Need Help Losing The Last Few Pounds To Get My Six Pack
 

I have been working out for about a year now and have seen some very good results. My muscles look a lot more toned and refined, especially my biceps which now have a "ripped" look to them. However, I still do not have very good abdominals and i was wandering if they just take longer to get in shape than the rest of my body or if there is something i should be doing that I am not. My upper abs are visible when i flex my chest and my stomach but my lower abs are covered by a thin layer of fat. I am running 40 minutes a day, six days a week first thing in the morning to jump start my matabolism to help lose the extra few pounds and after i finish running sometimes i do knee lifts to help strengthen my lower abs. I also am drinking a lot of water and eating a low fat diet and i avoid other unhealthy foods like soda altogether, however i do drink diet soda. I get the majority of my proteins from chicken and fish and rarely have i eaten red meats in the past 3 months or so. I plan on sticking to this diet hoping that i can lose the last little bit of fat on my stomach. I am a 19 yr old male, 5'11 and currently weigh 150-152 lbs. I am not huge by any means but i am decently fast and have a musculer look besides my pudgy stomach, which is really all that i really care to improve on at this point. I appreciate any suggestions and thanks in advance!

do you know your cal. intake, down to how much pro. fat and carbs.? if so what is it?
what kind of cardio do you do? HIIT, jogging, running, etc.
sounds to me you do too much cardio. and you don't vary it up.

My cardio is always running for right now. I have never fig out exactly my cal intake but i would say its low in fat and moderate to high in carbs and decent as far as protein goes. The carb thing i think is what might be holding me back the most because i eat a lot of breads like cereal, granola bars, pop tarts, spaghetti and other carbs that are low in fat.

Drop the pop tarts and some carbs and protien burns fat I believe.

Thanks for the advice so far. I think I am going to try to replace some of the carbs with more protein which will be more fat but less carbs. I run each day 40 min like I said before I eat breakfast, should I just continue to do that 6 mornings out of the week? Or should i just workout every other day or what do you guys think would help burn the most fat because right now thats what I am going for the most above gaining weight and putting on muscle?

I think running in the morning is great it'll boost your metabolism try and see how many cals your taking in a day and just watch your diet aside from running you are also planning on lifting still right for arms,back,chest, etc... also are you doing crunches and other ab exercises?

Yea I plan to start lifting my upper body again (biceps, chest, back, shoulders, triceps). I don't have a very good back so for abs I usually just do knee-ups because crunches and sit-ups seem to bother my back a lot. I think I will write down all the foods I eat tomorrow and then add up and see how many calories and how many carbs and grams of fat it comes out to and see if theres something I should adjust. About how many calories, grams fat, grams carbs should I be eating each day if I want to lose weight? I'm 19 Male, 5'11 and weigh 149-152 lbs right now?

Go to www.fitday.com

It'll help you figure out the calories and what you need to do and what you should stay away from...

I would try backing off of cardio and do 4 days a week for 2 weeks of HIIT and then 5 days a week doing a mix of HIIT and regular cardio. and try not to run all the time.. try rowing or a elliptical machine

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm going to definitely try the high intensity interval training and see what kind of results I can get from that. Has anyone else out there tried HIIT and gotten good results?

EFA's wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe flax oil (Omega 3's) and some source of Gamma Linolenic acid (Omega 6) like Evening Primrose, Borage Oil or Black Currant oil.
I'm not sure about the ratio, but I think it's something like 3 to 1 Omega to Omega 6.

Obviously, you can use fish oil for Omega3's, if it's moleculary distilled.

Don't pay much attention to the recomended dosages, take about twice as much and take it twice a day and you can definitely get a heightened fat burning effect. If you're just talking about a thin layer of fat, this could really help you turn the corner.