kk...
they all say that abs are made in the kitchen and that all you need to do is lose the excess fat and then your abs will show.

but then why dont mine?

i am now @ 55kg and 5'8". my arms, legs and everything else are completely lean and skinny, but still, my abs just wont show. when i bend over, i still get that same bulge that i mentioned previously and which appears to me to be fat, but im afraid to let my weight drop any more s i will become underweight.

i can fell them if i poke them and ive worked long and hard on them to build up muscle in that region but i can get any definition whatsoever...

any ideas why not???

You need more time under the iron and building muscle. Then worry about your abs. You sound skinny-fat at 5'8" and 115ish pounds.

DIET DIET DIET!

Diet is essential! You will never be able to see your abdominal muscles if there is a layer of fat covering them.
So the issue is not that you don't have well developed abdominal muscles, in the contrary you might have very well developed abdominal muscles, but because the fat is covering you're not able to see them. You need to reduce the body fat percentage in your body in order to make your abs visible. Most people need to have a body fat percentage level of less than 10% for men and less than 14% for women in order to have visible abs even wihout flexing.

You need to have a sensible healthy diet, and eat in a caloric deficit.

CARDIO
Include cardio in your routine in order to further enhance the fat burning process. You can do regular cardio at least 3 times per week or more, each session lasting at least 30 minutes, or you can do HIIT instead of ordinary cardio

EXERCISE
Decline situps and hanging leg raises are great exercises for building up the abs.
Be sure to concentrate on the form. Don't use momentum to jerk your body when performing these movements, do them in a controlled movement so you use your abs to perform the lift, not your back.
Don't forget about your obliques you need to work them too in order to get a firmness in the love handle area.
You can do oblique twists

Seriously? He's 121 pds at 5'8" and you think he needs to diet?

You need to figure out your BMR, keep a food diary which tracks your calories and get 5200 more calories through your diet weekly than is required. You also need to read the stickies here. And lastly, google "Westside for Skinny Bastards". Spend a year doing this and nothing more.

Yes I understand what you're saying
but he said "I want my abs to show"
not "I want to have big muscles and abs"
Everyone's got different goals.
If I was him I'd definetly bulk and not care for the abs,
but like I said... everyone wants different things.
He just wants abs. I don't think that having abs at 120 lbs would look
good.

but he probably doesn't have abs, he needs to build them first!

your in the same boat as me and luckily I found an answer to the solution, you have to be careful with words like underweight and overweight a much better way to look at it is through lean body mass %. Im 6ft at a 180 and most people have repeatedly told me on the forum that whoa you need to bulk up, my bf% was 11/12 and to get defined abs the normal rule of thumb is under 10%, so if abs are what is most important to you then find a diet that helps maintain muscle mass while getting rid of mostly fat. I use a cycling diet 3 days 20% defecit and 1 day mantenance level. Ive been doin it for 3 weeks now and have already noticed definition I think by july 1st ill reach my goal( I hope). I still weight lift 4 days a week but do cardio everyday. Then again im not a total skeleton as i dont know how much muscle mass you have or anything and I have pretty toned shoulders, quads and biceps. If you dont have any muscle mass to work with i'd becareful goin on a cut. The only thing Ive noticed is a bit of strength loss with the diet but I havent had to decrease weight lifted, reps or anything.

If you lie very still at night, breath normally, and keep one eye slightly open (pretending to sleep), sometimes they show themselves for a second or two. It hasn't worked for me yet, but I'm going to keep trying.

haha nice one

Yep.......if you would cut fat at 115 pounds you would just look like an anorexic skeleton with abs.... who wants that???

Yeah he needs to build some time into his abs to get them to a size where they are actually visible.

I agree that you most liekly still have fat covering your abs...that is the logical answer..especially since you said it bulges a bit when you bend..most likely you are genetically inclined to store more fat around the belly region...However...I would HIGHLY reccomend you not cutting...if you are that little, further cutting will, as stated, make you look anorexic..If you really want this, I think you are going to have to spend a good deal of time on it...Bulk up..gain some mass with a specific focus on your abs...use a 5 month bulk, one month cut cycle, get that weight up , then cut the rest of the fat...that is my advice cause really man, you should be at least in the 150 pound range...

kk.
i think im just going to go on a bulk, or as near a bulk as possible.
my problem is, as i said on another thread that i dont, and cant go to the gym as i cant afford it and i need to be 16+ to use my school gym. however, i workout at home using mainly body weight, doing pushups, crunches, squats, tricep dips etc for 50 min/ day, triceps every morning and alternating btween abs and biceps/shoulders in the evening. anyway, cos im not lifting as heavy, and still meant to be growing, im not sure how much im meant to eat above my maintenance...

any ideas...

i eat healthily, no biscuits, choc, sweets or other crap and im on a 2500 - 2700 kcal diet and not seeing huge gains (but some) or weight loss.

soz i dragged on 4 so long....

kk.
i think im just going to go on a bulk, or as near a bulk as possible.
my problem is, as i said on another thread that i dont, and cant go to the gym as i cant afford it and i need to be 16+ to use my school gym. however, i workout at home using mainly body weight, doing pushups, crunches, squats, tricep dips etc for 50 min/ day, triceps every morning and alternating btween abs and biceps/shoulders in the evening. anyway, cos im not lifting as heavy, and still meant to be growing, im not sure how much im meant to eat above my maintenance...

any ideas...

i eat healthily, no biscuits, choc, sweets or other crap and im on a 2500 - 2700 kcal diet and not seeing huge gains (but some) or weight loss.

soz i dragged on 4 so long....

if i feel my lower abs, it dosen't seem like its there, and i'm skinnier than a motherlicker. i thought that lots of olympic lifts/ some ab isolations would work to make them show, it just made them really strong but i still can't see the bottom 2 well. i figure it might be bad genes for abs