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I know there are a ton of these questions on this site. But what gives? Been eating Paleo for a year and never seen the abs I was looking for.

Here's what a typical day for me looks like: breakfast-3 or 4 eggs with some berries. i like to do avocado or bacon with berries, but they're not in season and some herbal tea lunch-mixed green salad with cut up carrots and cucumbers with fresh shrimp and homemade EVOO dressing. i usually get a sweet tooth at lunch and have lately been eating a piece of fruit with my salad. dinner-grass-fed meat (usually beef) and a vegetable. i use a lot of coconut milk with my cooking and haven't had the luxury of buying other meats like pork or lamb lately, just beef so a little sick of beef and not even having an appetite for it anymore. which leads to another sweet tooth at night.

CF 4x a week,try to sleep at least 8 hrs per night. try to only eat when i'm hungry but my hungry pains will come suddenly and they come strong and if I'm not around food, it's just unpleasant. I have an EXTREMELY high stressful job-trust me, i'm trying to change it and seriously feel like all my problems are related to the stress of this job-when i up my carbs like adding a yam or two every other day, i don't feel as anxious. but is that what's causing my inability to develop abs? i've tried working out fasted-didn't see a difference. i still PR fasted and not fasted. I've tried to not "stress" over eating carbs and that sort of worked, but it's hard to imagine eating carbs is making me lose weight bc that goes against what paleo science tells us. i will also eat nuts and never see a weight stall. i've tried going low carb and that made me super anxious. i've tried zoning and that made me hungry and hate food bc i was more worried about the measurements instead of just enjoying what i had, i've taken breaks from CF to de-stress and i always looked thinner and felt lighter when i did, but I can't give up CF...I've got competitions to work towards and I'm a trainer. like seriously, what gives?

am i missing an important key point somewhere? or is it just me? thanks all!

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 I think you could benefit greatly from looking into movnat and its philosophy. I can't see anything you're doing wrong per se, but don't be so hard on yourself. Do what makes you feel good. No amount of ab definition is worth your well-being. – josh Feb 10 2012 at 4:02

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If you're not losing the middle fat that you want (you said your abs aren't what you want), then you need to look at stress. You already said your job is stressful, plus CF 4x a week is too much if you want to lean out. I always say that if you want to lose weight you have to do these things, in this order (i.e., there's no sense moving on to step #2 until you've tackled step #1, etc):

  1. Sleep at least 8 uninterrupted hours in a DARK room
  2. Eat a paleo-inspired diet (I'm not worrying about tweaking macro- or micro- nutrient ratios here)
  3. De-strees yourself. Whatever that means for you
  4. Lift heavy weights and walk slowly

I understand the love of CF. I do 5-6 days a week (though mine is more a strength-based CF, not dumb mainsite style workouts), and I rock climb 2-3 times a week, plus season specific sports (like snowboarding). So I totally admit to overtraining. BUT I'm also not trying to lean out more, and if I was, I would know what to do. Life is about compromises. If you want to CF you won't be as lean. You have to choose what you want.

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less CF's not an option at this time, it's open tryout season. i do do your #s 1 and 2 everyday. I know my job is causing a lot of necessary stress....am always having to do other things to balance out that stress like take a nap, listen to calming music, go outside, be with friends, practice breathing techniques, whatever it may be. but seriously like I said...am working on finding another job or make my job less stressful when i'm there. thanks for your input! – Clayton Feb 10 2012 at 9:48
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 Actually, open season is the time to tone it down. At least that's what I'm doing. I spend all year going hard and getting in shape, the five weeks of the open are just like the "test". You can't get better in those five weeks, so it's best to treat your body well so you can spank it hard in the workout. – miked Feb 10 2012 at 16:27
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Just going paleo isn't going to do it. This is a much healthier way of life than SAD, but it's not going to give you the look you want by it's self.

I have my clients do something along the lines of Starr's 5x5, a basic, heavy weight training program...no direct isolation work at all...the squats and deads take care of the abs and the core quite well...better than balancing on a ball or any of the other silly things I see people doing will ever accomplish, and much better than any isolation machine will ever do too.

Then I measure their body fat percentage, do a little math and find their Lean Body Mass.
Base your diet on LBM...and yes, you will have to count calories to do it. Go to www.fitday.com and use this to plan your menus...it's free.

Basic diet is to start with 14 calories per pound, then reduce to 12 if you aren't losing, then reduce to 10 if you aren't losing. 2 weeks minimum between any changes.

60% fat, 35% protein, 5% carbs (approximately...yeah, I know...it's not zone...but you want results right?)

Use mostly animal proteins and green vegetables for five days. Then "carb load" for 24 to 36 hours. On your carb loading days you will cut your meat volume in half and replace it with safe startches like some kind of tubers (yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, winter squashes, etc...) and add a little fruit. On carb loading days, keep the fat high and the carbs high without worrying about the protein.

I've eaten this way for years and although I choose to fatten up a little in the winter, if I'm at the beach in the spring or summer...I've got a better physique and better abs than about any 22 year old there...and I'm 42...almost 43.

Training.

monday - lift and walk.
Tuesday - sprints and walk Wednesday - lift and walk Thursday - sprints and walk Friday - Lift and walk Saturday (optional) - endurance running/jogging/walking - no more than 3 or 4 miles.

Do not tweak, do not change, just do it and it will work...and when I started doing this...my lab work got sooooo good. Perfect lipid profile, perfect...EVERYTHING...profile. Last physical, my doc said she'd just done an exam on a 25 year old man when she finished checking me. Before i started??? I was a 300lb tub of lard who couldn't get himself out of a chair and was a walking heart attack or stroke that just hadn't happened yet.

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 "Do not tweak, do not change, just do it and it will work"- doesn't this kind of fly in the face of the concept that everyone is different, as seen by our varied diets, and therefore not everyone will respond the same way to everything? – JeJ Feb 10 2012 at 4:04
It does...this is why I gave a starting point and an ending point to change the calories in. And a properly set up 5x5 routine starts very light to the individual and gets very heavy to them...and it's based on their own capacity. What I've outlined is personalized and custom if it's set up right. This is how I make my living and that's what I tell my clients...those who change things get less results than those who follow the instructions. The individual variations are in there and accounted for in the calories and in the training. – Andy Welch Feb 10 2012 at 20:42
What I run into each week is someone new saying, "that won't work for be because I'm different in this way...or I'm different in that way." But in the end...basic anatomy and physiology is the same for all of us. Anyone consuming more than 16 calories per pound of LBM is going to gain weight, anyone eating lesss than 10 will likely slow their metabolism down and sabotage their results. My only issue agains paleo, primal, Atkins, and several of the other "diets" is that they don't count calories. To be successful, counting calories is best. – Andy Welch Feb 10 2012 at 20:45
And if the OP isn't getting the results they want...then they would do well to try something different. My method has a 100% success rate for my clients that actually stuck with it. So why not give it a try? The problem is...when someone goes changing things around...it's no longer the method they were giving, they end up doing "what works for me"...and that's usually the same thing that failed them before...and is failing them again. Make sense? I hope I explained it well enough. And yes Jenny J, you are correct we are all a little different. But again, variations to account for – Andy Welch Feb 10 2012 at 20:48
those differences are included in my original post. Hopefully...it it will help. if not...hopefully someone else's will help. :) That is why we are all here after all...to help one another. What I tell folks here for free... I charge my clients a rather high rate for. Well, high for my area. – Andy Welch Feb 10 2012 at 20:49
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Everyone's body is different, and not everyone is going to develop the classic "abs" that show up on fitness magazine covers. What do your workouts look like? Are you doing a lot of core exercises or just general weight training?

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it's CF, so constantly varied, functional movement at high intensities. we do a lot of strength training. a lot of met con wods. but then there are light(er) days – Clayton Feb 10 2012 at 9:50

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