How did you get abs? Is it worth all the work?

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How did you get abs? Is it worth all the work?

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  1. TapeDeckSlick Avatar

    Only you can find that out

  2. SparkyandDolche Avatar

    I was born with abs. I think everyone is.

  3. Dull_Cow_5047 Avatar

    i always had it so yeah haha

  4. GayKingOfPanama Avatar

    Y’all need to show proof before commenting

  5. different_than Avatar

    I worked out like 1.5 hours a day 5 days a week for 3 years and ate very healthy and had an 8 pack

    Worth it for me cause I was very healthy but I went a bit overboard

    I think having abs is healthy. 6 pack or 8 pack might be less healthy if it’s hard to get or if it leads to eating disorders or excessive obsession with body image or exercise. Especially for women because their bodies naturally need more fat to be healthy and having a six pack means they might be too skinny to support their body with the fat-soluble hormones it needs to work properly

  6. SnackBeforeBed Avatar

    Hard work, Dedication, Willpower, and Discipline. Yes, it was worth all of it – if done correctly, you can still enjoy life (and feel comfortable with your shirt off anywhere, anytime).

  7. Frog-Snacks Avatar

    I just never got fat, always had them.

  8. redditsuckssahh Avatar

    u need to look urself in the mirror and chant ‘give me abs o lord, show thy mercy’ every 3am for 1 year

  9. alex_alba Avatar

    Hard work but it’s worth it. Just have to keep up with it or you’ll lose them

  10. Objective_Dealer_759 Avatar

    I’m trying to get them right now, most of what I read is get your bodyfat down & lift heavy. I see my stomach changing but I do need to drop my bodyfat a bit more.

    I used to hate ab workouts because the high reps but I’m enjoying the low heavy reps, cable crunches, side chops, captain’s chair etc. Feels like my other workouts.

  11. laaplandros Avatar

    Visible abs are a result of diet, not exercise.

    Ab work can make them pop a bit more, sure, but your time in the gym is probably better spent on other areas.

  12. W-S_Wannabe Avatar

    Lots of exercise, careful diet. YES, it is worth all of the work.

  13. TheTyRoderick Avatar

    Getting abs is part genetics, part hard work…you still need core training, clean eating, and low body fat. Even if they don’t show naturally, the strength and shape you gain make it totally worth it. Seeing my body like this? Every drop of sweat counts

  14. TellEmSteve Avatar

    If you have to be so lean to have visible abs, it’s impractical.

  15. y4udothistome Avatar

    You speak in past tense are they gone now

  16. DoppelFrog Avatar

    Most newer cars have ABS as standard. 

  17. Excellent-Witness392 Avatar

    Here’s the thing. I’m a 40F. I have had three kids. I have a six pack. I have had one from a young age. I was a gymnastic for a good chunk of my childhood. Not sure if that played a part. I’m healthy, I work out, but I don’t work out crazy. I eat what I want for the most part. After I had my kids, my six pack just came back. I believe genetics is a huge part of it. I don’t work for it.

  18. latchkey_adult Avatar

    I went from chubby to six pack in about a year and a half. It involved a lot of crunches and a very closely watched diet. I guess it was worth it but I’m chubby again five years later, so who knows.

  19. jcsladest Avatar

    Wasn’t everyone just born with them? I mean, I assume they’re still there under my gut.

    Totally worth having. Let me stand straight. 10/10.

  20. Curlytomato Avatar

    Oh what a long road I have walked..

    Readers Digest Version:

    At 41 I was pregnant , weighed 356 lbs. I am now 60 and weigh 130 (lowest ever was 126). I work out regularly at the gym and my stomach was cramping a LOT, even when I wasn’t working out. I go to a massage school and the guy said they did stomach massages so I thought WTF not. I had had this student before and after a couple of minutes I could tell he was worried about something. Usually the teacher comes by the cubicles about 1/2 way through the massage but he called her to come in now if she was free. She took a feel and he explained in a bunch of terms I didnt understand what the issue was. She started to laugh and said, “those are abs, very strong abs”. Holy shittin Jesus, one of the best complements ever. Student was great, he said that he hadn’t done many stomach massages and the ones he had done before felt very different.

    Yes, 100 % yes it was worth it.

    Now go get you some abs !

  21. kevinbart31 Avatar

    It’s always diet brother.

  22. Prior-Engineer6404 Avatar

    As someone who used to be obsessed with body image, I had very defined abs. Overtime I realized I like beer and desserts so, while I still have abs, I am not nearly as defined, and honestly I prefer the latter. I’d rather have a decent physique and enjoy food than a great physique and not be able to eat anything I enjoy. It’s about balance.

    Main point and advice: don’t worry so much about body image. Main reason you should be in the gym should be for physical and mental health. -former trainer

  23. JurassicTerror Avatar

    All depends on body fat percentage. Never cared about visible abs. Sure I’d take them if they were free and effortless, but when it comes to taking care of myself doing things towards the physique I want, visible abs just isn’t a goal of mine.

  24. Davidpaul007 Avatar

    I got serious about nutrition. 100% worth it – for me it’s a constant visual reminder of prolonged discipline and dedication that sets me apart from 95% of the population. I did not see my abs until I was 34 (about 10 years ago) and have had them pretty much since other than a few bulking periods that went to long — and even then I was no more than about 10lbs away from them.

    As others have said- it’s not about the ab exercises but about getting lean. That said, dedicated ab work will absolutely make them “deeper” and pop more.

  25. viln Avatar

    Eat less.

    It doesn’t matter how large you build the muscles if they’re covered by a layer of fat.

  26. Kahzgul Avatar

    When I had abs it was because:

    • I worked out six days a week

    • I was too poor to afford food

    That combination was really stellar. Now I work out 3 days a week and eat like a normal person and I look healthy. Abs only show up when I really flex em.

  27. SheepishHamster Avatar

    I’m working on getting mine back, actually! That and bringing definition to my arms.

    Luckily, I’ve always found sit-ups super easy no matter what twist is put on them, and can crush 20-30 in one sitting—two separate times a day.

    Progress is slow, ((because I’m not one to change my diet)) but according to the photos is there!

  28. acekick3r Avatar

    Someone told me that there are more millionaires in the USA than people with abs. New life goal

  29. RedditBurnerKayli Avatar

    Years of relentless cardio, toning work and eating like a bird led to me having abs. I do not miss them.

  30. Haws_Jomoki Avatar

    Kitchen and calories. A little exercise is great, but a six pack is made in the kitchen. 

  31. arseking15 Avatar

    Diet and tbh its not worth it, whenever i have them im pretty unhappy. Instead i just live my life like 5-10 pounds above my normal “abs weight”, go gym regularly, stay fit, but also not worrying a whole lot about eating unhealthy when i want

  32. HammerofBonking Avatar

    As someone who likes pizza: Absolutely not worth it. Had to min/max every calorie. You can look good and fit and have a nice layer of fat over your muscle. Chiseled abs, at least for me, were serious work.

  33. Fun_Local_3537 Avatar

    Yes I would say. Though I really like exercise and I kinda just don’t eat much so I really wouldn’t say I worked too hard for em.

  34. Wooden-Glove-2384 Avatar

    IDK if you’re talking about aesthetics or not

    if you are … a strong core protects your back

    go talk to someone with back problems and ask them how much they’d give to have avoided them

  35. Chyvalri Avatar

    I often tell people I have a six pack under and over my abs.

  36. MrPelham Avatar

    worth all the work…that depends on where you’re starting from. I have always been lean, so abs have always been there

  37. Chillin_Dylan Avatar

    Your get abs in the kitchen, not the gym. 

    At a minimum all you need to do is a eat less. 

  38. Euphoric-Order8507 Avatar

    I thought women would pay attention to me if i have them. I have them and can confirm no one cares about muscles like i was told growing up.

  39. gmahogany Avatar

    The more muscle you gain & the fitter you get, the more calories you can eat at maintenance. The first time I cut was very hard, I was on like 1400 calories at the end to get to a 6 pack. Was tough & not worth it.

    Then I slowbulked for 3 years straight, gained ~35 lbs. The next cut to 6 pack never went below 2000 calories. Def worth it.

  40. Farts_Mcsharty Avatar

    Always had them, but I’ve always been on the lean side.

    I have done absolutely nothing to earn them or keep them. Just some genetics and low food drive.

  41. NamblinMan Avatar

    You’re asking the wrong people because you can’t see us.

    You should go on an ab hunt. Ask everyone you see to show you their tummies. If they have visible abs, ask them!

  42. Solarius09 Avatar

    I have had more pronounced ABS, but i still have them now (when the light hits just right). It’s a ton of work. That said, it’s straightforward. High protein, 30 min on treadmill incline, lift heavy weights. Cut down on calories and garbage… do this for 3-4 months tadaaa; ABS.

  43. Quacky1k Avatar

    Mine aren’t super defined, but they’re visible again now. I used to have a six pack in high school, then got pretty chunky in college (peak was 260lbs, 5’11”). 95% of it comes from the kitchen, though – having visible abs is just a product of low bf%, having well defined, “cut” abs comes with exercise as well. It was worth the work, but not for the abs. I did it for me. I really need to ramp up the gym work, though, because I’m starting to look like a mole rat LOL

  44. ThisPlaceIsNiice Avatar

    I started with loads of crunches and leg raises. Once I had decent core strength I upgraded to slow eccentric dragon flags and nothing else (for the abs at least). 2-3 abs workouts per week while losing fat at the same time. At 14.X% abs started to show already, and later were on full display once down to 12%-ish. I love the look, women I date dig them, and reducing BF% caused a general massive improvement in looks. I’m in my 30s and if I could go back in time I would get that look before 20 already

  45. Fit_Ad557 Avatar

    I play water polo and my abs are coming in HOT. I practice two hours in the pool without touching the bottom while swimming back and forth with a ball. Two hours, up to 3 times a week. I eat a keto diet that is easy to maintain. I use monkfruit to sweeten my water or my teas so that i scratch my sweettooth itch-but ketosis helps to really do away with cravings in the first place. Yes its worth it because i have fun in the pool and come out refeshed and clean.

  46. deftlydexterous Avatar

    I won the genetic lottery mostly. It’s easy to have moderate ab definition for me, and if I watch what I eat for a couple months they’re very defined. 

    I have active hobbies but I don’t really exercise anymore and I eat a lot.

    One thing I have noticed – drinking will hide them fast. I don’t drink much, but the couple years I drank more often my midsection softened up fast. Thankfully it went away just as fast when I stopped.

  47. violetglares Avatar

    Part of it’s to do with body composition and where I typically store or don’t store fat. I already naturally don’t store much in my abdomen, so that coupled with years of physical activities (weight training and calisthenics) as well aa eating decently has allowed for fair abdominal definition.

  48. suititup1 Avatar

    Go hiking or walking with a 20lb back pack. Forces you to use your core. Or just go to the gym.

    Did a 40 mile, 3 day hike in the mountains with a 35lb bag. Trained with a 20-25lb bag for a few weeks beforehand doing 4-8 miles few times a week. Definitely lost some belly fat and abs are showing after a long absence.

  49. skylinenick Avatar

    I was 18, worked out for 90+ minutes twice a day.

    It was fun to be 19 in college and ripped.

    At 32, I’m much happier with a leaner, healthier build and a stomach that still has strong abs, just barely defined and hidden by my love of beer

  50. strange_bike_guy Avatar

    I was a long time (decades) distance runner and that activity takes all the calories. Now I’m older and use a cane about once a week and have a bit of belly fat. Amusingly, the shape of the ab muscles gave my skin there permanent wrinkles. I call them flabdominals.

    I didn’t think of the running as work, I liked doing it. If it weren’t for my ankle I’d still be running a lot. I usually bike to keep the weight down while avoiding the ankle thing but I got an unrelated head injury this year. It’s amazing how fast you can get fat with no exercise.

  51. Crappler319 Avatar

    I no longer have abs, but I’m a strength athlete and in my 20s I was sitting at around 230ish and had a sixpack.

    The answer to this question is always “diet.” Genetics help, but diet is king.

    Exercise, other than cardio (and even cardio is far less important than diet for losing fat) does not help in a meaningful way unless you’re starting from a place of zero muscle development. Some muscle development is necessary but you can have a sixpack at 110 lbs. Ab hypertrophy has pretty diminishing returns in terms of aesthetics and doing 1000 crunches isn’t super helpful. It actually becomes MORE difficult to have a sixpack the more muscular you’re trying to be, because you have to eat and gain weight to build muscle. You can DO it but it’s exponentially harder and just a massive pain in the ass.

    The diet required to maintain a bodybuilder type physique is borderline psychotic, and generally only possible part of the time. It is possible to be skinny with abs 100% of the time by eating to lose or maintain weight.

  52. Jane_bond_OO7 Avatar

    I religiously used the Lose It! app and weighed all of my food for months while consistently working out. It was not worth it in the end because it just gets to be too much. I lost them after about six months.

  53. revocer Avatar

    When I had abs, it was basically Pilates.

  54. SCPutz Avatar

    I did Crossfit for 5 years and had a really strong core. About year 4, I locked in my nutrition. I was around 20% bodyfat before locking in. After 6-8 weeks of proper nutrition, abs appeared. I maintained it for a few months but decided I prefer to indulge in treat and junk food more than I liked having visible abs.

  55. BrenttheGent Avatar

    Always been skinny. I did 50 sit ups a day for a month straight.

    Yes it was worth it, as a skinny person it was good to be muscular in one part of my body.

    They’re kinda fading now so I should probably do that again.

  56. abcdefjesus Avatar

    Cigarettes and hard labor

  57. b0tch7 Avatar

    the 🐐 ab workout is P90x Ab Ripper X. takes about 15 mins, no equipment required. It’s brutally hard but it works. do that a couple times a week while you work on slimming down (cardio, lifting, diet).

  58. Electronic_Wrangler1 Avatar

    Why have a 6 pack when you can have a keg?

  59. TheBobFisher Avatar

    Ensure my daily caloric intake is less than my caloric maintenance. Caloric maintenance goes up with exercise meaning I can eat more if I’m working out. You will not go from fat to abs without being in a caloric deficit. I say that for those responding to this saying they don’t watch what they eat. Sure, but you’re still in a calorie deficit if you managed to lose fat and have visible abs.

  60. iamhst Avatar

    way too much work especially as you get older. At some point the diet, and exercise and sleep you require for it becomes pretty hardcore. You’re looking at just about going to the gym every day, and then having to properly meal prep.

  61. pinaki902 Avatar

    I worked out a lot, dieted and lost a bunch of weight, trained abs like any other muscle – I like the weighted crunch machine at the gym. Slow full crunch like your trying to smell your junk, very slow coming back – the abs work both ways in terms of spinal flexion. Throw in some leg raises and you’re there eventually with ravioli abs

  62. cjt3t1 Avatar

    jiu jitsu. it will change your life and you’ll get abs without even noticing.

  63. YetiCincinnati Avatar

    I’ve always had them 46 now, and pickleball about 6 hours a week keeps them visible

  64. TheSavagePost Avatar

    I was born. Was it worth it? I don’t know. What was the alternative? Non existence? Existence without abs? Both sound pretty poor so I’ll take having abs.

  65. thedeathmachine Avatar

    Diet and exercise. Doesn’t really feel like work, its more about discipline. Eating healthy and working out are like sleep to me. I cant go without it. But eating less to get my bodyfat down… that’s tough.

  66. Fluid-Letterhead-714 Avatar

    It’s one six pack or the other…

  67. jwr410 Avatar

    They’re great. I want to keep mine looking new so I keep a nice protective layer of fat on top.

  68. Necrotitis Avatar

    Muscle is made in the gym, abs are made in the kitchen.

  69. chrislard Avatar

    I am a thin guy and have always had defined abs. Is any of this body image stuff worth it? Probably not. Just be healthy and take care of yourself. Abs are not necessarily (and maybe not usually) a sign of being healthy.

  70. UltraN64 Avatar

    Most i ever got was a 4 pack and that was me running 3-4 miles a day every single day for 4 years straight. Genetics is a real thing. Still only weigh 160lbs. Got great cardio out of it tho.

  71. _526 Avatar

    Ive had them since like 10 years old because I’ve never been overweight. So I never had to do anything to “get” them. They literally took no work to achieve. As I’m approaching my 30s I’m kinda losing them and I really do not care at all.

  72. CardiacCarl Avatar

    They’re made in the gym but revealed in the kitchen

  73. True_Oil_2149 Avatar

    Worked out 6 times a week all of it very intense (used a workout program called insanity), lifted weights multiple times a week, and watched my diet very closely. No candy, fried foods, soda, desserts, pastries except for a cheat day once a week. Did that for 2 months straight and went from no abs average build to sexy abs. The problem was that it was difficult for me to maintain that lifestyle nor did I really have a desire to.

  74. DrMonkeyLove Avatar

    Eat less and get to a lower body fat percentage, 15% or less for men. Is it worth it? Depends on if you want abs I guess 

  75. Nathanielsan Avatar

    Eat less so it’s objectively less work.

  76. L8erG8er8 Avatar

    Throw away crunches. Try things like hanging Leg lifts (controlled and slow) and L sits. Again the more control and slower you go, the better.

  77. moo00ose Avatar

    Diet and exercise go hand in glove

  78. RedditsChosenName Avatar

    It’s worth it if you’re single and nothing else worked. Getting fit af will always be a net positive in the dating world. I went from never getting approached by women, to getting approached and looked at quite regularly when I was fit. The abs didn’t play a role there cause I was always dressed in these scenarios, but I wore well-fitting clothes that highlighted my physique and very defined arms, shoulders, and traps. The abs were like a nice bonus for them when we’d hang out

  79. 04HondaCivic Avatar

    I had a job with an insulation company. Literally crawling under houses poking insulation in between floor trusses. Most of the work was done laying on my back and constantly crunching to run string or pole more insulation up. Crunches. All. Day. Long.

  80. CaucasianHumus Avatar

    Nope. Had em for like 6 months. Then realized that only did it pickup women and lo and behold didnt work crazy. Lost my abs and picked up humor apparently it works better.

  81. SeatSix Avatar

    You lower bodyfat until they are visible