PUREXTC'S DORM ROOM

So February is starting and January is ending. A couple of weeks ago I took a fitness orientation at my gym, which is like a free personal training session for an hour. We measured a lot of things, and made some calculations. He had a hard time pinching off any body fat, but still measured it out to be about 16%. According to his sheet of paper, my age group's healthy range is between 15-17% so it looks like I'm in a healthy range. I still want to have visible abs though, and mentioned to him that that was one of my goals.

He had me do a short work out so that I showed him what I normally do, but on a shorter time line due to our time constraint. He pointed out that I'm doing a lot of cardio, but if I want to have visible abs I should lower the intensity to 35% of my maximum heart rate (according to the machine, roughly 127 BPM) for about an hour. I've been doing that for the past two weeks, and don't notice much of a difference. Then again, my diet hasn't been great either. As I mentioned before, my work's lunch schedule doesn't allot me much time to pick up anything healthy to eat. It's almost always fast food. I'm going to start making sandwiches or something and brining them in as an alternative.

Any idea on how much body fat is allowed for a visible 6-pack?

I also want to get a little larger in the arms...I think this means I need to consume more protein and more calories. I'm currently consuming roughly 1700 calories a-day. Maybe this is too low for my goals. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) I need to increase my calorie intake, but lower my fat intake.

All in all, I'm happy with my fitness orientation, and when I have some money set aside, I am going to sign up for some personal training. I would recommend it to anyone who has been going to the gym for a while and wants some direction for their goals. I learned a lot in the hour that I had, and learned about some forms I wasn't doing properly. Now to wait until I get paid...