7 Must-Avoid Foods If You Want To See Your Abs By Summer

Instagram can be really useful for a few things. Like looking at pictures of almost naked babes, getting annoyed with your friends pictures of dinner and their dog, and…well…I’m not really sure what else Instagram exists for.

Lately there’s been a flood of pictures with the hashtag #iifym are popping up. It’s usually a bunch of people in great shape eating shit food, and saying how you too can get in shape eating shit food.

Aside from confusing a fuck ton of people by going against the fad diets people love, there is something right about the whole movement. No food is really bad. Every single food can fit into a diet as long as you’re burning more calories than you consume.

That being said, there are some foods that are usually best to do without when trying to lose weight though. Either because of the huge amount of calories they contain, or the other foods they’re usually paired with.

Last week, I gave you 7 must-eat foods for six-pack abs. Today, I am giving you 7 foods to avoid if you have any plans to see your abs in 2015. So if your goal is to look like King Leonidas this summer, these are the foods you should probably do without.

1. Buffalo wings
I’ll get this out of the way, I love me some wings. It’s one of my favorite meals in all of the food history. There’s nothing better than a plate of saucy wings dipped in creamy ranch and washed down with beer. When I’m trying to lose fat though, these things are some of the first to disappear from my diet.

Sure it’s possible to eat them and still stay at a caloric deficit, it’s just really damn hard. It’s not unheard of for a 10 count of wings to contain over 80 grams of fat alone. That’s 720 calories of just fat, not counting the protein and minimal carbs that a wing might have.

Obviously you’re going to use ranch or bleu cheese, fries, and washed down with beer. Because no one lives a sad enough life that they eat wings all by their lonesome.

It’s not hard to see how that one meal alone could account for nearly an entire day of calories. Not worth it when abz are the goal.

2. Pizza
If you can keep your pizza consumption in check, pizza actually fits pretty well into a diet. Let’s be real with each other though, that’s damn near impossible. Once piece of pizza won’t ruin your diet. It’s that 4th or 5th slice of pizza, the beer, the ranch you dip it in, and the other meals that day make pizza dangerous.
Pizza is a carbohydrate boat filled with fat. Creating a portable calorie bomb that can blow up even the best of diet intentions. It’s not uncommon for one slice to weigh in at 300+ calories. Unless you compensate by dropping calories the days before and after, a pizza binge can mean bad news for your belt line.

3. Alcohol
This one is obvious, but hard to come to grips with, especially for the inner Gronk in all of us. Alcohol can have major impacts on someone’s fat loss efforts though, and for more reasons than one.

A – Alcohol is 7 calories per gram, but your body makes metabolizing it a priority. While you’re trying to burn through those alcohol calories, you’re not burning stored fat.

B – Alcohol severely hurts your judgement. Not that I needed to tell you that. After a night of drinking it’s not uncommon to cap it off with some classic drunchies. Turning a night out into a 1,000+ calorie feast.

C – The after effects of alcohol inhibit your training the next day – which means you have a harder time burning off those excess calories. Because when was the last time you had the best work out of your life hung over as balls?

4. Refined grains and carbohydrates
By no means am I a paleo advocate. One thing people do get right with paleo though is avoiding a ton of refined grains. Refined and carbs are some of the cheapest foods out there, and also some of the worst for your diet.

A diet high in refined grains, think flour products like bread or carbs you can buy in a box or bag, isn’t the most nutritious in the world. There’s usually plenty of added sugar, not much fiber, and virtually none of the stuff that makes a diet work.
Replacing refined grains with fruits and vegetables is a no brainer. Saving calories and get more vital nutrients. You know, the shit that’s good for you.

5. Liquid calories like coke/fruit juices/milk
Going along the same lines of alcohol, liquid calories can do serious damage to ones plans for a 6 pack. For a couple of reasons:

A – With liquid calories it’s a hell of a lot easier take in more than eating solid foods. This is the same reason that guys looking to gain mass put away more liquid calories in the form of weight gainers.

B – Liquid calories themselves are generally full of sugar making them a huge source of calories. A 200 calorie snack by itself, even if it is all sugar won’t destroy your diet. A 200 calorie snack on top of lunch or dinner? That does your diet in for the day, and sets you back for the next as well.

Protein powder would be the exception to this rule. Protein is a convenient way to hit your daily protein requirement, a huge deal when trying to drop fat.

6. Fast foods
It doesn’t take a masters in nutrition to figure this one out. Fast food puts you on the fast track to an expanding waistline. Does the occasional 3am meal of Waffle House smothered, covered, and chopped hashbrowns ruin your diet dreams? Of course not. But eating fast food multiple meals a day, or 7-8 times a week is an easy way to take in more calories than you should.

The easiest way to control the calories you put in your body is to cook. Not only do you get the opportunity to flex some culinary muscle, but you determine just how many calories you’re eating, save money, and practice to wine and dine some lucky lady in the future. Because what good is your 6 pack if some lady won’t be washing her clothes on it?

7. Sugar bombs – cakes, ice cream, candy
Eating too much shit food leads to looking like shit. Foods that have mountains of added sugar like cake, ice cream, candy, yogurts, and most protein bars are the definition of shit foods. Being high in calories would be alright if they were full of protein and high in nutrients, but that usually isn’t the case. Even for protein bars.

The crazy amounts of added sugar along with fat, and very minimal protein is a deadly combination. It’s a calorie bomb wrapped up in beautiful packaging, set on making you look like shit on the beach.

These foods are also delicious though, which creates quite the conundrum. It’s damn near impossible to stop at one piece of candy.

My suggestion? Quit buying it. If it isn’t in your house, it can’t tempt you.

Avoiding all of these foods for the next 4 months won’t do a damn bit of good if you eat too much overall. You could eat 5,000 calories of broccoli and still gain weight. You also might take really uncomfortable dumps for a day or two. The most important factor in getting shredded is how much you eat, followed by what you eat. Avoiding these foods the majority of the time though, and keeping your calories lower is a surefire way to look damn good this summer.

Tanner is a fitness professional and writer based in the metro Atlanta area. His training focus is helping normal people drop absurd amounts of fat, become strong like bull, and get in the best shape of their life.