Health and Fitness
Here’s How to Get Six-Pack Abs After 50.
I don’t believe in age limits for fitness and health improvement.
The desire for a defined belly was a long journey for me. It took decades!
I am not obsessed with a six-pack belly and did not make it my specific fitness goal. It happened as a by-product of my lifestyle choices. It served as an indication of my fitness progress on the right track.
Being able to lose abdominal fat was a significant achievement for me. Redefining my fitness goals and a minor tweak in my lifestyle choices helped me gain a defined body structure after a century.
Fitness is a passion for me. Since my childhood, consistently moving my body has helped me enjoy my life. My fitness journey was not straightforward. I had many ups and downs.
I thought adequate exercise would give me the desired body. Therefore, I invested a lot of time in losing body fat and gaining lean muscles.
Gaining muscles was not a problem but losing fat without losing muscle was a problem. My efforts were wasted for decades because I only addressed one part of the equation.
The other part of the equation was diet. I thought my plant-based, low-fat, and low-calorie diet would keep me lean and help me lose unwanted fat. I managed to lose fat from various parts of my body but had difficulty losing belly fat. Abdominal fat is too stubborn.
Intricacies of fat metabolism play an important role in losing belly fat. When I was young, in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, I was lean but always covered with belly fat. After 40, I started changing my lifestyle. The main change was using fat as the primary source of energy.
Being fat-adapted changed my metabolism. Cravings and frequent hunger disappeared. My blood glucose stabilized. Improvement in blood glucose optimized my insulin level.
Understanding insulin’s role in burning fat was the critical success factor in tapping into the way to lose stubborn belly fat. Only when insulin is low does the body start using belly fat as energy.
The best way of keeping insulin down is fasting. Yes, not eating anything for a prolonged time. When I got fat-adapted to an optimal lifestyle diet, giving me a metabolism using fat as the primary energy source, fasting was easy.
Even after 24 hours of not eating anything, I still did not feel hungry. The fat adaption was my first secret to tapping into stubborn belly fat.
The second secret was understanding the role of cortisol. I shared my experience managing my cortisol in an article on Euphoria.
The best contributor to reducing cortisol and having an optimal amount in my bloodstream was improving sleep quality. Deep sleep plays an important role and is associated with recovering the body from tears.
Reducing inflammation helps to burn fat better. I shared my experience dealing with inflammation and associated symptoms.
When I look at the big picture, overall stress management was the primary contributor to tapping into belly fat and shrinking fat cells.
Several lifestyle changes, including cold showers every morning and taking a dry sauna for several weeks, contributed to fat-burning goals. These lifestyle changes also contribute to the density of our mitochondria. I explained it in the attached article.
Fat burning was critical but was not sufficient to see the definitions in my abdominal area. The last contributor was getting rid of excess loose skin.
It took me almost a decade to get rid of loose skin. I shared my experience in a story titled How Did I Get Rid of Loose Skin After Weight Loss?
The best contributor to losing excessive skin was the body’s natural capacity to kill the damaged cells. Emerging research on autophagy looks promising for maintaining a healthier body.
Only after removing loose skin I started seeing the definitions in the abdominal area. Initially, it showed four definitive parts. However, I continued with my intermittent fasting and made healthier lifestyle choices.
When I was around 51 years old, I started seeing full six-packs in my abdominal area. The DEXA scan showed 7% of body fat when my six-pack appeared for the first time. DEXA stands for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and is the gold standard in the fitness industry for measuring fat.
It sounded ironic to my friends and family members. I was unable to get six packs when younger. They thought that my metabolism should be much slower in my 50s. Being fat-adapted and using fat as the primary energy source kept my metabolism much more active than when I was younger.
Even though a six-pack belly was not my ultimate goal, it made me happy. It was useful feedback as an indication of my fitness outcomes. Life is miraculous and full of nice surprises, which I call serendipity.
I shared my experience of gaining six packs in a detailed article.
How To Get Six-Pack Abs Without Destroying Our Health
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a happy, healthy, and productive life.
Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include health or professional advice. I documented my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
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Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
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Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
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