My birthday present to myself this year was to be a set of six-pack abs. After finishing P90X, back in May, I had lost 18 pounds of middle-age padding, and had toned up my muscles to a level they hadn’t been in for many a year. But I still had a layer of padding that hid the muscle tone of my midsection. It wasn’t a pooch or spare tire — my stomach is flat, now — it was just a layer.

I went into maintain-mode with P90X for four weeks. Instead of 6 heavy workouts a week, I dropped to 3-4 a week. During those maintenance weeks, I lost another 5 pounds of padding, (for a total of 23 pounds lost). These numbers astonished me — I would never have thought I had 23 pounds of fat to loose. I didn’t feel really fat. I just felt middle-aged.

But after those 4 weeks of maintenance, I could see a bare hint, a shadow of where my six-pack abs would be. In the right pose, I could imagine those muscles showing through the last little layer of padding. I was so, so close.

I decided to pick up the regular routine of P90X workouts again. I had the proper diet worked out, and had been following it during the maintenance weeks, so surely the last thin layer would burn off quickly with the full-on workouts.

I lost another pound in the first week of the second round, (for a total of 24 pounds), but then for the last three weeks, no weight loss; no visible difference that I can see in my midsection. Frustrating!

Three weeks of working damn hard physically, keeping to a proper diet, (with only very rare misteps), and no fat loss to see. One theory is maybe that my muscle increase and fat loss ratio has reached an equilibrium — I’m gaining muscle weight at the same rate I’m loosing fat weight, so the scale doesn’t change. But if this were the answer, surely my ab muscles would be showing clearly by now?

Is my problem the curse of an over-40 body? What the hell!?

Bullgrit

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