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From musclemedia.com:
Help! No matter what I do, I can’t get my abs to come out. I’ve been following the ab routines from your magazine religiously, I do intense cardio 3 days a week, and I eat a low-fat, balanced protein and complex carbohydrate diet. Below is my typical daily nutrition plan.
6 a.m.: 20 minutes of intense cardio
7 a.m.: 1 cup old-fashioned oats w/ 2 tbsp all-natural peanut butter; 10 egg whites
10 a.m.: 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese; 1 dry sweet potato w/ dash of salt & pepper; cauliflower
12:30 p.m.: 1 grilled Teriyaki chicken breast; 1 cup brown rice; broccoli
3:30 p.m.: 2 cans tuna fish mixed w/ non-fat mayo on 2 slices of whole-wheat bread
6:30 p.m.: Chocolate nutrition shake w/ 1 tbsp all-natural peanut butter
9:30 p.m.: 10 egg whites w/ dash of salt and pepper.
This is pretty clean eating, isn’t it? So what’s wrong with my abs!?
—Mr. Smooth, St. Louis, Mo.
Dear Mr. Smooth,
No wonder you can’t get your abs to “pop”—you’re taking in enough sodium a day to fill a jumbo-sized saltshaker three times over. Excess dietary sodium can cause you to “hold” extra water underneath your skin, giving you that Staypuff Marshmallow Man look. (Subcutaneous water retention looks a lot like fat!)
Look, I don’t care how “clean” or low in fat your nutrition plan is, if your dietary potassium/sodium ratio is all out of whack—which yours definitely seems to be—your abs are going to be baby-butt smooth. Here’s how it works and how to fix it …
Sodium and potassium regulate the amount of fluid in cells, and precise amounts of each are necessary to regulate a host of life-essential processes. Sodium, potassium and chloride ions are present on either side of a cell membrane in quite different concentrations, and all cell membranes contain what’s known as an energy-dependent sodium (Na+) pump. This “pump” transfers sodium from the inside of the cell to the outside of the cell. As sodium exits, potassium enters.
If additional dietary sodium is absorbed and enters the fluid outside the cell, extra water has to be retained to keep the sodium diluted. So if you’re constantly throwing your potassium/sodium ratio out of whack by eating high-sodium, low-potassium foods like cottage cheese, Teriyaki chicken, canned tuna fish and the like, your body will continually reflect it by holding extra water—making you look like a dough boy.
The ideal potassium to sodium ratio you should ingest is about 1.25-1.5 to 1, keeping your sodium intake under 2,500 milligrams a day and your potassium intake under 4,000 milligrams a day. (It’s also important to ingest 400 milligrams to 600 milligrams of magnesium a day.)
To keep things from getting too convoluted, just watch your sodium intake and begin taking a quality potassium supplement. Now, let’s analyze your diet and see where you can do better:
All-natural peanut butter: It looks like you’re eating 4 tablespoons of this stuff a day. And while considered a “healthy” fat (I tend to disagree, but that’s another article), most peanut butter manufacturers add quite a bit of salt—up to 110 milligrams to 200 milligrams per 2 tablespoons. Instead, choose low-sodium natural peanut butter, which typically contains half the salt of the original varieties.
Egg whites: I don’t want to come across like I’m “bashing” egg whites, undoubtedly one of the finest protein sources for weight-training athletes around. But they do contain quite a bit of sodium—one large egg white contains about 55 mg of sodium. You’re eating 20 a day, which rings in at 1,100 total milligrams of sodium. I recommend cutting back to 10 egg whites a day and replacing the other 10 with a lower sodium protein source like orange roughy or a serving of a whey protein isolate powder.
Cottage cheese: While an excellent source of casein protein, cottage cheese is a horrible food to be eating in you’re going for super-ripped abs, because it contains way too much sodium—one-half cup of curds has upwards of 450 milligrams of salt! And at 1 cup a day, that’s 900 milligrams of extra sodium you’re consuming. Also, you can forget about switching to low-sodium cottage cheese, because it just plain tastes like drywall plaster. Instead, try all-natural ground turkey breast, which typically contains around 80 milligrams of sodium per serving. Just form it into patties and cook like a hamburger—good “ab” food.
Canned tuna: Tuna is also a good source of protein, but your standard 6-ounce can contains upwards of 750 milligrams of sodium! Instead, look for the “very low sodium” varieties, which contain a more reasonable 105 milligrams per 6-ounce can.
Chicken breasts: Lastly, for the love of six-pack abs, stay away from those frozen chicken breasts which come in bulk (i.e.,10 to a bag), and those pre-marinated chicken breasts, which you see drenched in all sorts of sauces, like teriyaki, Italian and mesquite flavorings. These often contain between 350 milligrams to 700 milligrams of sodium per chicken breast. Instead, go for the fresh, “all-natural” selections, which typically have no more than 80 milligrams of sodium per chicken breast. Season with Mrs. Dash, which is salt-free, and they’re just as tasty, if not better.
Help! No matter what I do, I can’t get my abs to come out. I’ve been following the ab routines from your magazine religiously, I do intense cardio 3 days a week, and I eat a low-fat, balanced protein and complex carbohydrate diet. Below is my typical daily nutrition plan.
6 a.m.: 20 minutes of intense cardio
7 a.m.: 1 cup old-fashioned oats w/ 2 tbsp all-natural peanut butter; 10 egg whites
10 a.m.: 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese; 1 dry sweet potato w/ dash of salt & pepper; cauliflower
12:30 p.m.: 1 grilled Teriyaki chicken breast; 1 cup brown rice; broccoli
3:30 p.m.: 2 cans tuna fish mixed w/ non-fat mayo on 2 slices of whole-wheat bread
6:30 p.m.: Chocolate nutrition shake w/ 1 tbsp all-natural peanut butter
9:30 p.m.: 10 egg whites w/ dash of salt and pepper.
This is pretty clean eating, isn’t it? So what’s wrong with my abs!?
—Mr. Smooth, St. Louis, Mo.
Dear Mr. Smooth,
No wonder you can’t get your abs to “pop”—you’re taking in enough sodium a day to fill a jumbo-sized saltshaker three times over. Excess dietary sodium can cause you to “hold” extra water underneath your skin, giving you that Staypuff Marshmallow Man look. (Subcutaneous water retention looks a lot like fat!)
Look, I don’t care how “clean” or low in fat your nutrition plan is, if your dietary potassium/sodium ratio is all out of whack—which yours definitely seems to be—your abs are going to be baby-butt smooth. Here’s how it works and how to fix it …
Sodium and potassium regulate the amount of fluid in cells, and precise amounts of each are necessary to regulate a host of life-essential processes. Sodium, potassium and chloride ions are present on either side of a cell membrane in quite different concentrations, and all cell membranes contain what’s known as an energy-dependent sodium (Na+) pump. This “pump” transfers sodium from the inside of the cell to the outside of the cell. As sodium exits, potassium enters.
If additional dietary sodium is absorbed and enters the fluid outside the cell, extra water has to be retained to keep the sodium diluted. So if you’re constantly throwing your potassium/sodium ratio out of whack by eating high-sodium, low-potassium foods like cottage cheese, Teriyaki chicken, canned tuna fish and the like, your body will continually reflect it by holding extra water—making you look like a dough boy.
The ideal potassium to sodium ratio you should ingest is about 1.25-1.5 to 1, keeping your sodium intake under 2,500 milligrams a day and your potassium intake under 4,000 milligrams a day. (It’s also important to ingest 400 milligrams to 600 milligrams of magnesium a day.)
To keep things from getting too convoluted, just watch your sodium intake and begin taking a quality potassium supplement. Now, let’s analyze your diet and see where you can do better:
All-natural peanut butter: It looks like you’re eating 4 tablespoons of this stuff a day. And while considered a “healthy” fat (I tend to disagree, but that’s another article), most peanut butter manufacturers add quite a bit of salt—up to 110 milligrams to 200 milligrams per 2 tablespoons. Instead, choose low-sodium natural peanut butter, which typically contains half the salt of the original varieties.
Egg whites: I don’t want to come across like I’m “bashing” egg whites, undoubtedly one of the finest protein sources for weight-training athletes around. But they do contain quite a bit of sodium—one large egg white contains about 55 mg of sodium. You’re eating 20 a day, which rings in at 1,100 total milligrams of sodium. I recommend cutting back to 10 egg whites a day and replacing the other 10 with a lower sodium protein source like orange roughy or a serving of a whey protein isolate powder.
Cottage cheese: While an excellent source of casein protein, cottage cheese is a horrible food to be eating in you’re going for super-ripped abs, because it contains way too much sodium—one-half cup of curds has upwards of 450 milligrams of salt! And at 1 cup a day, that’s 900 milligrams of extra sodium you’re consuming. Also, you can forget about switching to low-sodium cottage cheese, because it just plain tastes like drywall plaster. Instead, try all-natural ground turkey breast, which typically contains around 80 milligrams of sodium per serving. Just form it into patties and cook like a hamburger—good “ab” food.
Canned tuna: Tuna is also a good source of protein, but your standard 6-ounce can contains upwards of 750 milligrams of sodium! Instead, look for the “very low sodium” varieties, which contain a more reasonable 105 milligrams per 6-ounce can.
Chicken breasts: Lastly, for the love of six-pack abs, stay away from those frozen chicken breasts which come in bulk (i.e.,10 to a bag), and those pre-marinated chicken breasts, which you see drenched in all sorts of sauces, like teriyaki, Italian and mesquite flavorings. These often contain between 350 milligrams to 700 milligrams of sodium per chicken breast. Instead, go for the fresh, “all-natural” selections, which typically have no more than 80 milligrams of sodium per chicken breast. Season with Mrs. Dash, which is salt-free, and they’re just as tasty, if not better.
