How to Get Six Pack Abs

Everyone wants to have six pack abs, but the majority of people will never have them. It’s not your genetics that are to blame. Everyone has the potential to have six pack abs. To understand why, a little common sense is all you need. Every human has abdominal muscles, and then a layer of fat over them. The key to getting six pack abs is to remove that layer of fat that’s covering up those muscles. So how do you do this?

How To Get Six Pack Abs

I would estimate that 90% of the equation for seeing six pack abs is diet. The other 10% is exercise. Unfortunately, most people have this backwards, and rely on exercise to get those six pack abs to come in.  The common thought is that if you do enough sit-ups or crunches, your abs will start to show through. Targeting fat loss is a myth.

Read more about the localized fat loss myth.

Real body transformations come through diet manipulation. You can work out until you’re blue in the face, but as long as you have that layer of fat covering your muscles, you will always just look bulky and smooth. The good news? It’s much easier to lose fat than it is to build muscle. I should add one caveat to that – physically it’s much easier to lose fat than to build muscle. Psychologically it’s a whole different story.

Read why losing weight is more of a mental challenge than a physical one

However, if you’re willing to give yourself 16-20 weeks, nearly anyone can bring their body fat levels down enough to either start bringing in their abs, or really start defining them (depending on your starting body fat percentage).

Six Pack Abs Diet

If you want six pack abs, your diet is going to be key. You are going to need to provide an optimal fat-burning environment so that fatty acids have a chance to be released. How do you do this? You place a strong emphasis on keeping insulin levels low.

There are several ways to do this. One way is to eat plenty of low-glycemic foods. Low-glycemic foods cause a slower release of glucose which results in favorable insulin levels for releasing body fat. You cannot release body fat when insulin (a storage hormone) is high. If you want those six pack abs, you need to take control of this powerful hormone, and learn to harness its positive muscle building qualities, while minimizing its fat storage capabilities.

Here are 100 healthy low-glycemic foods to eat to lose weight.

Here are 10 ways you can improve your insulin sensitivity so that fatty acids can be released.

How else can we get six pack abs through our diet? Again, let’s focus on controlling insulin levels. Besides eating low-glycemic carbohydrates, you can also keep insulin levels low by minimizing your intake of carbohydrates. While eliminating them or keeping them very low will keep insulin levels low, I do not recommend such low levels. Carbohydrates (glucose) are an important fuel source for the brain and high-intensity exercise, and they are also needed for the complete metabolism of fatty acids.

Read more about why you need to eat carbohydrates to lose weight.

To sum up the six pack abs diet, there is no cookie cutter approach – only principles you should follow.

• Eat around .8-1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight.
• Eat enough carbohydrates to fuel your workouts, but no more. Find out how many carbohydrates you should eat.
• Eat low-glycemic carbohydrates to keep insulin levels low to provide an optimal environment to release fatty acids.
• Get in enough essential fatty acids (EFAs). Read why they are so important and find out which food sources have them.
• Make sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals to support optimal body function.
• Eat enough calories so that your body won’t think it’s starving, but low enough to stimulate fat loss. Find out if you’re eating enough calories to lose weight.

These guidelines will work for everyone as long as they stay consistent. Consistency through diet is the key to getting six pack abs. However, also understand that everyone holds their fat differently. Not only that, but people also have different types of fat in some areas that are harder to get rid of than others – stubborn fat. Yes, it is real, and it is a pain in the butt to get rid of.

Read more about stubborn fat and what makes it stubborn.

Six Pack Abs Workout

Once you start getting your body fat percent levels down into the low teens and single digits, you’re going to have six pack abs. Now is the time you’re going to notice the greatest benefits to doing abdominal workouts. Start working out those abs too soon before you lose enough body fat, and you will actually notice your midsection is getting bigger. This happens because your abs are growing, but your body fat is staying the same – resulting in a larger waistline. Let me also say that this really is not a big deal.

This is not to say you shouldn’t do any core workouts. However, exercises that isolate the abs really aren’t needed until you get down into low body fat percentage levels. It’s at this time that you can start doing those sit-ups, and they will really begin to bring out the definition.

Just because you aren’t doing direct ab workouts, doesn’t mean your abdominals aren’t getting any exercise. If you are working out like you should be and using big compound movements, your abs get a great workout by playing a vital role in stabilizing the core. When you are doing squats, it takes a large amount of core strength to stabilize the body while you have a bar with weights sitting on your back. Make sure you are doing the 3 big compound movements – bench press, squats, and deadlifts, and/or combinations thereof.

Find out the 3 best exercises to build muscle.

Here are 50 tips for how to build muscle the right way.

Now don’t get me wrong, you can certainly do targeted ab work anytime you want, and it can only benefit you. My point is that those little isolation exercises will get you better visual results if used at a lower body fat. Focus your efforts on your diet and continue strength training, and your abs will start to show.

What’s your favorite six pack abs workout? At what body fat percentage did you see your abs start to show?