For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to get a six pack. Not like a Men’s Fitness cover boy (I reckon that’s just good airbrushing); just really good definition that shows the fruits of my training. I wanted to look in the mirror and see a washboard looking back at me. But it’s always eluded me. Although I’ve always been blessed with what I call my flat pack, I’ve never actually tried to take my training and nutrition to the next level in order to achieve this mythical six pack…. Though I have to admit, this is in part due to my occasional bout of laziness :)Lucky for me, I discovered kettlebells. Over the course of 7 – 8 months, they literally melted the excess fat I had so my BMI is now the lowest it has ever been (not according to the WiFit at home, though, that still says I am overweight – LOL!) ….
Back to the point, despite the positive effects of kettlebells on my physique, there was still no sign of that washboard I wanted. And this isn’t through want of trying. Over the last few months, I’d upped it a gear with my core training to the point that I could feel the washboard… It just hadn’t risen to the surface yet. But why? I was training hard. A good split between cardiovascular, core and muscular endurance… Where the hell was my six pack!?!?!
As if by divine intervention, I had an epiphany. A bolt of lightning from the sky! It must be something to do with my diet. Cliché, I know, but let me explain….
Over the course of several weeks, I looked very carefully at what I was eating and drinking. It was quite surprising and wasn’t until I’d written it all down on paper that I could see the reality of it all in black and white.
The first thing that stood out like a sore thumb was my carbohydrate intake. No word of a lie, I was consuming an average of 500g of carbs per day! But in my head, I was thinking, well I train 5 times a week, so these must be converted into energy and burnt off. No, Phillip, not at all. Certainly the amount of training and I was doing and the intensity of it did convert a lot of it to energy, but not all of it.
It didn’t stop there, either…. I then looked at my alcohol intake.
I assumed I was being pretty good because I was trying not to drink during the week and only have a sherry or two at weekends ;) Let me tell you, I certainly picked a bad week to count the units, because it wasn’t just a sherry or two I was drinking. After several house parties and bbqs over the course of the weekend, I counted the units I consumed over those two days…. I’m not going to say what it was, but it shocked the hell out of me! No wonder I couldn’t get six pack. Drinking that amount of alcohol, laden with sugar and calories (seven calories a gram in fact, almost as many as pure fat!), I stood no chance! On a typical night out, I’d have up to 7 pints of lager. At around 250 calories in every pint, that’s 1,750 calories – more than half of a man’s recommended daily calorie intake!
It didn’t take Einstein to deduce what I needed to do.
So for the past 21 days, I have been on a total alcohol ban. Not a drop. I’ve been to pubs, bars repeatedly over the last 21 days and all I’ve drank is soda water with a slice of lime. Yum, yum.
Not only that, I’ve halved my carb intake to the recommended 300g per day and I’ve never been so excited! I was getting into the shower a few days ago I saw my first abs poking through (and no it wasn’t a trick of the light!). My BMI has dropped even further and I feel fantastic. I suffer from eczema and this has calmed right down and I feel like I have so much more energy. Who knew all I needed to do was drink less and stop pigging out on carb heavy foods.
But I am a firm believer in having a little of something you like, so I’m not banning the booze for every, nor am I cutting out the carbs completely… I’m just going to be more sensible about it. Drink less alcohol and as for the carbs, I’ve compromised. One day on, one day off. On days off, my carb intake is mainly from vegetables; on days on it’s pasta ahoy! This arrangement seems to be working for me.
If I keep up with the training, keep the alcohol intake down and eat less bowls of pasta and loafs of bread, I’m hoping for the full six pack very soon!
Watch this space.
P x
Great stuff and well done but if I were you I'd ditch the BMI-thinking. I've recently lost 12kg in twelve weeks; I've got abs, obliques, serratus anterior and my BMI is *still* 24.9 - because I've also got some muscle. I find a useful measure to be body fat (still rather hit-and-miss) or if you're going to stick with BMI, also use the comparison ratio of height : waist. If this comes in at 2 : 1 or more, you're on the right lines. (E.g. at the start of my twelve weeks I was at 1.97 : 1 with a 38" waist, now I'm at 2.34 : 1, with a new measurement of 32".)
ReplyDeleteEither way, well done again: it really is the carbs and booze that'll do it!