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Think of a person who is not interested in bodybuilding and fitness.

Let's say that he didn't change anything in his lifestyle (still no fitness, no diet, no cardio) but only started to do abs workouts regularly. What will be the results; can you achieve a visible sixpack? What are the visible changes?

Edit: After 2 answers received, I want to make my point more clear: I need to know if abs workout alone helps fat burning. Is it possible to burn all the fat by just abs?

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  • possible duplicate of How can I get a flat stomach?
    – JohnP ♦
    Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 4:11
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    There's no such thing as "no diet." The way you eat everyday is your diet. You can change your diet. You can temporary alter your diet and go on what most americans think is "a diet." Or you can change your eating habits/lifestyle which is really changing your diet... so the results would be different from person to person. The leaner the person the better the diet the better the ultimate results.
    – hortstu
    Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 4:43

3 Answers 3

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The effect of an ab workout without diet and cardio is:

stronger abs

That's it. If you already have low body fat (8-12% for men), you will begin to see better definition in the abdominal region. However, if you have significantly more body fat, the only thing you have to show for your work is the strength you developed.

The reason the trite saying "abs are made in the kitchen" is so true is because you have to lose body fat to reveal the abs you have underneath the layers of fat. The number one tool to lose fat is a proper diet. Diet is so important that it trumps cardio and other physical activities to burn fat.

Unfortunately:

  • You can never out work a bad diet. Period.
  • A proper diet improves your hormonal profile, and reduces systemic inflammation--meaning it gets easier to burn fat.
  • Isolation exercises burn far fewer calories than full body exercises
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Abs are made in the kitchen.

The results for doing only abdominal workouts will be different per person, depending on the way they are built, metabolism et cetera. But getting visible results like a six pack by only doing ab workouts will be extremely hard. The visibility of a six pack is not defined by the muscles itself but more by the surrounding fat.

A visible change that might occur is a change in posture, because of stronger core muscles. This could result in less slouching and standing more straight.

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    "Abs are made in the kitchen" this is a very empty comment. Its usually better to state "Abs are made in gym and revealed in the kitchen."
    – user2861
    Commented Feb 12, 2014 at 22:59
  • Everyone has a six pack, but most of them are covered by fat.
    – EvilSnack
    Commented Mar 4, 2020 at 13:18
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As the response above alluded to, noticing visible differences will depend on the individual's baseline body characteristics since abdominal exercise alone most likely won't result in significant changes. For those who have a substantial amount of body fat and store it centrally in the abdomen, muscle definition will usually be hidden by the superficial fat. For those who are naturally leaner and don't store fat in the mid section as much, there may be noticeable, however slight, development of the abdominal muscle.

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