New Abs Diet

Science

• Muscle tissue burns calories much faster than fat tissue. Build up your large muscle groups to burn many more calories throughout the day.
• Brief bouts of intense exercise tend to cause greater fat loss that slow, steady exercise.
• Eating just one or two large meals in the day tells your body to store fat. Eating lots of small meals throughout the day tells your body that calories are plentiful and that it can afford to let go of fat.
• Thick smoothies make you feel fuller, so you end up eating fewer calories.
• A study found that men who added three servings of nonfat yogurt a day to their diets lost 61 percent more body fat and 81 percent more stomach fat over 12 weeks than men who didn't eat yogurt.
• A University of Massachusetts study correlating eating habits with risk of obesity. Eating breakfast and snacks reduced the risk. Eating in restaurants, going for long periods of time without food, and going to bed hungry increased risk.
• Drinking alcohol doesn't fill you up and tends to make you eat more.

Guidelines

• Eat six meals a day - avoid getting really hungry or really full so your body doesn't feel a need to store fat
• Make the 12 "powerfoods" the staples of your diet (mnemonic: "ABS DIET POWER")
  • Almonds, nuts, seeds, avocados
  • Beans, peas, hummus, edamame
  • Spinach and other green vegetables
  • Dairy (fat free or low fat milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta)
  • Instant oatmeal and other high-fiber cereals
  • Eggs
  • Turkey and other lean meats
  • Peanut butter with no additives, almond butter, cashew butter
  • Olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, sesame oil
  • Whole-grain breads and cereals, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta
  • Extra-protein in the form of whey
  • Raspberries, apples, grapefruit, any fruit
• Drink smoothies regularly
• Stop counting calories
• Avoid alcohol
• For one meal a week, forget the first five guidelines

Abs Diet At-home Workouts

Monday

abs workout first

• traditional crunch (get shoulder blades off floor)
• bent-leg knee raise (slowly raise legs up and down with knees bent)
• oblique v-up (lie on side with arms crossed over chest, lift legs off floor)
• bridge (plank where you lay on your forearms)
• superman (lay on stomach, lift arms and legs off the ground like you're flying)

strength workout (do 2 or 3 circuits)

• squat
• push ups
• bent-over row (bend your knees a little, don't round your back)
• military press (sit on edge of chair, lift weights over head)
• upright row
• triceps kickback (like bent-over row, but lift weights back toward your waist)
• leg extension (squat with back against wall)
• biceps curl
• leg curl (lay on stomach with dumbell between your feet)

Wednesday

abs workout first

• feet-raised crunch (traditional crunch with feet slightly off the floor)
• pulse-up (lay on back with legs straight up, left hips a few inches straight up off the floor)
• saxon side bend (stand with barbells overhead, arms bent, bend toward left and right)
• side bridge (like plank but facing to side, laying on one forearm)
• superman

strength workout (do 2 or 3 circuits)

same as Monday

Friday

strength workout with leg emphasis (do 2 or 3 circuits)

same as Monday strength workout, but add

• traveling lunge after bent-over row
• step-up after upright row

Saturday (optional)

Do the abs workout for Monday, then do a running interval workout.