Abs are made in the kitchen

Wasn't sure whether this was more appropriate for here, weight loss, or foods.

Obviously, you can't spot-reduce body fat, and you need to lose belly fat for ab muscles to be visible. Which is why people who do 100 situps a day don't see results.

I always hear people say that "abs are made in the kitchen," and I always assumed it meant that you need to eat at a calorie deficit to lose fat anywhere. Which I know is true. But then once in a while, I hear people say that it means you need to eat clean and healthy to lose ab fat. 

So which is it? 

I agree with the eating healthy to lose fat bit, and IMO, i think that the eating clean part has more to do with digestion, bloat, and water retention. With a clean diet those issues are usually limited thus your your abs would be more visable.

In general, I think it means that you need to eat at a calorie deficit to lose fat anywhere. However, eating "clean" might help reduce bloating which would allow for the abs to be more visible.

At least, that was my impression of what people mean, but that could be wrong.

I've never heard of that saying but the eating healthy and clean and stuff sounds like the abs diet. check it out, I know it says men's health but it works for women too.

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/topicpage.do?ch annel=nutrition&category=abs.diet

i think it just means that if your abs are covered in fat, they're never going to be magazine abs, no matter how strong.

So the people who are saying you need to eat clean to lose fat are misinformed?

eating clean is always going to be a more efficient way of eating; more nutrition, less crap that needs to be eliminated.  i guess if our bodies are spending less time & energy dealing with the useless stuff we ingest, maybe they have more time & energy for building muscle and fueling the burn?

i dunno, man.  i'm a social worker with an english degree ;)

btw, emily - thanks for that thing!  excellent feedback; i incorporated almost all of it ;)

Original Post by pgeorgian:

btw, emily - thanks for that thing!  excellent feedback; i incorporated almost all of it ;)

 No prob. I discovered I'm a lot less pissy about feedback when the original is actually well-done. Whodathunk?

i especially appreciated your - let's call them "additive comments"

(...we canadians and our wilderness parks...chemically enhanced, of course.  hee.)

Original Post by emilyd22222:

So the people who are saying you need to eat clean to lose fat are misinformed?

 You don't need to eat clean to lose fat, but I believe eating clean can help you lose more fat than eating a junky diet (whenever you lose weight, you'll likely lose both fat and muscle, but with proper diet and exercise you can shift the percentages to be mostly fat).

 I think that the lower your body fat gets the more important you're diet gets, body builders and figure athletes who get down to scarey body-fat percentages for shows eat rediculously clean diets. 

 I think  Jack LaLanne first said that abs thing in 1948 - or maybe it was Vince Gironda.  Either way, the saying's way older than the "eating clean" meme ;)

 Depends on what you mean by "eating clean" too though - some of the carb-phobic bodybuilders take it to mean a diet clean of carbs, which is kinda silly; whenever I don't get enough carbs in my diet my lifting suffers. As long as you take it to mean a diet cleaned of industrial food imitations it's a good idea, but when it tips over into carb-phobia and irrational divisions of real food into 'clean' and 'unclean' groups it becomes really unhelpful. (Whenever the humble potato gets called unclean, God makes a dumbbell pink :-P)

Original Post by melkor:

Whenever the humble potato gets called unclean, God makes a dumbbell pink :-P

Dooooooooooooooooooom!

eat whole grains and nuts. they are the two things that have had studies showing they reduce belly fat. otherwis- abs are absolutely kitchen made- you justhave to eat clean, not obsessive or with a ridiculous deficit, just reasonable, healthy, and portion wise. abs take time to show, just be patient and dont rush it.

Original Post by melkor:

(Whenever the humble potato gets called unclean, God makes a dumbbell pink :-P)

you just made my day!

Original Post by meaganmeagan:

eat whole grains and nuts. they are the two things that have had studies showing they reduce belly fat. otherwis- abs are absolutely kitchen made- you justhave to eat clean, not obsessive or with a ridiculous deficit, just reasonable, healthy, and portion wise. abs take time to show, just be patient and dont rush it.

Not to be a jerk, but do you have cites?

Original Post by melkor:

Whenever the humble potato gets called unclean, God makes a dumbbell pink :-P

You've said a lot of great things, but I think this tops them all.

Here's my confusion. Everyone says they believe eating clean is "a good idea," but I've never seen anyone back it up with science that shows that eating clean maximizes fat loss. Not to say it doesn't exist, it just always ends up sounding like opinion to me.

Really, all I know is that I FEEL better when I eat better, and even if that doesn't mean fat loss, I'm more likely to exercise if I don't feel like crap...

That's reason enough for me to want to eat 'clean', or at least 'less crappily'

Okay, this is just out of personal experience.  :)  I have no sources.

Personally, I've always had really kick butt abs.  I never do ab workouts.  I think it's just because I have an "isometric" habit, which I think is when you like constantly flex your abs.  That's what I do.  I don't know, I've just always done it, and I don't think twice about it.  People always ask me why I suck in my stomach, and I don't do it on purpose—I just always have.  It's such a habit that it feels weird not to.

And that's why I have a six-pack: because I'm pretty much flexing my abs 24/7.  :)

There is some study-based evidence that adding cinnamon to your diet will reduce belly fat.

http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/cinnamon .htm

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/cinnamon/a/ci nnamon.htm

I take about 1/2-1 teaspoon a day, and I have definitely noticed a small change in my waist-size.

i lost 40 lb's on a calorie-restricted, low-fat, low-sugar ("sugar free") "diet". what that really meant was i was eating tons of portion controlled junk food like 100 calorie packs of doritos, oreos, and cookies. i was using tons of sugar substitute and eating loads of fat free cottage cheese and yogurt, nasty salad dressings, and other things that are naturally not fat free. i did 30-45 minutes of cardio 5-6 days a week. i lost weight, but i was flabby and soft. sure i fit into size 2 jeans. but i still had a squishy, droopy belly, love handles, and bat wings. i absolutely without question had no sign of "abs".

i gained 10 pounds back.

then i lost all 10 and am at my ideal weight today. i did that by eating low fat cottage cheese, all natural yogurt, no processed "snacks" loaded with sugar, no sugar substitutes. i eat lots of grilled chicken and lots of steamed or raw veggies. i drink nothing but water or tea. just about the only sugar i consume is fruit. i rarely eat breads and pastas, but i do eat whole grains such as oatmeal and brown rice daily. i dont completely stay away from processed food, i do use protein powder daily, and i eat kashi granola bars, gen-soy soy crisps, and light string cheese. i weight train 30mins, 5 days a week, but i never do any ab isolation exercises. i do cardio for 30 mins 5 days a week.

my abs rock, i know because my boyfriend tells me so on a daily basis. also because im not sot and squishy, and when i look in the mirror i can see the outline of my abs, and the line down the middle.

my vote is for clean eating.

 When "Clean eating" is a shorthand for "cleaning up your diet", i.e. - cutting out all the industrial products masquerading as food (100cal sugar packs, water and strange emulsifiers plus flavourings masquerading as 'dressing', that sort of thing) you tend to naturally gravitate towards higher-quality food sources like - oh, veggies, fruit and real food that hasn't been loaded up with weird and wonderful lab-made connoctions to have some sort of texture and flavor.

 And you become more nutritionally aware in general, which means you don't do things to the poor potato that overloads it with calories - if you're having a "fully loaded baked potato", is it the high-quality starches, minerals and vegetable protein in the potato or the stick of butter, cup of sour cream and pound of bacon on top of it that's the problem, eh?

 A baked potato with a tablespoon of olive oil on it is tasty and good for you - load it down with a thousand calories of fat, not so much.

 There's no magic that makes it easier or harder to lose weight on a 'clean' or 'dirty' diet, it's just way easier to control calorie intake with whole food sources than a diet from MacDonald's. Oh, and a 'clean' diet tends to be lower in the trans fats which has some beneficial impact on various blood lipid profiles and cholesterol balance.

 It's easier to feel full and get a good complement of various micronutrients on whole food, which makes it easier to achieve the desired calorie deficit and stay healthy. But you could eat nothing but table sugar or lard for your energy and as long as you stayed below maintenance you'd lose weight no problem, you'd just feel like death warmed over on account of nutritional deficiencies in your die-t ;)

 So as shorthand for "cleaning up my diet and taking nutrition seriously" it's a good idea. As shortand for "making moral judgement of food based on some notion of clean and unclean food" it's nutritional nonsense on par with Gary Taubes' "Good calories, bad calories" where he claims that carb-eaters can defy the laws of thermodynamics and gain weight on a calorie deficit.