Lower Pouch - Who Seriously Got Rid Of It?

[JT7890]

Then why is everything pretty good except the lower abs then? Historically, when I was wrestling on the wrestling team 10 years ago in high school, that was the ONLY time I had no movement on the lower abs. But during that time period I BARELY ate, we worked out hard, and I was lik 120lbs.

I'm about 174lbs right now. Is the reality that I'm going to have to be 155lbs or less for the lower abs to show?

 

[PDubb75]

Then why is everything pretty good except the lower abs then?

Bodyfat %

And while "everything is pretty good" that doesn't mean you are doing things efficiently and effectively. It's possible that adding additional workout methods (aside from the bands) and sleep habits could get you to where you need. But I completely agree with nmartinez12443 about your diet sucking. Don't go longer than 3 hours without eating anything. That will keep your metabolism going.

I'm about 174lbs right now. Is the reality that I'm going to have to be 155lbs or less for the lower abs to show?

Possibly. How tall are you? Can you post a picture?

 

[Alle_Gory]

Then why is everything pretty good except the lower abs then?

Because that's where your body begins to store fat. It starts in the midsection first. It could also be from water retention. Yes, your skin stores small amounts of water. Try drinking more water so your body has no need to store any. Keep hydrated around the clock.

Also, your diet sucks. 2 meals per day? They must be fairly large in order to get your daily calories. Eat at least 3 meals per day. I eat 3 to 4 because that's as fast as my body can digest them.

I'm about 174lbs right now. Is the reality that I'm going to have to be 155lbs or less for the lower abs to show?

If you want to throw away all that muscle just so you can have lower abs for a few months then go for it.

 

[JT7890]

Okay let me ask you guys something.

So you guys say the diet isn't good because there's not the "recommended" 6 meals a day thing, where I eat a small meal every 3 hours.

Okay, I tried that. I broke the meals up into very small meals, ate every 3-4 hours or so, you know what happened? I gained weight.

It took me awhile to get from 195-200lbs to a solid 170-174. I did it through the way I manage the process right now. I listened to my body, saw what worked, and kept doing it.

This is why my question in the original post was, who seriously got rid of the lower pouch? I love the respones but guys, everybody's body is different. It's why I hate fitness trainers. They give you a one size fits all piece of crap, when your body doesn't CHANGE, they swear up and down you aren't following their program or say, "Well JT, it's just your genetics."

So guys, I'm going to ask this one more time. WHO HERE, has gotten RID of the lower ab pouch section? Guys come on, I frequest bodybuilding.com, I read Muscle and Fitness, I have the Abs Diet book, I don't need theories here lol.

I'm looking for a guy to get up here and say, "JT I got rid of it, I can see all my abs, and this is what I did, I did..x, y, z."

Now, with that being said, from what I've been trying recently and studying, I'm finding that the problem MIGHT be that I'm not working my transverse abs. You know how folks talk about exercising lower and upper abs, from what I'm starting to understand is that muscle is one muscle. So when I do any standard crunch or a leg lift, I'm working the same muscle. But the transverse abs are different.

See, look. I talk to guys over a Bodybuilding.com okay. Guys that post their pics and have posted their diet to a T, bodyfat percentage under 10%, and they STILL have that shyt at the bottom of their stomach.

So, the conventional wisdom isn't the solution here.

So listen, I know you are out there. If you got rid of this lower ab section, what did you do? Or, is it reality that at 5'9 and 172-174 lbs, I weigh too much? Should I be 160lbs or so and then I won't have a problem seeing the lower abs?

 

[bilboteabaggins]

what did you do to go from 195 to 170?

 

[nmartinez12443]

Post A Pic

i think no one should reply until.........YOU POST A PIC OF JUST YOUR STOMACH, so we know what were dealing with.

No face so don't worry about revealing yourself.

 

[JT7890]

Espi that's the thing, I don't know ANYBODY with a six pack. I don't know ANYBODY that doesn't have that lower pouch to be able to ask them.

 

[Strelok]

Right after the diet,pay attention to your living habits.

Stress can cause our body to store belly fat. Fat is stored for later use when needed in stressful situations. But stress has changed in the last several thousand years, but our body’s need to store fat for stressful situations doesn’t know that. Fat being stored for use in stressful situations used to mean in situations like going into battle, fighting off dangerous animals and famine. Today a stressful situation is a boss who gets on your nerves, not making the project deadline and how to pay the bills. Most of our stress today is long-lived stress, not the fight or flight stress of ancient times. Today’s stress can go on and on and on.

http://factoidz.com/how-stress-causes-belly-fat/

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

It has been my experience that you need to have an EXTREMELY low body fat percentage to get rid of the pouch. It's not going to happen with any special exercises or gadgets.

If you reduce your bf% further, your pouch will disappear. If you have really strong and tight abs, then they'll start to look like they're exploding out of your skin when you lose that pouch.

Other ways to minimize the look of your pouch would be to work on getting bigger lats and shoulders, making your waist look thinner by comparison. A really big chest helps too, because the farther your pecs stick out, the less your stomach appears to.

Also, if this pouch is saggy and floppy at all, then it may actually be loose skin. If you've lost a large amount of belly fat, then you'll likely have a small pouch of what amounts to little more than skin, which you're not going to get rid of by exercising. You can have surgery, or you can wait several years for it to shrink back down - and even then it won't be super tight.

 

[Pimp-sicle]

Okay let me ask you guys something.

So you guys say the diet isn't good because there's not the "recommended" 6 meals a day thing, where I eat a small meal every 3 hours.

Okay, I tried that. I broke the meals up into very small meals, ate every 3-4 hours or so, you know what happened? I gained weight.

It took me awhile to get from 195-200lbs to a solid 170-174. I did it through the way I manage the process right now. I listened to my body, saw what worked, and kept doing it.

This is why my question in the original post was, who seriously got rid of the lower pouch? I love the respones but guys, everybody's body is different. It's why I hate fitness trainers. They give you a one size fits all piece of crap, when your body doesn't CHANGE, they swear up and down you aren't following their program or say, "Well JT, it's just your genetics."

So guys, I'm going to ask this one more time. WHO HERE, has gotten RID of the lower ab pouch section? Guys come on, I frequest bodybuilding.com, I read Muscle and Fitness, I have the Abs Diet book, I don't need theories here lol.

I'm looking for a guy to get up here and say, "JT I got rid of it, I can see all my abs, and this is what I did, I did..x, y, z."

Now, with that being said, from what I've been trying recently and studying, I'm finding that the problem MIGHT be that I'm not working my transverse abs. You know how folks talk about exercising lower and upper abs, from what I'm starting to understand is that muscle is one muscle. So when I do any standard crunch or a leg lift, I'm working the same muscle. But the transverse abs are different.

See, look. I talk to guys over a Bodybuilding.com okay. Guys that post their pics and have posted their diet to a T, bodyfat percentage under 10%, and they STILL have that shyt at the bottom of their stomach.

So, the conventional wisdom isn't the solution here.

So listen, I know you are out there. If you got rid of this lower ab section, what did you do? Or, is it reality that at 5'9 and 172-174 lbs, I weigh too much? Should I be 160lbs or so and then I won't have a problem seeing the lower abs?

First off thanks for FINALLY posting your diet, sleep and hydration habits....that was like pulling teeth! LOL

Secondly no offense to NMARTINEZ and PDUBB, they mean well, but they are just repeating the constant nonsense they read in bodybuilding magazines, on the 'net and what they've constantly "heard" as dietary absolutes. Its been said before that if something is repeated ENOUGH it becomes what people believe to be the truth..... this is where 99% of society is a herd of cattle, just following what they're told.

Of course I'm referring to the "eat something every 3 hours because it keeps your metabolism going." ----ABSOLUTE UTTER B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T! Its no wonder that this got started by the bodybuilding mags, because most people don't know that SUPPLEMENT companies OWN all the bodybuilding mags today---- Muscle and Fitness, Ironman, Flex etc etc. For most people eating 6 meals a day is virtually impossible, that's where supplements come into play....ding ding ding = $$$$

So your COMPLETELY 100% RIGHT about what eating 6x a day does... it will likely cause weight GAIN. Why? Because you are repeatedly spiking insulin levels each time you eat. Whether you are low carb or not doesn't matter because the body will get glucose from protein in the presence of low carbs.

MEAL FREQUENCY IS A MYTH! -- of course I can hear all the haters and people who just follow what they're told getting ready to reply, but the bottom line is eating 6x a day is not only unnatural, it never gives your digestive system a break...how are you suppose to burn fat tissue when insulin is always high? You can't! Glucose is the body's preferred fuel source, if your constantly eating throughout the day you won't be burning maximal fat if any depending on genetic make-up.

Now I'm not suggesting that you need to only eat one meal a day or two. But 3 meals a day is fine especially since you are likely in a caloric deficit, these meals are not big and likely easy to put down.

Next your diet that you posted:

Its great that you finally posted a diet, but I have no clue and I'm sure you don't either what your macros are like, your calorie intake etc etc. Your not posting portion sizes and when your trying to get super lean you NEED TO KNOW or it will fail.

Some of the strategies I use aside from NOT eating 6x a day are:

-carb cycling
-refeed days
-tapering carbs as the day goes on.

I hope your not one of those EXTREMELY low carb guys because you still NEED carbs to look good. Sure if you want to get lean, but be "skinny" you can do the opposite, but to retain muscle mass and shed body fat you need to have carbs. I trick I use is this:

a) eat the bulk of my carbs in my post workout meal

and

b) on off days I eat the bulk of my carbs in meal 1


You see spiking insulin is FINE, it doesn't matter how high you spike insulin in a person who is healthy (non-diabetic), but what matters most is to not REPEATEDLY spike it throughout the day. Think of an obese or "normal" person. They spike breakfast, eat some lunch. Then nibble on some junk food, then eat a HUGE dinner, and maybe some late night garbage and go to bed. This is the recipe for fat gain and I'm sure you can see why.


Lastly, your absolutely right about your recent discovery on abs being one muscle. I laugh when I see people talking about upper abs and lower abs. Its bs! Not saying I don't incorporate various ab movements from different angles etc, but to say one focuses on the lower more than the upper isn't correct.

One thing that everyone else is saying that IS correct, is your body fat is still too high. If you want full abs you will need to be sub 7% bodyfat.


If you want more details, PM me and we can talk.





PIMP

 

[PDubb75]

Secondly no offense to NMARTINEZ and PDUBB, they mean well, but they are just repeating the constant nonsense they read in bodybuilding magazines, on the 'net and what they've constantly "heard" as dietary absolutes. Its been said before that if something is repeated ENOUGH it becomes what people believe to be the truth..... this is where 99% of society is a herd of cattle, just following what they're told.

Pimp,

I appreciate your intake on this, as I had gone back and forth for months reading into both sides of the "6 small meals" theory. The reason I back the theory, is because it worked for me. Now, I'm not saying the 6 meals is THE reason I lost BF%, but that was the only change I made which reduced my BF by 5% in about a month. Now, it's possible I was eating slightly better (I say slightly because I always try to eat right), or simply had better portion control because of it. But either way, I lost 5% BF simply from having 6 smaller meals instead of the usual 3.

 

[JT7890]

I'm with PIMP on this one. I appreciate the help but again, why continue to copy and paste shyt from Muscle and Fitness guys? It's like if some rookie business owner came up to another business owner and asked them what it took to succeed in the restaurant business, would that business owner give them a copy and pasted answer from the Restaurant Association Start-Up Book or tell them REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE?

I asked one simple question when I made this thread, one question, that was IF YOU had eliminated that lower pouch, tell me how you did it.

None of you guys have said that you have eliminated that pouch. Please, I know how to trim down body fat. I know about the 6 meals a day theory, it doesn't work for me. That shyt makes me GAIN weight, my body is not the same as yours.

I've been working out pretty much on and off for 10 years, okay, I know what my body responds to.

Now, for the fourth time lol, I'm going to ask this question.

"IF YOU HAVE GOTTEN RID OF THE LOWER POUCH ON YOUR STOMACH, POST HOW YOU DID IT."

If you haven't gotten rid of that lower pouch but you have some great bodybuilding.com forums article, or some great Muscle and Fitness article, or some "theory," it's nice but I more then likely have already read or heard or tried it.

I want to talk to the guy that DOES NOT HAVE THAT LOWER POUCH. I want to talk to him.

Because at the end of the day, I'm starting to think this is tied to something else that is out of my control. I wouldn't say "genetics" but it could be extra skin or I'm just short and I need to actually be 160lbs instead of 172-174lbs.

 

[Pimp-sicle]

Pimp,

I appreciate your intake on this, as I had gone back and forth for months reading into both sides of the "6 small meals" theory. The reason I back the theory, is because it worked for me. Now, I'm not saying the 6 meals is THE reason I lost BF%, but that was the only change I made which reduced my BF by 5% in about a month. Now, it's possible I was eating slightly better (I say slightly because I always try to eat right), or simply had better portion control because of it. But either way, I lost 5% BF simply from having 6 smaller meals instead of the usual 3.

Read up on Ghrelin and Leptin to get a better understanding of this....also read up on protein intake and how protein gets broken down. Ever heard of bb'ing mags saying you can't absorb more than 30 grams of protein per meal? Now think about how that ties into the 6 meal theory and them making money off of you.

First off I definitely question your numbers, losing 5% bodyfat in about a month is ridiculous, I'm going to say down right almost impossible if your eating right for the most part as you mentioned unless your on some synthetics or completely starve yourself ala Christian Bale in the Machinist.

Lots of things in working out are psychological. For instance today on my Facebook feed I see an old college friend who's always been a bean pole. He is the classic person who gets motivated when the year tells him to (NY's Resolution) and then goes out and buys every supplement know to man. I'm not kidding, he posted pics of like 4-5 different things he got coaxed into buying which from a psychological standpoint probably make him think he's going to get better results. Consistency and finding what works for YOU is the key.

Now I should point out that I'm mainly referring to cutting or staying at your current condition on meal frequency being bs. When you bulk, its pretty damn hard to get say 3500 calories into two meals unless you have a super human digestive system. When bulking I probably eat 4-5x a day, but its not to speed up my metabolism, its not because the mags tell me too, its simply to reduce caloric load per meal and help me get it down more efficiently.

PDubb, in your case its impossible to tell what led to you losing bf by switching to the small meals vs less. Could have been self control, could have been better macros (more fat, less carbs), could have been you eating earlier in the day and then shutting it down earlier which will help the body burn fat more efficiently. Bottom line, eating smaller frequent meals has been proven to stimulate appetite, it makes you want to eat more; especially if your eating this little mini meals that leave you not feeling satisfied.


I'm a little bit of an outside the box thinker; I use to eat 5-6 meals a day for years and while it was always great when bulking, it SUCKED when cutting not only because I was always hungry, but because I couldn't get very lean.


Its similar to the ab theory; you see info-mericals promoting the latest ab machine they came out with and it makes you think you need to do 1000 crunches a day to "get abs." Wrong, abs are a MUSCLE and need to be treated as such, you wouldn't do 4 sets of 1000 to build bigger biceps would you? Abs need weight to grow, of course if were speaking about women we would use a different routine since most women want flat abs, not muscular abs, but you get the point.


All I'm saying is try different things out and see what works best for you. If you like the 6 meals a day and it works best for you, then that's great. If 3 works better for you, that's great too. For me though, I would much rather spend my day getting my food intake in and doing things I love, then having to worry about eating every 2-3 hours like clockwork.


JT: One thing I will say is you need to be METICULOUS on tracking your daily calories, macros to know how its correlating to your progress. I don't have a pooch belly, I thought I said that in my initial reply. If you don't know how much your eating, then your not gonna get very far.

You posted your diet, but you just said "fish, slice of bread" etc, hard to tell how much fish you ate? Hard to tell if your getting in enough protein, the right fats etc. Also your water intake needs to be much much better, the body retains water when you don't drink enough, causing bloating. Lastly after that is all dialed in there are bodybuilding strategies that do work for dropping water weight like reducing sodium intake, potassium etc.

This is one of the only good things I learned from the magazines and that's to get a food scale and measure out your portions. Next and equally important, use the 3rd formula on this link Katch-McArdle to calculate your maintenance calories and then your calories to lose.


http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121703981

From there you should incorporate carb cycling, re-feeds to help ensure glycogen stores stay full and consistency to get to your goal.




PIMP

 

[mikeyb]

Do long, steady cardio. Bodybuilders usually do HIIT to lose fat. Maybe your body just needs a different stimulus to let go of the fat.

Try something endurance-related: cycling for 2-3hours while keeping heart rate around 60% of max, swimming 2-3K, running 10K+...you get the picture. Yeah you might lose a bit of muscle but I guarantee you'll lose the gut too.

 

[Pimp-sicle]

Do long, steady cardio. Bodybuilders usually do HIIT to lose fat. Maybe your body just needs a different stimulus to let go of the fat.

Try something endurance-related: cycling for 2-3hours while keeping heart rate around 60% of max, swimming 2-3K, running 10K+...you get the picture. Yeah you might lose a bit of muscle but I guarantee you'll lose the gut too.

Sorry I'm not trying to sound like an @ss-hole, but this is terrible advice. Long cardio will indeed burn fat, but it will eat muscle tissue as well. Ever know a over weight friend who lost a bunch of weight, but didn't build any muscle? Think Jared from the Subway ads. This is why measuring body fat IN RELATION to height and weight is key in assessing your achievement of goals. Cardio, much like abs isn't about duration as much as its about INTENSITY, when your trying to PRESERVE muscle mass.

Ever frame a long distance runner's pic on your wall instead of Arnold? I didn't think so.


The internet is awesome, there are tons of great places to learn and educate yourself and on the flip side there is so much terrible advice that you need to do your homework to decide what's right and what's wrong.





PIMP

 

[ThreeStorms]

Last year, I spent two weeks in Japan and in this short time period lost every ounce of fat on my body. Even if the japanese diet isn't that low on fat. I guess it was the combination of walking to the office every day (around 30 minutes) and lots of green tee.
btw, I saw hundreds if not thousands of people and not a single one was overweight. It was fascinating.

 

[PDubb75]

Have you tried Plyometrics?

 

[JT7890]

Espi

Just quit and accept what you have. If you've been working out 10 years to no avail, you're never gonna lose the fat.

It's beyond your control.

Lol, oh, no more Muscle and Fitness theories? I think my issue is particular ab exercises. My weight is down to a managable point, I think incorporating different exercises at this weight and this bodyfat percentage will help me get where I need to go.