Best diet for abs is one of the most requested diets.
Any bodybuilder understands that if you want beautiful abs, you have to work hard.
The best diet for abs is quite simple: Regular, timed meals, no sugar, plenty of water, eat more in the morning and less at night. Go for unsaturated fats, which will help blood circulation, and make sure you stay on track without skipping any meals. Abs are made in the kitchen, not just the gym.
Muscles just don’t happen by themselves, and you have to be willing to put in the work in the gym if you want to develop them properly.
However, many people overlook proper nutrition, while it is at least as important as training hard. Read on to get some help.
Table of Contents
Best diet for abs: Introduction
Since many people don’t know what the proper nutrition is for training abs, this article will help put you on the right track with some nutritional tips.
We’ll also discuss meal times, and how often you should be eating.
How should I eat for beautiful abs? 8 Tips
As we mentioned in the introduction, your diet is as important as training to get those fabulous abs and the following are tips for the best diet for abs:,
- Eat something every three hours
- Eat a simple evening meal or try out intermittent fasting by skipping dinner and extending the natural night-time fast
- Eat mainly unsaturated fats
- Eat enough protein
- Drink plenty of water
- Provide a good lunch
- Breakfast extensively
- Avoid sugars
You may also need to lower your fat percentage for that flat and tight abdominal area.
Eat something every three hours
Many people already struggle to consistently eat three meals a day. Still, if you want to make a serious effort to build muscle, you’ll have to make sure you eat enough.
You need to get at least three meals in a day, but even that won’t be enough if you want to get a bodybuilder’s silhouette.
If you want beautiful abs, you will need to eat regularly.
And this has everything to do with the fact that you should always have enough nutrients in your body to build muscle.
If you don’t have this, then your abs will obviously not be able to grow.
To build a house, you need the right bricks and enough bricks.
However, eating regularly also ensures that you burn more belly fat, and therefore your abdominal muscles will be more visible.
Your body will become used to nutrients coming in.
If your body is used to this, then it will build up fewer reserves because it assumes that there will be enough energy again later.
So your body will store less fat, and your calories can be better used for building muscle.
It depends on your metabolism how often you need to eat daily. Still, many people follow the guideline of eating something every three hours.
If you notice that your muscle growth is a little slow or that you are starting to gain some belly fat again, then it is best to eat a little more often or less often, or eat a little more or less at a time.
Eat a simple evening meal
You may want to consider eating extensively at breakfast and lunch then keep it light at dinner.
Carbohydrates should b the main ingredient, with some vegetables and meat, fish or beans. After dinner, you probably won’t really work out, or at least not very intensely.
If you eat a lot in the evening and then don’t exercise, all those calories will naturally be converted into fat.
So you then lost all your hard work of the day eating one meal. If you’re not going to do anything anymore, you won’t need fuel either.
Eat mainly unsaturated fats
It is essential to get the suitable fuels if you want to train your abs.
You need to make sure you’re getting enough fuels to keep it up in the gym on the abdominal exercise machines, but again not so much that it’s converted to belly fat.
I have already explained that sugars are very easily converted into body fat. Therefore it is better to eat as little sugar as possible.
What is strangely less easily converted to body fat is fats. Eating fats can therefore do less harm in that context.
Funnily enough, eating fat doesn’t hurt if you want less fat.
However, saturated fats can indeed cause a lot of health problems.
In addition, they can inhibit fat burning by worsening your blood circulation and your cells don’t get enough oxygen to burn fat.
So you are left with unsaturated fat, which is not converted to body fat easily.
In addition, it improves blood circulation. Therefore, more fat burning will occur when more unsaturated fat is in your diet.
To get more unsaturated fats, you should buy the following foods:
- Peanuts
- Olives
- Oily fish
- Avocado
- Seeds and nuts
- Vegetable oil
Eat enough protein
If you want to build muscle, you obviously need the suitable building materials to do so which by far, is protein.
You can only get and maintain those long desired abs by ingesting enough protein. Training muscles without protein is like building a house without bricks.
Every bodybuilder will be familiar with protein shakes. Protein shakes are a great way to get enough protein, but you can also just choose to eat the right foods.
Protein is found primarily in animal products, but this is certainly not the only source of protein. Vegetarians and vegans can also make sure they get enough protein.
If you want to incorporate more protein into your diet, you can start eating the following foods more often:
- Eggs
- Beans
- Fish (tuna is best)
- Asparagus
- Poultry (chicken, turkey, etc.)
- Broccoli
- Peas
- Nuts
- Spinach (preferably fresh)
The amount of protein you need can vary. This depends on your body (everyone processes nutrients slightly differently) and on your training intensity.
If you’re serious about training muscle, aim for at least 0.91 grams of protein daily per pound (or 2 grams per kilogram) of body weight.
This is really a minimum, so it’s better to be a little above that than below.
Drink plenty of water
Today, most people know that hydration is essential, but too few realize how important it is for building muscle and that’s why we’re making a meal out of drinking water.
Water sustains all life on earth, so why shouldn’t it apply to your muscles?
Water is vital in many ways for your body to function correctly.
Water is of great importance for the construction and maintenance of cells, since cells consist primarily of moisture.
Specifically, your body cannot build muscle mass if there is insufficient water in your body.
In addition, it cannot maintain muscle mass, so the muscles you have will deteriorate again.
In addition, water is essential in fat burning.
So if you want to avoid a layer of fat in front of your abs, it’s a good idea to drink more water for that reason too.
I recommend that you drink at least 0.5 to 0.75 gallons of water per day, preferably a little more. Listen to your body, because drinking too much water is not good either!
Have a good lunch
You must get enough in to support your muscle building throughout the day, so a cheese sandwich will not be enough.
A more elaborate lunch is recommended, although it doesn’t have to be as extensive as your breakfast.
The main thing is to get the right nutrients, not necessarily that it has to be a huge amount.
It is imperative to get carbohydrates and protein. A little vegetable doesn’t hurt either.
Opt for slow carbs as a staple, such as quinoa, brown rice, or sweet potato. Add some vegetables and a little meat or fish.
Have an extensive breakfast
It is sometimes said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
While you might generally question this, it is undoubtedly true if you are eager to grow a six-pack.
If you want to have sufficient nutrients to train beautiful abdominal muscles, you will have to lay a good foundation at the beginning of the day.
After all, a good start is half the battle, also when it comes to training.
A good breakfast for growing muscle consists mainly of protein and carbohydrates.
Oatmeal and eggs are a standard breakfast for many bodybuilders and athletes exactly for this reason.
If you really train seriously, 6 eggs is not a crazy number at all. Eat about 40 grams of oatmeal with this, and you’ve laid a good foundation for the rest of the day.
Avoid sugars
If anything is disastrous for beautiful abs, it’s belly fat. Your belly can be so muscular, but if there is a layer of fat hanging in front of your abs, no one will be able to see it.
Some people think you can only prevent this by exercising enough in proportion to the calories you eat, but that’s only part of the truth.
The fact is that certain nutrients are converted into body fat much more easily than other nutrients.
Many weight-loss diets are rich in carbohydrates because they are less likely to be converted into body fat.
Related post:Â What are non-surgical weight loss strategies for abdominal obesity?
One substance that is very easily converted into body fat is sugar. Avoiding sugar is key.
Of course, that means not including sweets in your diet, but that’s something most people intuitively do well already.
However, there are many other ways to unintentionally ingest too much sugar.
Sugar is incorporated into just about all the prepackaged food in the supermarket. Sauces also usually contain an enormous amount of sugar.
If you want to be sure that something doesn’t have too much sugar, you’ll have to look at the nutritional information on the back of the package.
However, you can also just cook yourself with fresh ingredients, and that’s actually the best.
Best diet for abs: Conclusion
As they say, abs are made in the kitchen, and not just in the gym. The best diet for abs is to eat regularly and sensibly, avoid sugar, and make sure to ingest enough protein to maintain and grow your muscle while reducing fat.
Related: Before considering (abdominal) liposuction, read our other article Is getting abdominal liposuction worth it? 5 Potential risks