Mixed Information on building muscle - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

diesirae · 03-19-2010, 09:57 AM

In addition to walking, I would like to build the muscles in my abdomen area and upper body. Being so overweight I want to start off slowly and work up from there. So I chose to do situps which turned into crunches. Not a big deal, I can definitely feel the soreness in my abdomen area.. Well it's not really sore, but I can feel them when I move and use those muscles. I have tried to do a bit of research about crunches and I'm getting mixed results. Some people say they are completely useless if your carrying fat on your stomach, some people say its still exercise and if your overweight it will still benefit you.

My question is, despite being so overweight. If I continue to do crunches and work my upper body muscles as I continue to lose weight, will those muscles start to become more visible? or are the muscles not really building up under all the fat I'm carrying?

I apologize if this question has been answered in another post or if it seems a bit silly. I'm very new to the exercise world and a lot about it still has me confused

nelie · 03-19-2010, 10:06 AM

The only way to make muscles visible is to lose the fat. You are building muscle if you are doing weight training but it will be covered by your fat until you lose the fat.

Muscle is important though, we tend to lose muscle as we lose weight but muscle burns fat. Also, it takes a lot of work to develop muscle, it doesn't happen over night. So I'd keep working but I'd do a more balanced workout including your whole body.

mkroyer · 03-19-2010, 10:46 AM

So, abs are made in the kitchen, its true. Gosh, i dont want to discourage you from ANY form of exercise, but for me personally, i Was UNABLE to see my abs (ab definition) until i got BELOW 18% body fat, which is VERY low and lean for a woman. Not sure how low you are planning on going. Anything between 20 and 25% is considered very fit and healthy (but you still prob wont see abs--maybe a flat tummy though) I know its pretty similar for MOST woman... maybe not the exact number, but still, very lean... I persoanlly believe you can find better ways to spend your time

sacha · 03-19-2010, 10:48 AM

Building muscle and losing fat are generally two separate processes (although it can happen simultaneously in the beginning, generally, building muscle requires an excess of calories with resistance training and losing fat requires reduced calories).

So while you may be able to build muscle in the abdominal area, you will not see it without the fat loss. So no, they won't become more visible. Stronger perhaps, but not more visible.

On the opposite end, think of an anorexic girl - how many anorexic girls have visible abs, despite the extremely dangerous low body fat? They don't. They are emaciated and have little to no muscle left on their bodies due to starvation. You can have a very low body fat but no visible abdominal muscles if they aren't there.

Truthfully, building abs is a very long, difficult process - it can take many years of spot-on nutrition and hard training, which is why people keep buying into the "instant abs" idea yet few people ever actually have them.

So just keep at it... AND DON'T NEGLECT YOUR LOWER BODY STRENGTH TRAINING!

sacha · 03-19-2010, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkroyer

So, abs are made in the kitchen, its true. Gosh, i dont want to discourage you from ANY form of exercise, but for me personally, i Was UNABLE to see my abs (ab definition) until i got BELOW 18% body fat, which is VERY low and lean for a woman.

There are very few women that can see abs above 18% I actually had to get down to almost 16% to see mine!

Tomato · 03-19-2010, 11:12 AM

What the other ladies already mentioned. If you visit kaw's blog, you will see a picture of her spectacular abs. I believe she said she was on 14% body fat.
But I am not saying this to discourage, personally, kaw's abs give me the motivation to work harder even though I don't think I will ever have her abs.

The reason why I am posting is to say that crunches are not believed to be the most efficient abs exercise. I once read a nice article on this but I no longer have the link and I can't quickly find it right now. There are upper abdominal muscles and lower abdominal muscles and you need to work on both, also on your hip flexors. So I would encourage to do a wider range of abdominal exercises as opposed to just doing crunches. Incorporate planks, v-ups, exercises on a stability ball, etc.

Here are two links for you - but I grabbed what I was to find quickly, you may to run a more refined search on your own.

Have fun working your abs!

http://www.drdaveanddee.com/abex.html
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/a..._Obsession.htm

diesirae · 03-19-2010, 01:14 PM

Thank you for all the advice and input!

Its good to know that at least they will be getting stronger even with all this weight. Seeing them isn't as important to me, just as long as I know I can help the muscles get stronger by exercising despite all the weight I am carrying.