So you’ve put in the effort and now you’ve got that chiseled core that most people can only dream about. Congratulations! Your hard work has paid off; with all of those days of sweating, dieting, and feeling that intense burn you get only from exercising your core, you may be wondering “How do I maintain this?” Well, contrary to what you may have feared, it is not hard to maintain abs. That is to say if you are following the right diet regimen. Don’t mess this up!
Do Your Research
If you subscribe to the “yo-yo dieting” mentality, where you continuously cycle between bulking and cutting, then yes it will be hard. The amount of effort you have to do increases, you’re forced to extreme calorie restrictions and completely voiding yourself of essential nutrients which is detrimental to your health, hormones, heart, and various other physiological processes. Sure, you may see results in a short period of time with cutting, but is it worth it? Is this a diet you can maintain? Is this a lifestyle you want to have, living in a constant cycle between higher body fat and lower body fat? The biggest question here is – If you can’t handle this sort of life style, Which cycle will you stop at: Excessive Eating, or Excessive Calorie Restriction? Either one isn’t healthy, but these habits will be all you know and could eventually lead you down a dangerous road towards an eating disorder.
Put Prejudices Aside
Or, you can follow a different diet plan; one that has gotten a lot of coverage lately: Intermittent Fasting. This diet plan actually gets you to your ideal body physique by: Efficiently using your fat storage, and increasing your insulin sensitivity. Following this diet philosophy actually keeps you with your six-pack. Read this article for more benefits to intermittent fasting: What Is An Intermittent Fasting Routine?
A lot of people are scared to start intermittent fasting because they do not think they can make it, or will get enough calories. Yes, it would be hard going from eating every two hours to eating only in a 4 hour window. When you follow a diet schedule where you are eating every two hours can cause your insulin levels to rise and fall with higher frequency. Dropping in blood sugar levels causes the hunger feeling you get - so, going from 8 meals per day to 2 meals will be difficult. However, once you slowly push your first meal back further and further (8, 10, 12, even 20 hours), your insulin response will respond accordingly and it will get easier. The key here is not to cave. You are not causing harm to yourself by “starving” because you will get the calories in, you will get the nutrition in; you are just waiting until later in the day to do so! Remember this whenever you are about to give in and break the fast.
Remember:
Intermittent Fasting is not starving yourself it’s pushing your first meal to much later in the day. It’s the same amount of calories. Intermittent fasting is the way we were intended to eat. Everything on Earth does it.
One Last Thing:
Fitness is a three legged stool. We’ve covered diet in this topic, but two other factors are equally important; Rest and Exercise. Rest is a matter of recovery; give the muscles that you exert a time to recover and be repaired. Sleep is the best aid for muscle repair, but also taking some time off before hitting that muscle group again is extremely beneficial. Exercise is more obvious but what if you lose interest? People get bored with exercising everyday because they run into stale workout routines. Check out our Free Workout Generator, and grab yourself one of over 150 trillion workouts and never have a stale routine again!
Maintain those abs; bathing suit season is quickly approaching…
Contrary to what you may have feared, it is not hard to maintain abs.
- Diet
- Food For Thought
- Muscle Size
- Six Pack
