Understanding the truth about how to sculpt ripped abs and a narrow waistline will save you a lot of needless effort and disappointment. This is something that unfortunately, too many women have to deal with.
Why is that so?
Well, it’s mainly because the stomach and waistline is such a common problem area for so many women, and an area that so many women want to improve, it has become a prime target for marketers selling diets, exercise programs and weight loss gadgets.
Who do you know that’s overweight but has never owned an ab exerciser, for example? Personally, I’ve owned a few in my time!
According to latest statistics, between ab exercise machines and so called fat burning and stomach slimming supplements, the total “abdominal” marketplace in the US represents a mind-blowing $1.2 billion per year! And that’s not even counting diet programs!
And of course, almost all of these products sadly come with the customary hyped-up claims, lies and misinformation.
A few months ago I was watching a night-time current affairs TV program, and the host promo’ed the following story about a supposed stomach-flattening diet by saying: “coming up after the break, a new way to flatten your stomach . . . without even doing any sit-ups!”
I had to laugh to myself because it was a clear example of how, when you spread rumors and misinformation for long enough, they start to become universally accepted by everyone as fact.
The simple truth is sit-ups never have, and never will, flatten your stomach. Nor will most abdominal exercises. And nor that new miracle diet they presented!
So How Do You Get Ripped Abs?
Flattening your tummy and sculpting ripped abs is a very straightforward procedure. In fact, there are only 2 steps involved:
- Reduce your abdominal fat.
- Tone and strengthen your abdominal muscles.
See? . . . Simple!
Reducing your abdominal fat without toning your abdominal muscles will certainly still give your stomach a flatter appearance and also narrow your waistline.
Taken far enough, it will produce a nice, petite waistline for you. You won’t have a shapely, athletic-looking midsection, but it can be a very nice result even so. Many women would be more than happy with this outcome.
Toning your abdominal muscles without reducing your abdominal fat is a total waste of time as far as your appearance goes. You can have wonderfully toned, sculpted abs, but no one will ever see them under the layers of fat.
Toning your abs does NOT flatten your stomach!
This is why most, if not all, ab exercise machines are pretty much useless – they tone your ab muscles (although usually not all of them) but don’t do much about the fat. A lot of them might claim that they do, but in reality there are MUCH better and faster ways of doing so.
Toning your abdominal muscles AND reducing your abdominal fat on the other hand, is what will really give you those shapely, ripped abs that turn heads.
It’s important to know what kinds of exercise will achieve each of these goals if you want to have great abs in the shortest possible time, with the least possible effort.
And what about diet? Where does that fit in to all of this?
A few moments ago I mentioned someone promoting a stomach-flattening diet. As tempting as the thought of a diet that targets your tummy fat might sound, the fact is that no foods have ever been proven to reduce stomach fat specifically. This is yet another of the many myths and lies that circulate around abs.
Having said that, diet is extremely important to creating ripped abs – you need to eat very clean to allow your body to get lean enough for your ab muscles to show through. This is why it’s commonly said that abs are made in the kitchen!
7 Comments
Great post.Thanks for sharing such a useful information with us.
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Thanks for the article!
I came across this blog while searching for good information on womens fitness. Every article ive read so far is super informative and interesting and i love how you make a point in saying how much weight loss companies are trying to suck up all our money… Every time i see a new tv commercial about the latest gadget i get really annoyed! So thank you for giving legitimate information cause thats what gets us real results!
Thanks Jen, I’m glad you like our site!
great post. always love them!!
you say the first step is Reduce your abdominal fat.
however, how do we do this ? to get a flatter stomach would mean reducing ab fat, so not sure what this mean ? eat less fat ?
Crystal, to reduce ab fat you really need to lose fat all over, unfortunately it’s not possible to target just one area of the body from which to remove fat. This is where commercials for ab exercisers are misleading, they suggest that by doing ab exercises you burn fat specifically off your abs. You don’t. By doing any exercise, you burn fat all over, and only your body decides where it comes off first.
The most effective way we lose body fat is by burning lots of calories with cardio exercise – running, cycling, rowing, elliptical cycle, swimming, etc., anything that gets your heart rate going. All these exercises are much more effective at burning calories than any ab exercise machine. As well as cardio, it’s also very important to eat clean. That’s why they say abs are made in the kitchen.
Once your body gets lean enough, your ab muscles will begin to show through!