Making Your 'In Shape' Symmetrical

Snork

Okay, so here's the deal. After a period of decadence for the first week of my summer vacation being bookended by my high school Grad Night and a trip to Cape Cod with my friends, I decided to start running over the summer to get into shape. I've always been really thin, but have had crappy endurance and strength and stuff like that.
When I got to college a few weeks ago, I started going to the gym and regularly running on an elliptical until I reach a half an hour and three miles. I also started doing about 60 reps on this abench thing they have there. My question is this.
I am 5'9 and 122 pounds, so it is fairly obvious that I do not need to lose any weight. However, I need to make my stomach flat. As of late it's been starting to be a little more 'outgoing', which makes so sense whatsoever to me as I have been doing about a million times more cardio than I ever have before (which is to say, any). I was thinking about trying to get a six pack before, but I realised that would probably take way too much work and drastic changes to my diet, so I settled on just making my abs look a lot better.
This hasn't been happening.
My stomach has been protruding more and more this past week, and I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the ab workout I've been doing? Is this normal? I'm skinny/bony everywhere else to the point of being sharp around my joints, and yet my stomach is not flat and only vaguely muscular.
How do I fix this?
Should I be running on a treadmill instead of an elliptical (I'm mostly on the elliptical because I lost one of my running shoes, so I have to run with like casual sneakers instead of actual running shoes)? Should I change my ab workout?
I am pretty sure this is not happening because of my diet, because breakfast for me is either a bacon egg and cheese sandwich or two pancakes, I'm not hungry by the time my school dining hall offers lunch, and dinner is like a deli sandwich or a burger or something. I don't eat a lot, and most of my food is pretty non-crappy. The only thing I think could be doing this is my drinking habits, as I have a tendency to drink water more in large chunks than evenly throughout the day. I've been working on fixing this lately, so I'll let you know if that pans out. I noticed it today after I drank my thermos full of coffee, and it occurred to me that it might be the way I drink fluids, or maybe that my ab workout is causing the muscle to bulge out or something? I don't think it would affect me this much, but yeah.

Input would be greatly appreciated.

Tube

A a bacon egg and cheese sandwich or two pancakes strikes you as a heathy breakfast does it? With a burger for dinner?

RocketSauce

So you've been working out for all of a couple weeks now and you're wondering why you don't have ripped abs?

It takes time.

Also, your diet will affect your abs more than how much you work out. You need to watch what you eat if you want good abs. Bacon sandwhiches and burgers don't count.

Also, if you want good abs, try working with free-weights and strengthening all of the muscles in your core. Don't just do situps and crunches.

Snork

Okay apparently I was a little ambiguous.

I didn't say I have the ultra health breakfast so why do I not have a six pack, I'm saying I'm not eating ice cream 3 meals a day and I am doing at least some level of work out so why does it look worse than before.

Kate of Lokys

You're worse than before because you've started burning more calories, but you're eating nutritionally poor, high-fat meals at inadequate intervals, which means your body is thinking "ohshi-, I better start storing every ounce of fat I can because my next meal is 12 hours away and this guy is about to go work out." And storing fat is easy to do when you're eating cheese (fat), burgers (fat), and bacon (fatty fat fat) every day.

Want to lose the stomach? Eat right. That means smaller, healthier meals more often throughout the day. Lots of veggies, lots of whole grains, healthy fats like olive oil and omega-3s, protein from fish and chicken.

Being skinny doesn't mean you're healthy. And there is no such thing as targetted weight loss. There is no magical exercise you can do that will allow you to shred fat from your belly with laser accuracy, so you have a choice: you can continue eating burgers and bacon and working out and being skinny everywhere except your stomach, or you can make the commitment to eat properly.

Snork

That's basically the answer I was looking for. Thanks.


EDIT: Unfortunately for me, eating properly looks like it is going to mean nothing but salad until I either get off-campus housing or the dining hall decides to get its shit in the bag.
There probably isn't such thing as a microwaveable food that is like, good, is there?

Goetterdaemmerung

Snork wrote: »

That's basically the answer I was looking for. Thanks.


EDIT: Unfortunately for me, eating properly looks like it is going to mean nothing but salad until I either get off-campus housing or the dining hall decides to get its shit in the bag.
There probably isn't such thing as a microwaveable food that is like, good, is there?

You'd be surprised. If you have a health food store, or a coop grocery, check out their freezers. Gigantic supermarkets might also have a healthy freezer section, or it might just be mixed in with loads of amazingly unhealthy TV dinners.

Do you have a fridge at your disposal? Start off with some whole wheat bread, and turkey slices (the ones with <2g fat/serving). If you have any kind of kitchen, cooking healthy meals is actually a lot easier than 'normal' (fatty fat) cooking.

JeffH

Snork wrote: »

That's basically the answer I was looking for. Thanks.


EDIT: Unfortunately for me, eating properly looks like it is going to mean nothing but salad until I either get off-campus housing or the dining hall decides to get its shit in the bag.
There probably isn't such thing as a microwaveable food that is like, good, is there?

lean cuisines are pretty good

also, i guarantee that your dining hall has something moderately healthy. youre only 122 pounds, so "just salads" is a really bad idea.

big list of good foods

1-2 Gallons of Water a day

Protein

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
Tuna (water packed)
Fish (salmon, seabass, halibut, sushi, mahi mahi, Orange roughi, tilapia, Sardines)
Shrimp
Extra Lean Ground Beef or Ground Round (92-96%)
Venison
Buffalo
Ostrich
Protein Powder (Whey, Casein, Soy, Egg)
Eggs
Low or Non-Fat Cottage cheese, Ricotta
Low fat or Non fat Yogurt
Ribeye Steaks or Roast
Top Round Steaks or Roast (stew meat, London broil, Stir fry)
Top Sirloin (Sirloin Top Butt)
Beef Tenderloin (filet mignon)
Top Loin (NY Strip Steak)
Flank Steak (Stir Fry, Fajitas)
Eye of Round (Cube meat, Stew meat, Bottom Round)
Ground Turkey, Turkey Breast slices or cutlets (*no deli or sandwich meats)

Complex Carbs (nothing enriched, bleached or processed if possible)

Oatmeal (Old fashioned, Quick oats, Irish steal cut)
Sweet Potatoes, Yams
Beans (Black eyed, Pinto, Red, Kidney, Black)
Oat Bran Cereal, Grape nuts, Rye cereal, Multi grain hot cereal
Farin (Cream of wheat)
Whole Wheat frozen Bagels, Pitas
Whole wheat or Spinach Pasta, Whey Pasta
Rice (Brown, white, jasmin, basmiti, arborio, wild)
Potatoes (red, white, baking)

Fibrous Carbs

Green Leafy lettuce (red, green, romaine)
Broccoli
Asparagus
String Beans
Spinach
Bell Pepers (Green or Red)
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Celery
Cucumber
Carrots
Eggplant
Onions
Pumpkin
Garlic
Tomatoes
Zucchini

Fruit (If acceptable on diet)
bananas, oranges, apples, grapefruit, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, lemons or limes

Healthy Fats

Natural Style Peanut Butter
Olive oil, Safflower oil
Flaxseed oil
Fish Oil
Nuts (peanuts, almonds, walnuts)

Dairy

Eggs
Low of Non-Fat cottage cheese, Ricotta
Low or non-fat milk
Low fat or non-fat yogurt

Condiments & Spices

Diet Soda
Crystal light
Fat free mayonaise
Reduced sodium Soy Sauce
Reduced sodium Teriyaki Sauce
balsamic Vinegar
Salsa, Jalepenos
Hot peppers and Hot sauce, Cayanne pepper
Chili powder and Chili paste
Mrs. Dash
Steak Sauce
Sugar free Maple Syrup
Mustard
Extracts (vanilla, almond, etc)
Low sodium beef or chicken Broth
Plain or reduced sodium tomatoe sauce or paste

burgers now and then won't kill you either.

UkraineTrain

at 122 pounds you should maybe consider trying to bulk up before trying to get abs. Dieting is never a good idea at low weights like this. You should starting eating more and working out harder. The added muscle will probably make you look alot better and it'll always be easier to get abs in the future should you choose to go down that path.

Grundlestiltskin

Just start benching a ton. Like my football teammates once told me, as long as your gut doesn't stick out past your pecs, you're good to go.

Thanatos

Okay, if you weren't so skinny, the above advice would be right regarding eating more often, and healthier foods.

Because you are so skinny, you don't necessarily need to eat healthier, so much as you need to eat more. You're putting your body into starvation mode, where it wants to store fat, as was said earlier. Eat more, eat more often, and eat more protein, but the bacon breakfast and the hamburger dinner are probably fine for you (the pancakes suck, though; more protein, man). Try a decent cereal for breakfast (something whole grain) along with the eggs and bacon.

Do a rough calorie count, figure out how much you're eating, exactly; it sounds like around 1500 calories or so, maybe 2000 at the top end; you need to be taking in at least 2500, preferably with around 120 grams of protein or so. Avoid things like pancakes, which are pretty much altogether devoid of nutrition, but fatty things with protein should be okay.

UkraineTrain

Thinatos wrote: »

Okay, if you weren't so skinny, the above advice would be right.

Because you are so skinny, you don't necessarily need to eat healthier, so much as you need to eat more. You're putting your body into starvation mode, where it wants to store fat, as was said earlier. Eat more, eat more often, and eat more protein, but the bacon breakfast and the hamburger dinner are probably fine for you (the pancakes suck, though; more protein, man). Try a decent cereal for breakfast (something whole grain) along with the eggs and bacon.

Do a rough calorie count, figure out how much you're eating, exactly; it sounds like around 1500 calories or so, maybe 2000 at the top end; you need to be taking in at least 2500, preferably with around 120 grams of protein or so. Avoid things like pancakes, which are pretty much altogether devoid of nutrition, but fatty things with protein should be okay.

Also try a 3 day split lifting routine. Minimal cardio maybe 5 minute warm up only. Most 3 day splits go either max effort upper, lower, dynamic upper or push, legs, pull. You shouldnt need more then 3 days though, just give it alot of time and you'll see major results. You'll wanna start each day with a major compound movement ie bench/squat/deadlift.

In a few months time you should be alot heavier and look alot better.

Snork

I'm not really looking to gain weight, because I don't look emaciated or anything and I've been this thin for pretty much my whole life, so I'm mostly looking for definition. I guess I might start benching, though.
I actually have a kind of high-protein diet (for someone who is not lifting/trying to gain weight), and doing 30 minutes of cardio a day really has not turned me into a skeletal freak or anything. I just don't want to give you guys the impression that I am drastically unhappy with the way I look. I just want to have better endurance and a little bit of muscle definition.

The city around my college is pretty randomly laid out, but when I go into it I'll look for lean cuisines and stuff. I also just bought some protein bars and vitamin waters from the school convenience store for the days that the dining hall doesn't have some good stuff.

Thanks for the help though.

Tube

when you say 60 reps, you mean in one go? because that's retarded. Look, there's an awesome fitness thread. Go read it. it's awesome. Otherwise you're wasting your time.

Hiravaxis

My personal theory is that you've "Britney'd" yourself..
You're doing all kinds of Ab exercises which are thickening your middle.. pushing your gut out.

Snork

That's what I thought, but I really haven't been doing ab stuff nearly long enough for that to be the cause. I couldn't have built up enough muscle to do that in two weeks.
I'm going to go find the fitness thread, for some reason I couldn't find it before when I searched.