ahhhhhhhhh! my abs are disssapearing

[bukowski_merit]

this is terrible... this is what woman love about me (well, one of the things)

i've recently decided to try to jump from 160 to 180...

read a ton of info (here and on other sites) about what to do etc...

i've been working out for a long time (but never wanted to bulk up), and am damn toned. i had what you might call "skinny abs"; 6 pack, very solid...

i'm up to 168 now, after about 2 months... and my abs are DISSAPEARING! (the rest of my body is bulking up nicely)

I thought maybe this was just mental and i was seeing things... but i just had a girl over that's known me for a while but we haven't "hung out" in a while... when i took my shirt off... she was like "no, you need to go back to not eating good. what happened to your abs? i'm not liking this" =( = ( =(


I take in 3500-4000 calories a day... only put lean proteins and oatmeal/fruit (as my main carb) into my body; skim milk, cottage cheese, etc...... i've read plenty on what not to eat and what to eat and i stick to it pretty well...

the only notes i'd like to make is - i eat a lot of raw unsalted nuts (cashews, almonds, etc)... A LOT. i know people say that they're a good fat, but i'm wondering just how good it can be...

and i drink a couple servings of protein drink (muscle milk) a day...


i work my abs in the gym and have been working them extra hard on the days that i do... nothing seems to matter... i get more and more flabby down there... meanwhile the rest of my body grows and looks stronger...

what's going on?


oh and one final note: this may seem like i'm stretching it a bit. but i've recently decided to work on bettering my life, going back to college, etc. and with that - i decided to tone down on my sex life... i was at a point where i was having sex 2-3 times a day... now i might go a week or two without having the sex... i always felt like sex was the best workout for my abs because i used them a lot during it... i dunno... just thought i'd add that in there

 

[Warboss Alex]

you are trying to gain 20lbs (lean lbs that is) - assuming you're not a total beginner this will take a year AT LEAST. and to gain at that rate a little fat gain is inevitable, it is normal for your abs to obscure. unless you are genetically gifted or on steroids, you must accept this (otherwise you can try and micromanage your way to a 20lb gain and end up with maybe 3-4lbs a year of new muscle while maintaining crisp abs - taking you much longer to get to your eventual goal).

you have already said you're getting flabby, so it's obvious your current diet has a) too many carbs b) too many calories or c) both (which is most likely).

cut out the skim milk, cut out the cottage cheese, cut out the muscle milk. the leaner you are the more carbs you can get away with when growing, but what you're doing is obviously making you fat so you're having too many. plug in carbs at the 'safe' times - post workout and at breakfast, maybe some more earlier in the day - and see what happens. increase protein and (mostly unsaturated) fat in your diet to compensate for the lower carbs.

do your cardio on offdays - 30 mins at least, or longer sessions if you want to get rid of the fat roll (at the cost of slower muscle gains)*. don't cheat more than one meal a week for now.

*I would actually advise you to find a balance where your waist isn't getting noticeably bigger but you are still gaining strength at a reasonable rate. gaining 20lbs with only a little fat gain, as I said, should take you a year, maybe a little less if you're a total beginner. the fat can easily be dieted off once you've hit your goal, especially if you stop the rot now and get it under control.

you can try to lose the fat WHILE you're growing but you have to be very precise with your food (and disciplined) it will be a slow process and you may end up spinning your wheels.

 

[bukowski_merit]

not a total beginner... except on bulking up... this is my first attempt at that...

thanks; yeah i am obviously getting chunkier - i like the way i look now in clothes as i already appear a good bit bigger/stronger (especailly in my shoudlers and arms) but i am not at all pleased with how i look without a shirt on...

i will cut out those things you mentioned (i just ran out of muscle milk last night too, so that's good timing)... use oatmeal and fruit as my only carbs... and maybe drop it down to about 5-10% of my total diet, only taking it in when i eat breakfast (i actually eat my oatmeal about 20 minutes before anything else)... and post workout...

i actually only do cardio once a week... so if i do it on my off days - that would be 4 times a week... that's doable... i defintely need to find something other than running on the treadmill though... even with tv on or ipod in the ears - i get extremely bored just doing my 30 minutes i do now... i'll just run outside...

how often a week can i work on my abs and it still be effective? are they more durable than other muscles?

 

[Warboss Alex]

don't run for cardio. rotate between the treadmill, elliptical, stair stepper, stationary bike, walking outside.. keep a brisk pace, nothing intense.

you can work your abs pretty much anytime but they only need once or twice a week, weighted somehow (either decline abs with a plate on your chest or pulldown abs or something like that). 2 x 20 twice a week is perfectly sufficient for them. but whether they show or not will be down to your diet not how you train them

 

[Drum&Bass]

I find over head pressing to be really good for abs, also HEAVY jerking and snatching. I rarely work my abs anymore but they have never been deeper and more defined. The key is over head work.

 

[guywhoneedshelp]

Sounds like one of those situations where the abs are there, you just need to do some more cardio, (not necessarily intense cardio. just more things that burn calories) to burn some extra fat and make them show.

I could be wrong, but my friend who is a professional wrestler recently watched a guy go through this. He focused less on ab workouts and more on burning fat and his six pack came back.