacon. Mid afternoon snack protein cereal with protein powder and almond milk and a quest bar. Lunch tuna wrap on whole wheat. Just lettuce and tomato and onion no cheese. Later in day snack protein shake or quest bat or banana wih almond butter. Dinner or post workout 4oz of salmon, chicken or steak with 4oz sweet potatoes and vegetables. Most days instead of a tuna wrap I will substitute with 4 Oz meat again/4oz sweet potatoes and veggie again. So some days I'll get 8 to 10oz meat 8 Oz sweet potato. I also eat plain fage yogurt 1 cup mixed with protein powder
 
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