Ab exercises are important to develop your abdominal muscles but keep in mind that your number one priority is to lose belly fat so that your abs can show. You can read my post with more tips and tricks on how to lose weight and how to get six pack abs.

Losing fat is doable for everyone if you use the right diet, exercise in moderation and get enough sleep and water. Having said that, lets talk about ab exercises!

If you go to the gym regularly you already have well developed abs but they are not showing yet. Manny exercises that you do in the gym develop your abs because these muscles are used to stabilize your torso. Squats, dead lifts and standing exercises are all great for the abs.

Remember that doing hundreds of crunches to define your abs is a myth. You can’t lose localized fat with specific exercises – fat is lost progressively throughout your body and it does not burn of or melt near the muscles that you are working on with high reps.

Belly fat is also the most stubborn fat to lose and will be the last to go. To know more about this you can read the post on how to lose belly fat.

Crunches

Crunches are very popular and they are one of the best ab exercises. I will give you some tips on how to do crunches properly so you get the best results from your workout:

• Lie down and put your hand on your chest or behind your head for a little bit more resistance. When you put your arms behind your head you shouldn’t pull on your head… the arms are there to give you some more weight and not to forcefully bend your neck.
• Then you have to elevate your shoulders from the floor so you feel your abs contracting. Typically people say you have to bend to bring your head towards your knees but I find it better to keep looking at the ceiling and not bending your neck. You will feel more burn in your abs and you won’t be cheating unintentionally with your arms and making a big curvature.
• When you reach full contraction you should hold it for a second before you go back down.
• You should not turn it into a sit up because it will work your hips and stress your back muscles.

If you want to lose weight, get a six pack and feel healthy you have to use everything to your advantage, from eating healthy to exercise and something that most people forget is to sleep enough.

I did some research and found some studies that show a connection between lack of sleep and obesity. So why does low quantity and quality of sleep affect your weight?

Sleep Hormones and Weight

What researches concluded is that not sleeping enough or having a poor quality sleep affects 2 key hormones that regulate your appetite. These two hormones are Leptin and Grehlin and they control your appetite, therefore influencing your weight gain or weight loss.

The hormone Grehlin increases your appetite and hunger. Leptin does the opposite, it calms and decreases your appetite.

Chronic lack of sleep or increases the levels of Grehlin and decreases the amount of Leptin. This makes your appetite increase and you get more cravings that are hard to handle. The lack of sleep increases appetite and is one of the factors that increases weight gain and obesity.

Keep in mind that poor quality sleep can be linked to other factors that also increase weight like medication, stress, eating unhealthy, irritability, lack of energy, etc. When more than one of these factors work against you they can be responsible for starting a downward spiral to more severe health problems and not only obesity.

Imagine someone that doesn’t sleep enough, takes medication, eats unhealthy, is dehydrated and feels insecure about their appearance. This persons appetite is augmented by the lack of sleep and the dehydration. Dehydration also increases the desire to eat empty foods and empty calories. Because that person doesn’t eat what the body needs he or she always feels hungry a short time after eating some foods with no nutrition.

Because of all the sugar and lack of water, digestive problems develop which give more stress and make it even harder to sleep… See where this is going? Its a downward spiral, from bad to worse.

Normalizing sleep patterns and making sure that you sleep long enough will make it easier to lose weight because you can control your cravings better. Those cravings for sugar and fat that seem uncontrollable can be weakened by sleeping better. When you feel well rested your immune system and hormonal levels are kept under control because it is during the night that these systems are restored and recharged.

Paul Check has a system called The Last 4 Doctors you Will Ever Need. The four doctors are: Dr. Quiet, Dr. Diet, Dr. Movement and Dr. Happiness. Dr. Quiet, which is sleep and introspection (meditation and so on) is the first part you need to get working on. This has more benefits that normalizing your Leptin and Grehlin levels and controlling your appetite. When you are well rested you can handle more stress and problems, your immunity is stronger and you feel much better. This leads to more brain power and motivation to achieve your goals, from getting healthy to pursuing your other dreams.

How to Sleep Better

Here are some tips to sleep better:

• Don’t consume caffeine, alcohol or nicotine in the evening. These substances will interfere with your healthy sleep pattern and sleep quality.
• Do relaxing things in the evening; read a book and listen to calm music. Do not do stressful things like trying to solve your problems, pay bills or any other things that make you worry.
• If you exercise or eat, do it at least 3 hours before you go to sleep. Digestion and exercise elevate your body temperature and make you go to the toilet, which will disrupt your sleep pattern.
• Dim the lights and wind down in a silent and calm environment. Setting the mood to sleep is very important to be able to fall asleep fast.

There are many diets and tips on how to lose weight and how to get a six pack, some of them don’t work but many do. The biggest problem that people face when getting fit is lack of motivation and quitting. The most important thing in weight loss is the mindset because it will make you hang on and follow a healthy eating plan, do your exercises and rest enough. Having a healthy sleeping pattern is crucial because it will diminish the “uncontrollable cravings” that some people have and can’t go up against.

Enough good sleep will give you mental clarity, less stress, more endurance, stronger immunity and a normal appetite. It will directly influence your mindset and motivation and that is why it is so important for your health and fitness! I hope you found this article helpful and if you have any comments or questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

Dehydration is one of the most underestimated problems of today. There are many things that cause dehydration and not drinking enough water is the obvious reason… But why?

People drink a lot of coffee, coke, juices and other liquids… There is water in that right? Yes, there is water in those drinks… and toxins… and sugar… and caffeine.

We also eat a lot of processed foods that are full of chemicals, toxins and low nutritional value. Do you think that carbonated,caffeinated and sugared drinks have no toxins and waste? Do you think that these factors interact with our body functions? Yes they do.

When your body gives you the signal of being thirsty you are already dehydrated. You need to hydrate with clean water… and not with coke (sugar, carbon dioxide, preservatives, etc) coffee, or some packaged juice. The body needs water to cleanse itself from toxins and other waste. If you add more toxins to the mix you are defeating the purpose of hydration.

We need to drink water to cleanse the toxins that we have in our body.

Water and it is vital to our body functions because:

• Regulates body temperature
• Affects how nutrients and oxygen is transported
• Removes waste and toxins

How much water should I drink?

Most people don’t drink enough water… so how much should you drink? It is said that you need to drink about 8 glasses of water a day, but that is not very accurate. How big are the glasses, how hot is it where you live, how active are you and how heavy are you?

If you are in a warm climate, are very active, exercise hard or go to the sauna you need to drink more.

To calculate how much water you have to drink divide your weight by 2, that number in ounces is what you need to drink daily.

So if you weigh 140 pounds you need to drink 70 ounces of water a day. The rule of 8 glasses a day would get you up to 64 ounces of water…

Some people may be drinking enough water but they are not spreading it out enough. If you drink some water every hour then you are spreading it out better. You can do this by having a bottle of water at work, in the living room and taking water with you when you drive around.

Water Drinking Tips

• Drink through the day. When you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated. So don’t let it get that far!
• Don’t drink when you eat. This dilutes the digestive process and will make it harder for your digestive system. You won’t be thirsty during your meals if you hydrate properly.
• Drink water. Not tea, not coffee, not sodas. No sugar or salt in it and no carbonated water either.
• Learn more about water. You need to drink good water, not everything that comes out of the tap. Water that has chlorine or other chemicals that are bad for your health are not good!

Dehydration Symptoms

The most common symptoms of dehydration are dark yellow urine and feeling thirsty often. When you are thirsty your body is already dehydrated so you should replenish yourself with water and drink consistently so that you don’t feel thirsty.

To avoid feeling thirsty and dehydrating create a habit of drinking water throughout the day.

Drink Water! Not Sugar, Caffeine or Salt…

Manny people drink fluids with sugar (coke, fruit juices and other sodas), coffee or other drinks with salt (isotonic drinks for the gym). These drinks won’t help you get hydrated and replenished. When you are thirsty always drink water… not tea, not coffee, not soda, not carbonated water… just water. Water also regulates your appetite, when you drink these other fluids with sugar and sodium you will feel more hungry and you won’t hydrate yourself with them.

If you drink soda or coffee you are being counter productive because you are pouring more toxins into your body… instead of cleansing your body with clean water.

When you are well hydrated you will feel more energetic and more relaxed. It will be easier to handle stress and disease because your body functions are more efficient and over time your hormonal levels will be at their optimal level because you are dumping out more toxins (because you are drinking properly) and ingesting less toxins (because you are avoiding sodas and other sugar drinks).

Chronic Dehydration Symptoms

Chronic dehydration causes headaches, lack of energy, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, low blood pressure and dry mouth and eyes. This cripples your body’s immune system and makes you vulnerable to many other health problems to come.

If your urine is dark yellow then you should definitely drink more water… that is the most accurate indicator. Your urine should be from a light yellow and almost colorless.

Drink more water and you will feel better, have more energy and be stronger against disease and health problems.

In my opinion dehydration is one of the most underestimated problems in this age. Drinking beverages full of calories, sugars and toxins that you don’t need is a bigger problem than you might think. Over the years this adds up, and make no mistake: this will make you ill. It may take 30 years or it may take 15 years.

I also think this is easy and simple for any person to correct. Drinking water and letting go of sodas and coffee will give you benefits in health, weight loss, muscle gain, stress resistance and it will improve your overall quality of life!

Being well hydrated is also the beginning of detoxifying your body, which is an essential step for your well being, health and athletic performance.

Drinking enough water is the first step to be healthy and achieve your fitness goals. If you want to lose weight, gain muscle or detox you need to get this part of your diet in order… don’t read this lightly or overlook this issue. Drinking junk liquids and not enough water will sabotage your efforts to lose weight, gain definition, build muscle and will stress you out! To stay hydrated you just need to develop the habit of drinking water regularly and throughout the day… everyday! Its not as hard as you think and you will get used to it after a few days.

When people want to tips on how to get a six pack they associate it with a heavy training regime with cardio, crunches and other exercises for the abs until exhaustion… I have good news for you! You don’t need that.

In reality this can lead to weeks or months of exercise without seeing any results. It is likely that your abs are well developed enough if you have been going to the gym for some time.

The problem is that your abs are covered with fat. So in order to have a visible six pack you just need to reduce your body fat that is hiding your abs. You will need some muscle mass in your abdominal muscles so that you can have a good looking six pack, but that is easily achieved with some exercise. The main thing you have to worry about is lowering your body fat percentage.

Guys can see their abs when they go below 10% body fat and women can start seeing them when they go below 16%. Going lower will make the abs look really good, but it gets harder the lower you go. Everyone’s abs will start showing at different body fat percentages because the body fat distribution is different from person to person.

The fat distribution is also different in men and women, in women more fat tends to be stored in the thighs and the hips, men have more body fat in their abdominal area. You can get your body fat percentage measured to monitor your progress, it will give you motivation.

The Mindset for Six Pack Abs

On this blog I will also talk about the mindset that you should cultivate in order to stay motivated to achieve your goals. There are hundreds of diets, tips to lose weight, exercise plans, nutrition philosophies, etc. Most of these methods are written by health care professionals or nutritionists and this advice will work in almost every case. The biggest fight will be in your head.

People that can’t lose weight come up with excuses because they are lazy and are afraid to suffer. You have to take control of your senses and create the will power to achieve your weight loss objective and get your six pack visible. That is how to get a six pack! You do the right exercises, you eat right… and you keep doing it. Reading about it won’t help you… you actually have to apply it in the long term!

You have various tools at your disposal to create the right fat loss mindset. The first part is educating yourself about the subject so that you know that the process is worth it and that your six pack objective will give you a better life because you will look better, be more confident and be healthier.

Diet and Lifestyle for Ripped Abs

When you want to lose weight you need to make adjustments to your diet and workouts.

The most effective way to eat healthier is to learn the difference between a diet and a lifestyle adjustment. If you do a diet you will be in a restrictive mode… you want to finish your diet as fast as possible because it is something that gives you stress and limits your enjoyment of life.

By gradually incorporating changes to your eating habits that are compatible with you and that you can do without sacrifice, you start eating healthier with a positive attitude that makes it easy to keep it up.

You can find more information on how to lower your body fat, nutrition advice, exercise tips and everything you need to lower your body fat, make your abs visible and be healthier!

The same holds true for exercise. Exercise is healthy and it is possible to enjoy it, even if you are not a sporty person. You can adapt your mind to be able to tolerate and start to like doing exercise. You don’t need to suffer and train like professional athletes or bodybuilders to have a good looking physique. You can get healthy and look great with a moderate amount of exercise.

You have to test out different exercise types and sports until you find something that you enjoy doing so that you don’t have to sacrifice yourself and suffer while you do exercise.

How to Get a Six Pack Fast with Supplements

After you have applied the changes to your diet, exercise plan and created a healthier lifestyle you will start to see gradual results. The results will be greater with the amount of effort that you put in and you can get even quicker results by using supplements to make your fat loss faster.

People require different approaches to training and supplementation because they have different objectives and come from different places, some are bodybuilders, some are loosing weight, some just want to loose belly fat and don’t even want the ripped look. Throughout the site you can find more advanced articles explaining how to supplement and how to train for each objective.

I wish you good luck on having success in your weight loss and fat loss journey. Changing your lifestyle to become healthier, better looking and more confident will result in a longer and more happy life.

Some people eat healthy, go to the gym, go running, don’t drink alcohol and make it look easy. They are not sacrificing anything, they just have that mindset and life happy like that and they make it look really easy.

For other people the biggest challenge to get fit is to take action and keep their motivation.

Some people can’t imagine themselves being happy if they don’t eat what they are eating now, if they can’t be lazy or if they have to stop smoking.

There are hundreds of thousands of pages published on nutrition and exercise but they are all worthless if you don’t apply them. This article is about creating the mindset to embrace a lifestyle that will let you be happier, live longer and look better.

Manny people start their weight loss quest with an overly optimistic attitude and think that it will somehow be easy. This may be because you believe in the marketing tactics that supplement companies use and all the headlines on the magazines with their “Ripped abs in 3 weeks” articles. You have to be prepared for the challenge, losing fat is not easy. Especially for people who like to eat and sit on the couch.

To ensure that you have success in your objective to feel and look fit you need education on the subject, you need commitment to your body (eating habits and exercise)… and you need to not quit doing those things.

People get fat because they like to eat a lot, are lazy and don’t like to do exercise. If you are in one or more of those categories you have to accept that you have to adjust your lifestyle, your eating habits and your exercise habits. You can lose weight by doing crash diets and intensive training schedules but if you lapse back to your old habits it will be a big waste of time, sweat and effort. You will get that fat back faster than you got rid of it and you will feel miserable because of it.

Worst of all, most people that regain weight get even heavier than they were before they started their weight loss journey.

How to get a six pack and keep it

Crash dieting and exercising like crazy can lead to a six pack but that is only theory and I will explain why. Manny people somehow believe they can get ripped in a ridiculously short time frame with no prior experience because they believe the tv ads.

Then they start their quest for muscular definition and quit before achieving their objective. Some people aren’t even aware that they quit because they thought that it was too much suffering, so much exercise and eating too healthy… These people quit before they started or you can say they didn’t really start.

As I just said, crash dieting and exercising like crazy can get you a six pack (if you don’t quit), but going to old habits again will destroy it… what can you do?

Create your “Six Pack Lifestyle”

The solution to this is to change your lifestyle by gradually implementing habits that you can commit to in the long term. The difference between lifestyle and a “diet” is the commitment: a diet is something temporary that you can’t wait to finish. A lifestyle change is integrated into you daily habits and is not a chore.

These habits have to be compatible with you and your life because you can’t implement things that are unpleasant and a big sacrifice. Doing things that you don’t like will not make you happy and you can’t keep them up forever.

“Diet” vs Lifestyle

Most people go on a diet and it is a chore, a sacrifice. This sacrifice will help lose weight and once they achieve their objective – they can go back to their hamburger and coke eating and drinking habits (the big majority can’t even achieve their objective… they quit).

Guess what… the human body can gain fat just as fast and it can lose it. People go back to their bad habits and gain their weight back and put some more on it to have a new body weight record!

If you have to do things that you do not like, if it is unpleasant it will be such a boring chore that you will hate it and lose motivation quickly. You will start thinking that “It is not worth it… its too hard. Having a six pack and looking good is a superficial goal anyway… I wanna be who I am… I don’t wanna exercise…” and that is loser talk.

Why you want a six pack

You get fit because it is healthy and it looks good. You will live longer and be happier because of it.

To be able to lose weight and get six pack abs you need to make changes to your lifestyle and commit to them. This will help you keep your motivation and it will make you happier, because you will enjoy your new life more and you will see results. In other articles I will give you lifestyle tips to get lean and healthy and you will be surprised that many of these tips are easy to apply.

You have to apply one tip at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. This way you can internalize these tips and adapt to them gradually without it being a big shock. When you think about the long term it is easier to stay committed to these changes. I hope you enjoyed this article on how to get the right mindset for six pack abs and weight loss!