Thus far in my noble quest to get great abs, I am down between 15 and 20 pounds. I wasn’t checking my body weight at the very beginning, so I’m pretty sure I’d lost some by the time I started stepping on the scale. Overall, it’s likely even more since I went back to work in June following the Covid-19 close down time.
So how am I down this much in only a couple of months? I was already weight training when I started cutting weight, which hasn’t changed. I would do some cycling for cardio before. Now, when i bike I go harder and get more out of. I also started running, which I believe really does take weight off fast. However, and unsurprisingly, the main factor in losing this amount of weight is the changes I’ve made in my dietary habits.
In the simplest terms, if you burn more calories than you consume you will lose weight. Honestly, that’s all it really takes. This doesn’t mean you should go to extremes like trying to consume less than some insane number of calories like 1000 per day. Going too far with extremely low daily caloric intake will cause the body to try to hold on to fat since it’s constantly starved. Of course, trying to eat like this will also drive you crazy. As long as you’re active you can eat, just find some favorites that aren’t very calorie dense.
You also want to enjoy foods that aren’t super calorie dense. Unless you’re going to eat a very small portion, you shouldn’t be eating heavy pasta dishes. If you just can’t go without certain favorites that aren’t going to help you reach your goals, just keep the portion you consume as small as possible. If you have favorites that aren’t heavy, try enjoying them more and trying new recipes with them. I’m a big fan of salmon, so I try a variety of salmon dishes with my favorite vegetables.
As far as macronutrient (protein, carbs and fats) consumption goes, I don’t go out of my way to measure everything down to the exact gram. Maybe when I get to a certain point I will at least track this more. I just make sure not to overdo it with carbs. If a sandwich has extra bread, I tear it off. Even better, turning a sandwich into a wrap is even better. I like to use ground turkey for foods like tacos as opposed to ground beef because it’s so much leaner. There are plenty of options like this you can take advantage of to help in your quest of eating to get ripped abs.
All in all, it doesn’t have to take a ton of willpower to improve your diet to lose fat. It takes consuming those favorite foods that aren’t very calorie dense or keeping your portion sizes small. By getting into this mindset you can succeed. Once you start seeing the weight come off, you should be more driven to keep going at it.