6 Pack Abs Obsession
Just now there seems to be an obsession with girls wanting to gain “six pack abs” Personally i dont think its a healthy obsession. This look more than likely means really low levels of body fat.
With this comes complications for girls. In order to achieve this look, there may be extremes of dieting, cardio and training in general. This creates huge stress on the body. This stress for women can disrupt your menstrual cycle, and make you infertile.
Obtaining a toned, tapered waist with a glimmer of your abdominals showing through is more than enough. Eating adequate calories to stay above your energy availability threshold (enough calories for daily needs and training), more emphasis on strength training and a little less cardio will get you that look.
Ditch the no carbs, get rid of the juice diets, and stop thinking a 30 minute “abs blast" class 3 times a week will get you a 6 pack. Strength training gives you curves, nutrition lowers body fat. You can't spot reduce and target the fat to come off the stomach either. Consistency, patience and discipline will chip away at this area along with all the other parts of the body.
Your body fat starts to decrease when you reduce calories below maintainence and start to burn more than what you take in. Your body can't automatically trigger fat burning mechanisms in certain regions. Fat burning is part of you overall metabolic process, and for most women it starts from the top down. The hips, stomach, butt and thighs are usually the last places to lean out.
The take home message is - eat enough calories to enable fat loss to occur, plus lift heavy weights over and over again. Push yourself in the gym, be disciplined and consistent out of it. Have a patient overall mindset. Think long term health and the abs will follow. Seeing or not seeing your abs will not define whether you are in shape!