The first signs of abs are usually a decrease in body fat and an increase in muscle definition. This can be achieved through diet and exercise, and sometimes both! What are the first signs of abs? The first signs of abs are usually a tightening or hardening of the stomach muscles.
It is the easiest and most effortless way to notice your progress on the journey to a washboard stomach. If your pants are fitting more loosely or if you have to tighten your belt, then you are losing fat around your stomach. You can see defined lines on the sides of your abdominal area (Oblique Muscles).
This is because upper abs are revealed first when getting into a calorie deficit, so they show up first. Secondly, stubborn belly fat seems to store more in the lower body fat area. So if you have any signs of stubborn belly fat or chronic inflammation, that area will be the first area to starts filling up.
If you have an average amount of fat, then it's going to take approximately 6 months to 1 year of fat burning and fitness training to see your abs. You'll want to focus on a calorie reduction diet, aiming to lose about 1-2% of your body fat per month. It's important not to rush.
“Visible abs are very difficult to achieve for those of us who aren't genetically blessed,” says Scharff. “Everyone's muscles are built differently. Some people have deep muscle bellies, which create higher peaks in between those tendons, and thus abs are more visible.
You have too much body fat
Before you make your abs visible, you have to burn off the fat layer. Making your abs show, is a matter of getting low body fat levels. The lower your body fat, the thinner your skin will appear and the more your abdominal muscles will show through.
The body fat percentage needed to see your pack of abdominal muscles falls somewhere around 14 to 20% for women and 6 to 13% for men. However, the ideal body fat percentage for abs can look slightly different per person, depending on how you carry weight, where you typically store fat, and your fitness routine.
While there's no way to get a 6 pack overnight, regular exercise and a healthy diet can help put you on the fast track.
1) Obliques.
Pretty much everyone does the standard ab crunches, but crunches aren't going to develop your obliques. Your obliques are the muscles at the sides of your abs. You have both internal and external obliques and they are really big, potentially strong muscles that need specific exercises to target them.
PROS. You get a tightness around waist that's hard to describe to anyone who's not ever gotten rid of all that belly fat and love handles. It feels amazing, like you're a wound coil full of potential energy. You'll likely not stop running your own hands over your own abs because the sensation is pretty amazing.
For men, if you're around six to 17 percent body fat, your abs should be noticeably visible. For women, the range is 14 to 24 percent body fat. Definition will start to show on the higher end (17 percent for men, 24 percent for women), and your abs will become more sculpted as that number lowers.
You need to remove the fat surrounding your abs by doing full-body workouts and interval cardio training (3-5 times a week). High-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts that alternate between periods of high intensity and low intensity are considered to be the most effective at reducing body fat levels.
Without sufficient muscle definition, your midsection, even if it's flat, can look soft. This is one of the reasons why it is important to train your abs just as hard as you train every other muscle in your body.
“Genetically, some people may have more pronounced grooves than others, but you'll notice in the photos of these models, who are very lean, they don't actually have very developed abs,” says Orbeck. “They just have the groove, which means they are leaner than they are stronger in their core.”
"You may look more toned in the morning, but as your body processes food, it retains water, and you develop gas/stool-which means a bigger/distended stomach and an overall heavier body," Sumbal explains.
“While a strong core is important for stability and functional movement, visible abdominal muscles should not be the sole measure of fitness. In fact, for some individuals, a pursuit of six-pack abs may indicate an unhealthy relationship with food or an overly restrictive diet.
No matter how strong your ab muscles are, they're not going to show through unless you have a low enough body fat. That specific body fat number though, is individual. Morton says that you'll typically need to be below 15% body fat for a six pack, though he stresses that it's different for everyone.
A six-pack doesn't measure health or self-worth. Instead, focus on a healthy diet to nourish your body and participating in the exercises you enjoy. Dieting for a six-pack may lead to disappointment and unnecessary stress and restriction.
4-pack abs are when you have 4 distinct, visible, defined muscles in your stomach area. In most cases, these are the 4 upper abs, which flatten into a toned abdomen lower down as they taper into a V-shape down to the groin area. What is this? Usually, the visible abdominals are the two blocks above your navel.
Sometimes, It's a case of having poor ab genetics. Some people are more genetically inclined to lose weight quickly in the stomach area and have more pronounced, well-built abs at greater levels of body fat. There are people who can still have visible abs at 15% body fat, where others may need to hit a little as 6%.