How To Get Six Pack Abs

How to get six pack abs is still the single most common question I’ve been asked in my over 35 years in the fitness industry. Out of thousands of emails I receive every month, nothing comes close. And it’s not surprising. Abs are the one body part that frustrates people the most.

Some people think they need a better ab workout – and more often. Others assume they’re missing one secret “best” ab exercise. Many are already doing hundreds – sometimes thousands – of sit-ups, crunches, and leg raises every week and still can’t see their abs.

Here’s the truth most people don’t want to hear, but absolutely need to understand: If you can’t see your abs, it’s usually not because your abdominal muscles aren’t developed enough. It’s because they’re covered by body fat.

You already have a six-pack. Everyone does.

Training builds and strengthens the abdominal muscles. But seeing six pack abs – like seeing definition in any muscle group – is primarily the result of low body fat levels, not doing endless ab exercises.

This becomes even more obvious in the lower abdominal area, which is where most people – especially men – tend to store fat first and lose it last.

• With that in mind, in this article, I’ll explain:
• Why you can’t see your abs even if you train them hard and often
• Exactly why lower belly fat is often the most stubborn
• How body fat storage and withdrawal works in the abdominal area
• How to use diet and cardio correctly for fat loss
• And finally, how to train your abs the right way with a structured workout (one of my favorite ab routines)

Let’s start with a common mistake I see all the time.

“1,000 Sit-Ups And Crunches A Day and Still No Abs?

A young guy once wrote to me saying he was doing nearly 1,000 crunches and sit-ups a day, four days a week, and still couldn’t see his lower abs.

He told me:

“I’m starting to see my upper abs a little bit, but I still have a tire around my waist. What else can I do?”

His mistake is one I see all the time. He thought the problem was lack of abdominal development. It wasn’t.

You can train your abs every day. You can strengthen them. You can build endurance in them. But if body fat is covering them, you won’t see definition – no matter how many crunches you do.

The issue isn’t a lack of muscle development issue. It’s an excess of body fat issue.

And the lower abdominal region is where many people store fat first and lose it last.

 The Science Behind Stubborn Ab Fat – Why It’s Often The Last To Go

Most people don’t have their fat distributed evenly throughout their bodies. Each of us inherits a genetically determined and hormonally-influenced pattern of fat storage just like we inherit our eye or hair color. In other words, the fat seems to “stick” to certain areas more than others

There’s a scientific reason for this. Your fat cells are not just inert “storage tanks” for excess fuel. They are actually endocrine glands which send and receive signals from the rest of the body. You could say that your fat cells “talk to your body” and your body “talks to your fat cells.” This happens through a hormone and receptor system.

For body fat loss to occur, you must first get the fat cell (adipocyte) to release the fat into the bloodstream. Then, the free fatty acids must be delivered to the working muscles where they are burned for energy.

For fat to be released, the hormone adrenaline (epinephrine) must be secreted and send a signal to your fat cells. Your fat cells receive this hormonal signal via adrenaline receptors called adrenoreceptors.

Fat cells have Beta 1 (B1) and Alpha 2 (A2) receptors. B1 receptors are the good guys. They activate hormone sensitive lipase, the enzyme that breaks down the fat and allows it to be released into the bloodstream to be burned. A2 receptors are the bad guys. They block the fat-releasing enzymes in the fat cell and encourage body fat formation.

Why You Can’t Spot Reduce Lower Ab Fat

So what does all that physiology mean in practical terms?

In men, the lower abdominal region tends to have a higher concentration of Alpha-2 receptors. That’s one reason why lower belly fat is often the last place to lean out.

In women, the hips and thighs commonly have a higher A2 receptor concentration for the same reason.

Think of abdominal fat like the deep end of the swimming pool. No matter how much you protest, there is no way you can drain the deep end before the shallow end. However, don’t let this discourage you. Lower ab fat will come off, it may simply be the last place to come off.

First Place On – Last Place Off (Remember, F.O.L.O.!)

This also explains why doing hundreds or thousands of crunches has little impact on lower abdominal fat. Ab exercises can strengthen and grow the muscles. But they don’t directly remove fat on top of that area. You can’t spot reduce body fat to any significant degree.

What removes body fat – everywhere – is a calorie deficit. That deficit comes from: eating fewer calories, increasing exercise and overall activity, or combining both.

When I advised the young man who was doing 1,000 sit-ups a day, I told him to reduce the excessive ab work and redirect that effort into full-body weight training and higher-intensity cardio. More importantly, he needed to clean up his nutrition.

As it turned out, his diet was a mess. And as the saying goes: you can’t out-train a lousy diet.

It’s a major mistake to believe that endless ab reps will make your abs “pop” if excess body fat is still covering them. And the number one priority for body fat loss is the diet.

The Fat Loss Diet: 5 Fundamental Principles

Many people say that “abdominals are made in the kitchen, not in the gym,” and there’s a lot of truth to that. You can do thousands of reps of ab work every week, but if your nutrition is not in order, you can forget about seeing 6-pack abs.

We can say the same thing about cardio. I’m a big fan of increasing cardio during a fat loss program, but it doesn’t do any good if you eat back the calories you burned. You must control your diet. The key to fat loss is the calorie deficit, which is why it’ on the top of the fat loss diet priority list.

1. Focus On The Calorie Deficit First.

Calorie deficit simply  means you eat fewer calories than you burn. Eating 20% to 30% below maintenance is ideal. Beware of extreme calorie cuts because that can zap your energy and increase risk of muscle loss. It’s a smart idea to start with a moderate deficit – only about a 20% deficit.  This way if fat loss slows down, then you still have room to drop to a more aggressive deficit, as much as 30% under maintenance.

When using larger deficits, I recommend eating more – up to maintenance calories – one or two days per week.  This keeps up your energy, helps you retain lean body mass, and decreases metabolic slowdown. It also helps you stick to your diet better.

2. Prioritize Protein.

Eat a high quality lean protein with each meal (eggs, skinless chicken, lean beef, lean pork, fish, protein powder, greek yogurt etc). For fat loss as well as optimal muscle retention, spread out your your into multiple meals daily, preferably 4 to 5 protein feedings a day. The most important protein priority however, is to make sure you hit your total protein grams goal for the day.

For people who lift, 0.8 to 1.0 grams per pound of total bodyweight per day is still the best practice. Serious bodybuilders sometimes go slightly higher. It may be beneficial to lean toward a higher percentage of protein if you’re in an aggressive deficit or your body fat is already low and you’re trying to get ripped (“six pack abs lean”). Note: for people overweight with very high body fat, this daily target is usually set based on pounds of goal bodyweight.

3. Focus On Natural, High Fiber Carbs.

Low carb diets can certainly work, but carbs are not the enemy. I know bodybuilding champions who eat hundreds of grams a day even during contest prep and no one has better abs. The priority is a calorie deficit not a specific carb amount.

That said, keeping carbs moderate or sometimes slightly low leaves you room to keep the all-important protein high. Starting with 40% to 45% of your calories from natural carbs is a good guideline. You can reduce the carbs slightly more if you need to increase your calorie deficit. (Do NOT drop your protein calories on a fat loss diet).

Focus on filling up with fibrous carbs first. These are the non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, zucchini, spinach, bell pepper, celery, onion, tomato, salad greens and so on.  It’s nearly impossible overeat fibrous veggies.  Secondarily, include low calorie, high fiber whole fruit.  Third, with calories that are left, choose natural, unprocessed complex carbs such as rolled oats, sweet potatoes, potatoes, beans/legumes, brown rice and other 100% whole grains.

Arguably, the most effective fat loss diet in the world is one that is very high in protein, very high in veggies with only moderate starchy carbs and little to no sugar.

4. Limit Or Avoid Processed Carbs And Sugar.

When you’re on a fat loss diet, and especially when you have an ambitious goal like seen abdominal definition processed foods – especially processed carbs – should be kept to a bare minimum, if you eat them at all.  Save them for treats or special occasions only, and even then keep the portion sizes small.  Sugar and other processed carbs are calorie dense, highly palatable, and easily knock you out of your calorie deficit.  They don’t help with fat loss, and they’re not healthy either.

5. Keep Dietary Fats Low.

Some fats are necessary for good health. The essential fatty acids in fatty fish are especially valuable. Fats like avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil are also healthy. However, you don’t need a lot of them. And on a fat loss diet, these calorie dense foods can push you out of your calorie deficit easily. (Peanut butter is notorious for that).  In bodybuilding and fitness-style diets the best practice is to get at least 15% of your calories from fat, but no more than 20%. 20% is a common target.

These are 5 of the basics for fat loss nutrition. Competition-level dieting (or dieting to get ripped) can be more sophisticated and little details start to matter a lot more, but if you haven’t covered the fundamentals first, worrying about minor diet details is a waste of time.

In fact, the simplest diet formula for fat loss is what I describe with the acronym CAP.  This means calories and protein. Get those two priorities right along with choosing mostly unprocessed foods and you’re probably 80% of the way there.

How To Use Cardio For Fat Loss

Cardio has gone through extreme trend swings over the years – from “more is better” to “avoid it completely.” Both extremes miss the point.

Doing only cardio with little resistance training is a mistake. But eliminating cardio entirely is also a mistake.

The most effective fat loss strategy combines:

• Resistance training to preserve muscle
• Cardio to increase calorie expenditure

Some people with naturally fast metabolisms and high levels of non-exercise activity (NEAT) can get lean with only small reductions in food intake and a few sessions of formal cardio per week.

But most people struggling to see their abs simply aren’t burning enough calories.

For general health and fitness, 3 sessions per week of 20–30 minutes is sufficient. (Though it’s highly suggested by most health organizations to get 150 minutes of exercise per week, if you count walking).

For significant fat loss, 5–7 sessions per week of 30–50 minutes at a moderate pace is far more effective. This can be adjusted based on results – if you’re losing fat steadily, hold your cardio volume steady, if you’re not losing, increase the cardio.

You can choose any continuous activity you enjoy – cycling, stair climbing, elliptical training, classes, or brisk walking. They can all help with fat loss, but keep in mind that walking at a casual pace does not burn many calories per minute.

If time is limited, you could do 2–3 of your formal weekly cardio sessions as high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Even 20–25 minutes can produce excellent results if the intensity is high enough..

A lot of bodybuilders and strength athletes today shy away from cardio, except for walking, and suggest letting your diet combined with lifting do the work. You can lose fat without cardio.

But to reach the “ripped”  body fat levels as I did for bodybuilding competitions, I would do moderately intense formal cardio 6 – 7 days a week for 40-50 minutes per session, in addition to my 5 weight training workouts per week.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that cardio accelerates your fat loss beyond what you can get with food reduction alone. But the truth is, it does take a lot of it to move the needle. If you’re willing to gradually scale up your cardio enough, the fat will come off faster and you’ll see your abs sooner.

The key point to remember: visible abs require low body fat. Low body fat requires a calorie deficit. Cardio helps increase your deficit by increasing the number of calories you burn, as long as you also control your diet at the same time.

(There were occasions during contest prep when I did cardio twice a day, and it continued to accelerate my fat loss. However, that’s not necessary for great results and  certainly not time efficient considering how you can continue to adjust your diet. Getting extreme with cardio can also interfere with your recovery and leg training, especially lower body).

An Effective, Advanced Ab Workout

Some people, once they learn how body fat storage and fat loss really works, wonder if they need to train their abs at all.  The answer is absolutely yes!

Ab training is important. A strong core improves athletic performance and reduces risk of injury. And on the aesthetics side, once you are lean, your abs will look much better and more chiseled after you’ve trained them diligently.

With that said, it doesn’t take a lot of ab training – certainly not thousands of weekly reps.

Just to give you some perspective, Even when I was actively competing in bodybuilding competitions, I only did about 15 – 20 minutes of ab work two times per week, with anywhere from two to four exercises for about 10-25 reps per exercise.  That schedule has rarely changed – it’s all I need to maintain my abs.

Forget about thousands of reps of ab exercise – it’s a waste of time. It may not be good for your spine if it’s only crunches and sit ups too. The reason my abs looked the way they did onstage and I can still maintain some visible abs all year round,  is not from endless repetitions, but because I get my body fat down low enough by using an effective high-protein, calorie deficit focused loss diet combined with cardio.

Here’s a classic ab routine that I’ve used for years and still do (for bodybuilding/ ab-development purposes). I do this routine only twice a week and I change some of the exercises approximately every 4 to 8 weeks so my body doesn’t adapt.

I prefer slightly higher rep range than other muscle groups, but as you can see, even though this is one of the more high volume and advanced ab workouts I’ve used, it’s still a far cry from doing a thousand reps a day – and how often did I train my abs? Only 2 days a week!

A1 Hanging leg raises
3 sets, 15-20 reps
Superset to:

A2 Hanging knee ups (bent-knee leg raises)
3 sets, 15-20 reps
(no rest between supersetted exercises A1 & A2, 60 sec between supersets)

B1 Weighted swiss ball crunches (or kneeling cable crunches)
3 sets, 15-20 reps
Superset to:

B2 Incline Bench Reverse crunches
3 sets, 15-20 reps
(no rest between supersetted exercises B1 & B2, 60 sec between supersets).

Stay tuned to this blog because I’ll be posted more ab workouts in the near future.

The Bottom Line

1000+ reps of daily ab work is an amazing feat of endurance, but that’s not how you get visible, 6-pack abs.  If you were to do 1,000 reps of ab exercises every day, you would have outstanding ab development and you would definitely have great muscular endurance. Unfortunately, if your abs were covered up with a layer of fat, you still wouldn’t see them.

I once saw a photo of a man who broke one of the Guinness World Record for sit ups. It was the most paradoxical thing, but this man did not have any abdominal muscle definition. He was not obese or overweight at all, mind you, but he had a small enough layer of body fat that the muscular definition did not show through. I’ve never seen a better real life example which demonstrates the basic principle discussed in this article:

You get great abs from reducing your body fat, and you reduce your body fat by creating a caloric deficit through fat burning nutrition and calorie-burning cardio.

I’ve spent my entire career – through more than 35 years and 28 bodybuilding competitions – studying the science of how to lower your body fat.

If you’d like to learn for yourself, everything I’ve learned about fat burning nutrition and getting your body fat level low enough so that you can see a “6 pack rack” of abs, then be sure to take a look at the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program. Hundreds of thousands of men and women call this their “fat loss bible” and the newest edition is still a best seller after almost 25 years of publication.

The new Flexible Diet For Fat Loss program is also now available. This is for people who want to know how to lose fat without restriction and deprivation – it shows how you can actually sustain your diet better when you include your favorite foods in the right moderation in the right type of meal plan : www.BurnTheFat.com

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto,
Author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
Author of Flexible Meal Planning For Fat Loss

About Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilding and fat loss expert. He is also a recipe creator specializing in fat-burning, muscle-building cooking. Tom is a former competitive bodybuilder and today works as a full-time fitness coach, writer, blogger, and author. In his spare time, he is an avid outdoor enthusiast and backpacker. His book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is an international bestseller, first as an ebook and now as a hardcover and audiobook. Tom is also the founder of Burn The Fat Inner Circle – a fitness support community with over 59,000 members worldwide since 2006. Click here for membership details