The misconception among the masses is that the more sit-ups you do, the more sit-ups you do, the more you exercise your abs, the faster you will flatten your stomach.
That may show some lackluster results in the short term, but flattening your stomach is all about getting rid of the overall fat on your body. It is common knowledge that you can be a slim and slim person, and still have guts.
Why? Because your gut is the last place you will lose fat, the other parts of your body will lose fat first. This is how the human body works.
You can do exercises to flatten your stomach forever. By doing that, what you’re doing is building your abs and creating definition, that nice ripped look that we all want. However, guess what? Those beautiful abs are covered by a layer of fat on your abdomen, so you can exercise all you want, but until you lose that fat, you will never be able to see the definition in your abdomen.
In fact, by continually exercising, you are adding lean muscle to your abs, which is good. The dilemma is that if you don’t do the proper cardio and stick to a proper diet plan, you may end up making your midsection appear bigger because you’ve built up all that big defined muscle underneath and have a layer of fat covering it at the same time.
Body fat levels are everything when it comes to flattening your stomach and getting great, tight, and shapely abs.
Men can expect their abs to start showing generally when they reach a 10-13% body fat level. However, if you want your abs to be branded like those guys in fitness magazines, you need to strive for at least one digit high in body fat levels.
Women can expect their abs to start showing when their body fat levels hit about 15%. Go just a couple of digits below that and you can start getting that amazing ripped look on your abs.
Achieving and maintaining a ripped look for women is a bit more difficult than it is for men. It is not as easy for a woman’s body to maintain low levels of fat as it is for a man’s body. Always check with your doctor and a professional fitness trainer before attempting to reduce your body fat levels.
So should we completely rule out abs and crunches when doing exercises to flatten the stomach? Absolutely not. These exercises can definitely contribute to developing a flatter stomach and the overall appearance of your torso, but they will not achieve that goal on their own.
Doing more sit-ups and sit-ups for a flat stomach is not necessarily better than doing less. It’s more about technique and how you work your abs when you do these exercises.
It’s not just about how many sit-ups you can do. It’s about creating a balance between doing exercises to flatten your stomach and following a smart diet plan to help you get the most out of those workouts.
