Q&A for: 2-Dec-07
2508. Q:
Im 15 years old. I know this is more than probly an often asked question, but I am doind a lot of exercise (weight training, sit ups, push ups etc. I eat just about enough to fuel my exercise. (alot of fruit, veg, tuna, whey protien, water and carbs such as pasta, musli and whole grain cerials. I can not eat any less calories but For some reason I can not get rid of the big layer of skin around my very bottom abs, I know it is not fat because when I pinch it it is very thin and stretchy. I can feel my abs through it but I cannot see them. could you please offer me some advice?
A:
It is fat that you have there obscuring the lower abs, but you just don't have a lot of it, so it feels more like skin. But it's still just a thin layer of fat under the skin. The lower abs do not normally protrude as prominently as upper abs, so it doesn't take much fat to cover them up.
Your training and the foods you eat sound good (except maybe pasta -- try brown rice or some other whole-grain starcy carb instead) but it doesn't sound like you eat very much at all and that's a problem for a couple of reasons...
Firstly, at your age by not eating enough you severely jeopardize your growth. You didn't mention your height but chances are you are not yet done growing at 15 years of age. Growing takes a lot of calories and if you nearly starve yourself, then your body simply won't have the energy it needs to grow.
Secondly, by eating very little you are sending the message to your body that it should be very conservative in how it uses calories. As the result your body will try to hang on to every bit of fat possible! It's quite natural if you think about it -- fat is your body's fuel reserve. Your body can and does burn muscle for calories and by burning muscle instead of fat it actually lowers its own caloric needs (muscle needs calories to maintain itself while fat doesn't). So even though you eat very little your body will simply refuse to burn any more fat and that thin layer of fat on lower abs will not budge.
Instead of eating as little as possible you need to keep eating all those good foods, but eat significantly more. At your age and with your training you will gain very little (if any) fat and simply build muscle and grow with any excess calories. Your metabolism will pick up and fat-burning will resume. At that point the lower abs will show naturally or you once you gain some weight you can briefly lower your calories and lose a little bit of weight to help your body burn that extra fat.
2509. Q:
I’m active lifting heavy weights several times a week and doing intense cardio on the other days along with a healthily diet and a very healthy weight for my height - 6 foot 2 inches and about 12 stone 10 pounds. I know I have strong abs, it’s just the usual I have a layer of fat. What I have noticed is that when I lie down or when I’m doing pull-ups my stomach goes right in – I’m talking a couple of inches in from level of my ribs and chest – imagine a long ruler placed on your ribs and chest down to navel area. Of course when walking around the same abs area curves outwards by an inch or so. Is it really possible that I’m carrying around all that fat on my abs? What would my abs look like (their profile) if I had below 10 per cent body fat would it curve inwards by a couple of inches.
A:
Even if you have low body fat, it is rare that the abs actually curve in. With natural relaxed posture, whether sitting or standing there's some pressure on your stomach from above and behind it, so it tends to bulge out a little. If you have some food or water sitting in your stomach (as is common during the day), it'll bulge out a little more again. Only if you sit or stand perfectly straight with shoulders pulled back is your stomach likely to actually bulge in -- the same happens when you lie down or do something like pullups which naturally 'straightens out' your posture.
2510. Q:
is it wise to spread out cardio through out the day?
A:
It shouldn't make much difference with a couple of exceptions... One, if you also do weight training I would recommend do weights separate from cardio so your body has time to recover in between. Two, if you do very lengthy cardio (over an hour) it may make sense to split it up so your body doesn't start burning muscle for fuel (unless of course you are training for endurance cardio like the marathon). The latter holds true for weight training as well -- I would split up weight training sessions so each individual session doesn't take much more than one hour.
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