Looking to get rid of that turkey tummy you’ve been cultivating
over Christmas? In a bid to lose the fat and achieve the body beautiful Andrew
Howard took up the challenge of completing the ‘abs diet,’ which
promises to give you a six-pack in just six weeks. Below he offers his opinion
on the popular fitness regime and diet.
First off, the major difference between the abs diet and many other diets is
that it is primarily geared towards fat loss, as opposed to weight loss. Weight
loss means to lose both muscle and fat, the abs diet makes a good point to achieve
muscle and burn fat.
Also unlike other diets, such as the South Beach or Atkins’ Diet, the
abs diet offers both a diet and an exercise programme to follow. The diet plan
requires you to limit your intake of certain carbohydrates, have six small meals
throughout the day and focus on main fat burning foods that will help you lose
fat.
In addition, the exercise programme requires you to do three strength training
sessions per week and two optional days of brisk walking followed by various
abdominal exercises, all of which should be done throughout the six week course.
Instead of doing the heavy weights that the book suggests, I instead decided
to do Bodypump sessions at my local gym, where you can burn off even more fat
(around 900 calories per hour). If like me you find working out at the gym a
bit of chore, doing Bodypump could be more rewarding for you as it is a group
session and much more interesting than going into the weights room all by yourself.
As a further benefit of the Bodypump sessions there are also extra abdominal
exercises at the end which alternate the different muscle groups in your core
which are all vital to train.
And, since I walk to work everyday, I found it easy to fit in the brisk walking
the program requires. A good tip if you don’t walk to work you could always
get off the bus a stop early and walk the remaining distance home, or instead
of driving, why not walk to the local shops?
The eating plan, I have to admit, was difficult to follow at times. You might
have had a hard day at work and be tempted to have some chocolate for example
but for the best result and for all your hard work to pay-off I believe that
it is extremely important to keep a ‘spotless record’ in terms of
snacking.
Although tempted by the usual snack temptations such as pizza, chocolate and
chips, I did not find the diet quite as hard to follow as I thought it was going
to be. I found the best way to combat food cravings was to snack on an apple,
or some Brazil nuts or seeds. I found this lessened the urge to pig out on ice
cream or doughnuts.
I’ve completed the 6 week plan now following the book to the T. In terms
of results, I haven’t quite got the six-pack I had hoped for, although
I can most definitely see and feel the benefits.
In conclusion then, the abs diet certainly does trim down the amount of fat
around the belly and the fitness and diet program outlined is based on a commonsense
approach to losing weight that will undoubtedly improve your health.
I think in order to achieve a full six-pack however, six weeks is too short
a time, even for someone such as myself who was relatively fit and slim prior
to taking up the diet. Realistically, I think you would need to keep it going
for a further two weeks, or possibly even more, depending on the level of fat
you have to lose, in order to have the full six-pack the abs diet promises.
But on saying that, it offers an excellent guide on how to lose the tum: anyone
who does this plan should take a ‘before’ and ‘after’
shot just to see the results, you will be surprised!
The
Abs Diet: The 6-week Plan to Flatten Your Stomach and Keep You Lean for Life- £4.47 from Amazon.co.uk