abs at a young age

[eleni611]

I'm just wondering what the realistic possibility is of having abs at the age of 18-19. I eat very clean 6 days a week and have 1 cheat day, but I am now going to give up the cheat day and just eat clean 7 days a week. I'll miss it! lol....but I know that when you are younger you have more subcutaneous fat, so is it harder for younger people (especially women who are 18 or 19) to have abs that show?

[deawalsh]

First, you can definetely have abs at 18....i do! (maybe not a lot now, cuz i have been bulking for quite a time!lol)
Second, cheat days are bad, look to have 1 ( or 2 in the beginning) cheat meal instead!
Third, i takes a lot of work, dedications,discipline and TIME(its not gonna happen overnight!), but it is realistic!

to get your abs cut, you gotta do cardio(HIIT is awesome) to go burn that fat (yeap, you cant spot reduce only by doing crunches!) and mix it with weight lifting to tone and shape your entire body!

[Nightbird573]

You can get abs at almost any age. That one crazy strong Romanian kid has abs and he's like 5 or something like that. lol

[heidismommy]

Age doesn't matter. Actually I would think it would be easier to achieve defined abs at a younger age, but older people can get them too. I wasn't able to see mine until a couple years ago and I'm 31...but it wasn't that I couldn't have gotten them earlier, it's just that I didn't know what to do to get them. I didn't start strength training until a couple years ago and didn't know how to really eat properly until then. My sister had a 6-pack when she was in high school (she was a cheerleader). I actually knew several athletes when I was in high school that had them. It's not easy to get defined abs, but most people can get them with a lot of hard work.

[powerbarsssssss]

Originally Posted by eleni611

I'm just wondering what the realistic possibility is of having abs at the age of 18-19. I eat very clean 6 days a week and have 1 cheat day, but I am now going to give up the cheat day and just eat clean 7 days a week. I'll miss it! lol....but I know that when you are younger you have more subcutaneous fat, so is it harder for younger people (especially women who are 18 or 19) to have abs that show?

I had abs visible abs 13 and I didn't even eat clean >_< I guess it was because of all the cardio I got from soccer

[eleni611]

I'm 5'1" and I haven't weighed myself in a few months, but I think I weigh around 113 and I just feel like no matter how lean I get I won't see abs...it feels like there is nothing under there. I see women with huge bricks, and I KNOW I don't have THAT! Everybody says "abs are made in the kitchen" and that they don't necessarily do ab exercises, so how can they have such defined ab muscles without working them?

[Nightbird573]

Originally Posted by eleni611

I'm 5'1" and I haven't weighed myself in a few months, but I think I weigh around 113 and I just feel like no matter how lean I get I won't see abs...it feels like there is nothing under there. I see women with huge bricks, and I KNOW I don't have THAT! Everybody says "abs are made in the kitchen" and that they don't necessarily do ab exercises, so how can they have such defined ab muscles without working them?

Because you do have to have some sort of muscle under there! If you constantly eat at a deficit and do cardio a lot, you deplete your muscle that you do have down to nothing. Hence, why super scrawny models have no ab definition.

[Hrithan2020]

Heavy squats and other exercises (which use abs as stabiliser muscles) build abs without any direct ab work required. And I would say most people(esp. Men) have abs hidden beneath those layers of fat.

[SarcasticWalrus]

I'm definitely seeing some definition forming after weight-training for about 4 months (I was already pretty skinny before, so that's why it didn't take very long). I think the biggest helps (besides diet) are deadlifts, squats, and weighted ab exercises. Doing 5 billion crunches won't get you anywhere because you wanna stick with the 6-10 reps for muscle building. Also, full body workouts will lean you out much faster.

[TheDiz]

Originally Posted by deawalsh

Second, cheat days are bad, look to have 1 ( or 2 in the beginning) cheat meal instead!

^^ I think you need to be careful of this statement, it's too generalized and gives the wrong idea without enough information.

[kimm4]

Originally Posted by eleni611

I'm just wondering what the realistic possibility is of having abs at the age of 18-19. I eat very clean 6 days a week and have 1 cheat day, but I am now going to give up the cheat day and just eat clean 7 days a week. I'll miss it! lol....but I know that when you are younger you have more subcutaneous fat, so is it harder for younger people (especially women who are 18 or 19) to have abs that show?

You are correct younger women carry body fat differently then women in their 30's an older. Body fat is closer to the surface when you are younger, then moves more towards the inner organs once you get older.

Part of it is genetics. Some girls have better abs than others. (Like any other body part.) But you can add some weighted ab work and core work into your program. So it might be a matter of having to build some overall lean mass...abs included!

Now are you doing a cheat day or cheat meal? There's a big difference. Spending a whole day doing cheats will def affect progress. Throwing in a few cheat meals a few times a week would work much better. How many times can one cheat in a week all depends...as everyone's body responds differently.

[heidismommy]

Originally Posted by eleni611

I'm 5'1" and I haven't weighed myself in a few months, but I think I weigh around 113 and I just feel like no matter how lean I get I won't see abs...it feels like there is nothing under there. I see women with huge bricks, and I KNOW I don't have THAT! Everybody says "abs are made in the kitchen" and that they don't necessarily do ab exercises, so how can they have such defined ab muscles without working them?

You have to not only be lean enough, but you also have to have enough muscle for that muscle to show. I'm your height and weigh about 10-15 lbs less...but I have pretty defined abdominals and don't do a lot of ab training. No more than 2-3 times per week, never more than 10 minutes per ab session. But I hit them indirectly through things like deadlifts and other compound exercises. I've actually gained 20 lbs and I didn't have defined abdominals at 80 lbs. Not because I wasn't lean enough (I was emaciated), but because you also have to have developed abdominals for them to show.

Originally Posted by kimm4

You are correct younger women carry body fat differently then women in their 30's an older. Body fat is closer to the surface when you are younger, then moves more towards the inner organs once you get older.

I don't doubt what you're saying at all, but whenever I'm at the pool it seems it's mainly the younger girls and teens that have flat and/or "toned" tummies. Most of the older women and mommies have flabbier, softer tummies (and just more fat in general). I don't know if there are metabolic differences, but it seems like younger girls and women have an easier time getting that tight look around the midsection. At least that is what I have witnessed anyway (I'm not talking about the differences between younger and older figure competitors/bodybuilders, just about the average person you'd find at out in public---I have a bad habit of "people watching", lol). When my sister was in high school she had "6 pack abs" from cheerleading. She ate like cr@p too. Unfortunately she continued to eat like that after high school and rapidly put on weight since she stopped being so active.

[Tiffany_P]

Originally Posted by kimm4

You are correct younger women carry body fat differently then women in their 30's an older. Body fat is closer to the surface when you are younger, then moves more towards the inner organs once you get older.

Really? I never knew that. I thought older women just had more fat in general (both visceral AND subcutaneous). Are you saying that as we age, the fat actually changes from subcutaneous to visceral?

[kimm4]

Originally Posted by Tiffany_P

Really? I never knew that. I thought older women just had more fat in general (both visceral AND subcutaneous). Are you saying that as we age, the fat actually changes from subcutaneous to visceral?

As we get older it's still a combination of both...but if I'm not mistaken more becomes visceral than subcutaneous. With younger it's more subcutaneous which is why they have a softer look.

I had a real good article on this at one time and I can't find it dammit...LOL...

[Emma-Leigh]

Originally Posted by Tiffany_P

Really? I never knew that. I thought older women just had more fat in general (both visceral AND subcutaneous). Are you saying that as we age, the fat actually changes from subcutaneous to visceral?

^^
to an extent, yes.

Oestrogen is 'protective' in the laying down of visceral fat.... So younger females don't have *as much* as males (one of the reasons why men have more heart attacks when younger in comparison to females).

As females age and oestrogen lowers, they shift fat into a more male pattern of distribution (as well as lose their type 2 muscle fibers/ lose their insulin sensitivity and basically 'decondition in general - which general = more fat overall) => which 'evens' out their risk of heart disease and other metabolic icky.

[Tiffany_P]

Interesting stuff! I have heard that a good hip/waist ratio is a sign of fertility, and I knew that post-menopausal women do tend to get more fat around their midsection, but I never knew that meant less sub-cutaneous fat. I still find it hard to believe that it's EASIER for older women to have a 6-pack though, but if so, then that's something to look forward to

[heidismommy]

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

^^
to an extent, yes.

Oestrogen is 'protective' in the laying down of visceral fat.... So younger females don't have *as much* as males (one of the reasons why men have more heart attacks when younger in comparison to females).

As females age and oestrogen lowers, they shift fat into a more male pattern of distribution (as well as lose their type 2 muscle fibers/ lose their insulin sensitivity and basically 'decondition in general - which general = more fat overall) => which 'evens' out their risk of heart disease and other metabolic icky.

Interesting, definitely very informative.

Originally Posted by Tiffany_P

Interesting stuff! I have heard that a good hip/waist ratio is a sign of fertility, and I knew that post-menopausal women do tend to get more fat around their midsection, but I never knew that meant less sub-cutaneous fat. I still find it hard to believe that it's EASIER for older women to have a 6-pack though, but if so, then that's something to look forward to

But if you look at male pattern fat storage there is more fat subcutaneously around the midsection, not just internally. Look at the average middle-age man who doesn't work out and most have pretty prominent guts. So if a female takes up that sort of fat distribution later on then it would be the same sort of thing. More internal fat, but more fat around the abdominal region and less fat around the hips and thighs.

If I look around at the typical population it's rare to see an older woman with a 6-pack. In fact most of the moms I see around the pool are wearing matronly looking swimsuits and I've been shot a few evil glares sporting my bikini. Most of the younger people I see have flatter, tighter abs. That's not to say older women can't get defined abs, it just takes more work while it seems to come more effortlessly with younger people. Most older women have more body fat (as rates of overweight and obesity creep up with age, coupled with changes of fat distribution).

I'm certainly no expert, I don't claim to be. But I just don't see many other women my age or older with defined abs or even a flat tummy. I see far more teenagers with flat or defined abs. The exception is a site like this where everyone seems to be aiming for a similar goal or physique. I see far more older women AND younger girls with full blown 6-packs on a site like this than I'll be able to count every time I go to the pool or beach...added together over the course of my life, lol.

[Miranda]

Originally Posted by heidismommy

If I look around at the typical population it's rare to see an older woman with a 6-pack.[...]I just don't see many other women my age or older with defined abs or even a flat tummy. I see far more teenagers with flat or defined abs.

apart from the fact teenagers are still growing (enables them to eat more) i think the biggest issue is that poor lifestyle catches up on people after a few decades, conveniently enough at the same time their fat patterning changes.

[heidismommy]

Originally Posted by Miranda

apart from the fact teenagers are still growing (enables them to eat more) i think the biggest issue is that poor lifestyle catches up on people after a few decades, conveniently enough at the same time their fat patterning changes.

Definitely a good point.

[eleni611]

well i was doing really good and eating clean all day, since its usually my cheat day...and then i came home already craving sweets and there was half of a huge chocolate cupcake on the counter and i ate it

[jess_muscles]

Originally Posted by Nightbird573

You can get abs at almost any age. That one crazy strong Romanian kid has abs and he's like 5 or something like that. lol

i know!! he is so wrong to look at, so young and yet so ripped and muscular!!!
to an extent i feel sorry for the kid