Are Abs Really Made in the Kitchen?

Have you ever heard the saying “abs are made in the kitchen”?

While that may seem a little cliché, it actually is true.

About 75-80% of how our body changes and adapts to exercise depends on what we are eating as well. You can easily lose weight by just changing how you are eating but can’t lose weight by only exercising while still eating bad. Working out isn’t going to do very much if you aren’t eating well; lets dive into what that means.

An analogy I like to use is thinking of gas for a car. You need to provide your car with fuel (gas) to drive it. A car without gas isn’t going anywhere, a body without fuel also isn’t going anywhere, and a muscle without fuel is not going to get any bigger. The most basic way to make this make sense is that we eat 3 meals per day, or 21 meals per week plus snacks. But you aren’t working out 21 times a week, more like 5-8 depending on your schedule, so food plays a much bigger role.

Body composition is much bigger than just weight, it’s a measure of everything your body is made up of. The two biggest components of body composition are fat mass and fat free or lean muscle mass. These measures are sometimes hard to see because we get caught up with the number on the scale a lot.

In a week of exercising, you may lose 2 lbs of weight but also gain 2 lbs of muscle, so the number on the scale won’t change but your body composition is.

Now let’s say in that week you didn’t eat right, so maybe you still lost the 2 lbs of weight but you didn’t provide your body with the protein it needs post workout to build muscle, so then you didn’t gain 2 lbs of muscle back. In this scenario you may see a decrease on the scale but unfortunately your body composition isn’t changing the way you want it to. 

So, what can we do to help our body composition changes with nutrition? To start we need to make sure we are getting the right pre-workout fuel.

Exercise is going to be a lot harder if you don’t have the energy to get through all your sets.

You want to aim for mostly easy to digest carbohydrates prior to working out. 1-2 hours before a workout eat a meal or more sustained energy sources like pretzels with hummus, tuna fish sandwich, peanut butter jelly sandwich, granola bar, or peanuts. 30 min before a workout get in some quick energy sources like fruit snacks, pretzels, bananas, apples, apple sauce, fruit cups.

What we eat post workout is directly what helps us build muscle. Resistance training is actively breaking down your muscle mass to build new muscle.

Protein and carbohydrates provide the building blocks for your muscle to rebuild. You should aim for a 3:1 ratio of carbs/protein post workout to provide you with energy and muscle building protein.

Good examples of this include chocolate milk, beef jerky with goldfish, cheese sticks and granola bar, yogurt and granola, cereal and milk, protein shakes, peanut butter jelly sandwich, or eggs and toast.

Focusing on these nutrition tips alongside your resistance training will make the difference in your body composition changes and allow them to happen faster.