Six-pack abs look cool. They’re an obvious indicator of athleticism and a hallmark of an attractive body. Yet a large majority of people have no idea how you are supposed to achieve them. This is not helped by a fitness industry incessantly pedalling things that don’t work: crunches, ab workouts, and the endless array of diets.
To get a six-pack, you need to lower your body fat. That’s all. Get your body fat low enough, and your abs will be visible, along with the definition of the rest of your muscles, and an overall athletic aesthetic to the shape of your body. Thankfully, yes, this means there is no shortcut to just getting “six-pack abs”; You either have it all, or none of it. You can’t choose where your body stores fat – that’s written in your genetics. So get your “abs” (by achieving appropriately low body fat), and every part of your body is going to look good.
So, what is low enough? Somewhere around 10-12% body fat for males / 20-22% for females strikes the ideal balance between low enough to look great, and high enough to be easily sustained year-round. The numbers themselves don’t actually really matter (they are simply a way of standardising levels of leanness between people). So a heuristic to make this whole equation easy:
You want to get to a level of body fat that you are happy with: one where you think you look good, and you also feel good.
Finding this balance is important. Once you’re “beach lean”, you don’t need to go chasing further levels of ripped. There is a limit beyond which further fat loss is unhealthy and no fun. You don’t need to get bodybuilder-chiselled lean – that looks gross anyway, and there is absolutely no point starving yourself and going through hell just to achieve an arbitrary “aesthetic” goal you set yourself. But having said that, most people can sustain a very attractive, tidy, top-percentile level of body fat year round, without needing to be constantly monitoring what they eat. This is the ideal I want you to go for.
For example, this is me mid-year, after spending 9 months eating a normal diet just following my appetite, having plenty of fun, and simply focusing on my training.
Point is, there is a sweet spot where everything is awesome: you feel great, your body is happy there, your athletic performance is at its peak, and you look damn good. And if you choose to, you can spend your life there.
So how do you get there?
First, there is another bigger variable at play here that I haven’t yet mentioned, which is top priority before going after actively modifying your boy fat: That is muscle mass. There’s no point cutting down to 10% body fat if you’ve got no muscle mass to reveal underneath. Yes, you will achieve your six-pack, but you won’t be ripped, you’ll just be skinny. On the other hand, start building muscle (by building strength), and you will notice your body begin to enhance in every way.
It’s important to realise that the muscle-building process takes time (much longer than fat loss) and so, long-term, needs to be your primary focus. So for people starting from an average place of both little muscle and zero abs, the first step to getting your six-pack is to literally start building muscle. See my other posts for extensive guidance on how to do this.
Once you are in the process of strength building, and you want to reveal the aesthetic that you know lies beneath the surface, then you are at a point where you can directly modify your body fat. You do this by taking a defined period of time to intentionally lose weight at a consistent pace until you achieve the level of body fat that you are after. Once you get there, you can go back to focusing on strength and muscle gain and enjoying your life.
How does this magical process work? Forget the details of every diet you’ve ever read about, because they all work on one principle: an energy deficit. The principle is extremely simple: Consume less calories than your body burns on a daily basis, and your body will burn body fat for fuel to make up the difference. Do this for long enough and you lower your body fat levels all the way to your goal.
The details of applying this are obviously more nuanced, but that’s all the process is.
Summing up
To get your six-pack:
- Start building strength. This is the only non-negotiable.
- When you are at a point of reasonable strength and muscle mass, and you KNOW you have fat to lose, it is time to use a calorie deficit, over time, to lose body fat until you reach your goal.
Once you’ve covered #1 and it’s time to nail #2, read this.