Hi, I'm 18 y/o male, a little more than 5' 11", medium build. This past summer I weighed 200 lb, maybe a little more - My diet staples were pizza, cakes, cookies, donuts, and chips. I made the comitment to eat healthier in Sept. and since then went down to about 165 lb. My lowest was 153, and this was a result of not eating any carbs at all, basically, for nearly 2 months. No exercise at all was contributing to this weight loss. In the begining of February I started a fitness regimen - And I couldn't bear to cut back majorly on carbs anymore, it simply isn't realistic for me (and anyone else, I think).

My fitness is as follows:

Sunday - Cardio appx. 45 minutes, arm training, back training (In the gym about a total of 1.5 hr)

Monday - Cardio appx. 10 minutes (only as a warm up, Monday is my cardio "off" day), chest training, legs training, ab workout (about 400 crunches, different kinds and styles with medicine balls too) (In the gym about a total of 1.5 hr)

Wednesday - Cardio appx. 45 minutes, arm training, back training, ab workout (In gym about 2 hrs total)

Friday - Cardio appx. 45 minutes, chest training, legs training, ab workout (In gym about 2 hours total)

DIET WISE:

Breakfast - always a bowl of Fiber One or Total with skim milk and a few raisins, a nonfat yogurt, and a small muffin (only 35 cal., it's a diet one, no sugar or anything)

Lunch - usually a salad, OR egg white omelet with a little less than whole slice of low fat cheese with slice of whole wheat toast, fruit for a dessert

Snack - usually a fruit or two, maybe a few nuts

Dinner - almost always chicken breast cutlet or on bone, without skin , and stir fried vegetables with no oil, sometimes a cup of whole wheat pasta, but rarely....Never have red meat.

Granted, sometimes I have A LOT of fruit, and I mean a lot, because I gave up los of my favorite foods and sometimes I need to satisfy a sweet tooth. I haven't had any white breads, cookies, or cakes in nearly 4 months, and I consider myself to be very disciplined diet wise.

NOW MY PROBLEM....I see change in my arms, but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in my abs. I have worked so hard on myself, with crunches, and cardio, and eliminating bad diet stuff an still no progress whatsoever. I'm becoming really discouraged and starting to think I'm cursed geneticall in the abs department. Is there anything I can do at all to get abs? I've been doing this gym plan for about 2 months now...I recently started having a protein shake after my gym workouts, since I know I might not be getting as much protein as I should. thing is, I don't like fish and I can't be satisfied off of only having chicken or something. I need carbs, plain and simple.

Is there anything you can tell me to help? Thanks so much in advance

I think you are doing everything right so far, maybe not extremly professional. My advice to you is: Workout should be a hobby, not just some torturing process to get you slim down. You have to exercise this everyday and every year until you die if you really want to shape yourself up. You can eat cakes or other snacks but not too much. I personally think a little junk food will not do any harm to your body. This sounds kinda tough for beginners, but you will get used to it. Btw the shape-up process is slow, do not get frustrated. I also think supplements are just waste of money. They are for real atheletes, who performed intensely everyday.

You should move the egg white omelette to breakfast; you ought to have protein at EVERY meal. If you're having joghurt, eat only the plain kind - all other joghurts are loaded with added sugars and that's definitely not going to help you get those abs.

Your current lunch looks small. You should be eating 5-7 meals, roughly the same size, each with a serving of protein (at least 15 grams). Have some chicken or canned tuna, perhaps oatmeal, and maybe some natural PB for some healthy fats.

About your snacks - see above about the 5-7 meals.

Dinner looks fine. Don't be afraid to have red meat so long as it's super lean - like SUPER lean ground beef, or top round steak (almost as lean as chicken).

I would add another meal or 2 - again, some protein with a salad or a sweet potato or oatmeal. Definitely keep having the protein shake pwo (post-work-out). Also for pwo - you need to have carbs - maybe a plain baked potato or oatmeal or cream of wheat cereal.

Don't feel guilty about eating a lot of fruit - it's a heck of a lot better than eating junk food and the other foods you cut-out from your diet.

About your abs - no amount of crunches is going to get you there - it's all a matter of reducing body fat. That can be done with a clean diet (the most important thing for losing body fat) and exercise - cardio+weights. Just stick to your diet and be consistent and it will eventually pay off - but you need to be patient, too.
Stop doing 400 crunches and working your abs so much - it's just over-training. You obviously have a 6-pack under there, but doing crunches isn't going to get it to show - there is no spot-reducing.

And I agree with you - cutting out carbs is totally unrealistic; it's not the way to go.

You are overtraining your abs. BIG TIME.

Only train your abs 2 or 3 (at the most) times per week. Also, your abs are there... You need to trim some more body fat. And, you will not do that with 400 crunches. Which is WAY to many BTW. Try only hitting your abs 2 times per week for at least two months. And use a weight plate or medicine ball doing inclined crunches for much fewer reps.

Also, are you doing lower back? If not, you need to start.

Add two small meals to your diet each day. And, drink 1 - 1.5 gallons of water each day.

Finally, you are in the gym for to long. Try trimming those 2 hour days into 1.5 or better yet, 1 hour days.

Get plenty of rest during your "off" days.

-Rip

Looks like Spockafina beat me to it... But, she has some EXCELLENT advice there.

2 more meals per day, and stop working your abs so much!

It will take a little time to burn fat, so stick with it.

ha I just noticed we posted at the same time!

Thank you so much for your help - - - - About the omellete - I'm really not an egg person, I know, it's bad, because I need the protein. I don't usually hav more than 2 omelets max. a week....And the yogurt? I looked for fat free, no sugar added, but can't seem to find ANY in the supermarkets., so I'm forced to opt for Dannon light n fit, 90 cal.... And yeah, I kinda knew I was overtraining my abs, I guess I was just frustrated. I am frustrated, I mean I know all I can do is wait, but sometimes waiting just gets too long and too exhausting, if I'm not seeing any results. Thanks again -

PS - Someone mentioned thermogenics to me - - - Anything I should do with that??? (supplements) and how much protein should I be getting daily?

If you're doing cardio and weight training in the same day, weights come first, THEN cardio. doing 45 mins of cardio has you in a catabolic state at the end...then you go train for another 45 mins. You're losing muscle mass, which is going to make it harder to keep the fat off.
As spockafina said - you need more protein, more meals...keep the body full of a constant stream of nutrients.

Well, if you're not going to have an egg white omellette everyday, you need some sort of protein at breakfast - chicken, tuna, etc. Yeah, it's not your traditional breakfast, but it's necessary.

Just look in the supermarket for PLAIN joghurt - it's carried absolutely everywhere. Dannon LightNFit is so not good for you - please, eat either plain joghurt or none at all. You can sweeten it up with some grapes, Splenda, berries, or other fruits.

Generally, it's suggested to eat 1 gram of protein per pound body weight. So you'd need about 165 grams per day. It sounds ambitious, but it's not difficult if you're eating protein with all of your 5-7 meals.

opalocka16, what exactly are your goals? just to get a good set of abs.

btw I think ur doing way too much cardio, which is good non the less, but you should cut it down a bit unless ur eating super healthy. keep eating fruits and vegetables for carbs, those are excellent and ppl dont get fat off them.

as for your ab situation, you said u dont see any abs? somehow i doubt that. is your stomach flat, or do you have a gut? if your stomach's flat, im sure you have abs and youre just being way too critical of your body. second, if you got a flat, firm stomach, abs arent really that important. and they will come in time

keep up the good work!

When I suck it in I can sort of see traces of a vertical line running above my belly button - - - But I don't suck in all the time....When I push out, my guty is the same as it was when I was 200 lb.

Haha, yeah, don't forget -- you don't grow new muscle fibers, you only increase the sizes of the ones already there! So you DO have muscles there, it's a question of what's gotta be done to see them!

Abs are one of the smallest of the major muscle groups in your body, so they tend not to grow as quickly as others. These two rules are very important:

1. Get a lot of fiber
2. Give your stomach a rest!

Since the muscles are so small, they burn out easily (I'm sure you're aware of this).
But remember : MUSCLES GROW AT REST, NOT WHILE YOU WORK OUT.

Your muscles grow because your body is adapting to the new requirements you have been putting under it. Theoretically, it's technically possible to grow massive amounts of muscle and be super lean without every working out at all, as long as your body wants it to happen (as evidenced by the recent birth of the baby who lacked muscle growth-inhibiting hormones).

with proper eating, doing HIIT biking has given way more defintion to my midsection. my whole body in general, but especially the mid section. AND I KNOW PEOPLE DON'T BELIEVE IN SPOT REDUCTION, but I do somewhat! When I was a swimming in highschool, I was defined all over, but when I started doing a lot of biking for the summer, I was even more ripped, especially in the stomach!

proud to say, i just bought a bicycle as the weather herein NY has been gorgeous lately. I hope to be incorporating it into my cardio 3-4x a week. one more question - - - - How do you "bounce " the pecs? I may be able to, but i dont know how to even try! thanks...

I've heard that you can work your abs more then 3 times a week if you're not using weight resistance for them. Might be something to look into.