How long does it take to lose belly fat and get six pack abs?
How long does it take to lose abdominal fat and have a well-defined abdomen? The answer depends on a couple of factors. Today we are going to talk about 4 main factors that will influence your ability to lose weight and lose it fast.
1) Your body type, which will be heavily influenced by genetics.
2) Fat cells
3) Diet
4) Exercise
There are three main classifications of body types: ectomorphs, mesomorphs, and endomorphs. Ectomorphs tend to be naturally slim and have high energy levels. They never really have a problem losing weight. I’m more of an ectomorph. I have a hard time gaining weight and I have a hard time gaining muscle. It’s easy for me to lose weight, especially if I skip a meal. Ectomorphs are, well, ectomorphy!
Mesomorphs are your 100 meter sprinters, your Arnold Schwarzenegger. They have a high metabolism like ectomorphs but find it easier to gain muscle mass.
Gaining weight is very easy and gaining muscle is very easy for mesomorphs which means losing weight is also very easy for mesomorphs because they have a lot of muscle which means they have a higher basal metabolic rate and burn more calories. It is easier for mesomorphs to gain muscle definition.
Endomorphs have the short end of the stick when it comes to fat loss. I’ll be honest with you, if you’re someone who’s a little rounder, has an easier time keeping the weight off, and has a harder time losing it, it’s not going to be an easy road to muscle definition.
There could be an association with low thyroid function slowing down your metabolism, exacerbating the problem. If you are an endomorph, pay special attention to all these lessons.
It’s important to realize that depending on which body type you exhibit most dominantly (and we’re not one or the other, but a combination of all three), if you’re more endomorphic, it’s going to take a lot more work. and diligence than someone who is more ectomorph or mesomorph to lose fat and see more definition.
You can see my muscles without problem. If I want to lose fat, it doesn’t take me any time, but if you ask me to put a couple of inches on my biceps, then we’re talking about being in the gym 24/7, doing workouts. serious. It would take a lot of hard work. It’s the same with an endomorph.
If you want to lose weight as an endomorph, you are going to have a hard time because you are working against your body’s nature to some extent. But it can be done and millions of people are doing it right now. So if you’re in that category, keep your head up and know you can do it. We will show you in these lessons how it can be done.
When it comes to getting to where you want to be in terms of muscle definition, a lot will depend on where you are right now. In the second lesson we talked about fat cells and fat cell receptors.
Today I want to talk about the fat cell itself. Fat cells are known as adipocytes. They hold on to fat for stored energy. Certain receptors on fat cells allow hormones to influence them, such as hormone-sensitive lipase, and break down fat into fatty acids that are removed from the body through the blood and used for energy.
I think it was in 2007 that researchers discovered the adipose gene. This is a gene that determines the composition of your fat cells. Generally, an adult has about 30 billion fat cells. Common thinking used to be that you were born with a certain number of fat cells, but this might not be the case.
In general, if you’re at a healthy weight as an adult, you acquired all of your fat cells before you hit puberty. Puberty is the closing window for any new fat cell development. If you are a fairly thin adult, you will have the same number of fat cells throughout your life.
Now, if you gain excess weight even in your adult years, new research shows that these fat cells can grow up to 4 times and begin to multiply. That is a very scary concept. Instead of having 30 billion fat cells, if you gain too much weight, you may have 40 or 50 billion or more fat cells in your body.
This is just another reason to lead an active lifestyle and stay pretty fit and healthy. You don’t need more fat cells. Fat cells function like a balloon. If you fill a balloon with water, it will expand and as soon as you let go, the balloon will contract to its very small size.
When you lose weight, fat cells shrink. Fat cells don’t go away, but they can multiply, so be careful with that. You don’t want more fat cells, so the key is to decrease your fat stores by using fat for energy.
That is why exercise is so important.
One thing you should know about fat is that it stores acid in the body. This is why alkalinity is so important in the diet. If your fat cells are retaining too much acid, it will be very difficult for your body to get rid of its fat stores because they need to be there to retain acid. But that is a topic for another day.
If you’re an ectomorph, chances are you’ve been able to get away with eating whatever you want during your life. You may be able to eat fast food every day and not gain weight, but the problem is that you can be fit without being healthy.
If you’re eating junk food, you’re not doing your body any good on the inside. You may not physically show any weight gain, but to be healthy and fit you need to eat the right nutrients. Trust me, you will look and feel much, much better than you do now if you start eating whole foods.
As an endomorph you have to be very strict and diligent with your diet. As you probably know, if you have the wrong foods in your diet, like refined carbohydrates for example, you will tend to retain water and gain weight easily.
Hopefully you are listening to your body enough that you can relate the foods you eat to how you feel. It’s important to have that body awareness. If you have no idea how food affects the way you feel, now is a good time to start making those connections between food and mood.
As an endomorph who wants to lose belly fat and really start to see some definition, you need to pay attention to your diet. You need to make sure you’re in that caloric deficit we talked about earlier.
You should make sure that you eat nutrient rich foods and you should stay away from strictly carbohydrate rich and nutrient depleted foods such as chocolate bars, cakes, refined bread, soft drinks etc. Eat lots of vegetables. Vegetables are very rich in nutrients and act to burn calories due to their thermic effect.
They have a lot of fiber, which means the body has to spend a lot of time digesting them, which means your body burns calories doing it.
Mesomorphs can eat more or less like ectomorphs do, but that doesn’t mean they should! In general, everyone should stay away from refined carbohydrates. Even if something is made with 100% whole wheat, it’s not good.
Stick to pseudocereals like amaranth, quinoa, millet, spelled, etc. Those grains are easier for your body to digest. Wheat is very difficult for your body to digest, and many people have trouble digesting wheat, which can lead to bloating.
One of the reasons why it is difficult to have a flat stomach is food sensitivities. If you eliminate foods that you are sensitive to, it will be easier for you to see a flat stomach.
Whether or not you get that flat stomach depends a lot on where you are with your diet. If you are an endomorph, again, you have to do a little more work and be more diligent than an ectomorph or mesomorph.
If you are a man with less than 10% body fat, you should see muscle definition. If you’re female, any body fat percentage below mid-teens should show muscle definition. You don’t want to go too low with your body fat percentage. It is important to have a certain amount for energy purposes.
Let’s talk exercise. If you’re an endomorph, you’ll want to spend more time doing cardio in addition to strength training. Your body demands more effort if you are looking to burn fat. Endomorphs look for 3-4 cardio sessions per week and a minimum of 3 strength training sessions per week.
The goal in your workouts should be intensity. Your workouts should not last more than an hour at high intensity. If you’re an ectomorph, you don’t need to go crazy with cardio because you’re already pretty skinny.
Building muscle is the hard part for ectomorphs, so spend more time doing full-body strength training exercises to build some size and maintain your lean muscle mass. If you’re going to do cardio, which is what you should do, do it short and intense and with intervals. I’d say 20 minutes three times a week is fine.
Mesomorphs have a bit of freedom because they are naturally blessed. Mesomorphs must incorporate both cardio and strength training in one way or another.
I wish I could tell you exactly how long it will take. I wish I could tell you that if you follow my advice you will see results in exactly 7 days, but it doesn’t work like that.
Anyone making those ridiculous claims is someone to run away from. A given program is not going to produce the same results for two different people. Everyone is unique.
How you respond to your food intake and exercise will be very different from someone else. There are so many factors involved. With exercise, there’s the intensity, how long you exercise, what muscle groups you’re targeting, etc. There are all kinds of variables.
The goal is to hold that long-term vision of what you want to achieve and commit to achieving it. Realize, as we talked about in previous lessons, that it will take time.
From a general fat loss perspective, 1-2 pounds of fat loss per week is healthy. For the week, you must create a 7,000 calorie deficit to lose 2 lbs. It’s not easy, but it can be done.
Stay committed no matter what. And don’t trust the scale.
Pay attention to how your clothes fit. Some people may not notice a difference on the scale, but notice a decrease in body fat percentage in the mirror and in clothing. That is the true mark of improving your health and fitness.