Here are a few tips to get the lovely 6 pack abdominals.

I personally had it for about 3 weeks then decided that it was impacting too much on my lifestyle. So I let go. Later on, I found a consistent way to get it back. It takes about 3 weeks to get there and it’s tough to maintain, but doable. That you’re planning a pool party or beach days, having a goal is a great motivational help.

There are basically two things to work on to get the six pack. I think that the gut is the hardest part to keep at the top. It’s easy to bulk up shoulders, chest or arms, but much harder to define them. The six pack requires both muscle growth and chiseling. That’s tough. You could do heaps of abs work-out and never see them, because of that constant layer around your belly.

Here is my way of getting it. Please note that it works for me, and certainly can help you. However you might have adjustments to do based on your age, your body type, your activity, etc.

Increase cardio exercises

In order to reduce body fat percentage, I will switch my normal 3 times a week weight-training to a 1 time a week weight, 2 times cardio+abs training.

I’m between ectomorph and mesomorph, so I don’t require a lot of cardio.

Increase water and green tea intake

Green tea is known to help fat loss, so for 3 week I just forget about coffee or other types of drinks and I only have green tea and water. Heaps of water. At work I have a 1.5L bottle that I refill twice a day, that gives me 3L of water (plus the tea) down the pipe during my 8 hours at work. It’s easy to condition myself to drink while working, much harder at home. I notice that I drink less during week-ends for example.

Drinking more suddenly bulks up the belly a bit, but it’s all good.

I drop carbs to once a day

This is radical and as the title says “I” drop carbs. I don’t recommend it. Please, pretty please, note that dropping carbs is not a long term solution, it’s a short term one. Applied to a long period, it might lead to health problems. Issues can be lack of energy, bones/joints issues at older age, and muscles reducing themselves to survive that period. Yes you look leaner, no it’s not a good solution. Dropping carbs in my previous articles, even with warning, always brought a lot of comments. This explains why I put a massive warning sign.

I drop carbs to once a day for 3 weeks. I do feel a bit shaky at times, I just drink more water and eat some cashew nuts. We have a chicken shop nearby (I want to emphasize FREE-RANGE) so I get a quarter of a chicken for lunch, take the skin off and eat with a bit of french mustard, for the taste. No carbs at dinner, much more fruits during the day and protein shakes to boost the ratio protein vs. carbs. Tuna salad is also a great lunch.

Remember that fat level is lowered as well, and if I eat a fatter meal, it’s at lunch.

Reduce meal size

Split lunch and dinner into two meals each. From 3 meals that gives you 5. The reason for doing this is to get the stomach less bulky, also will have to work less, but most of the time. If you keep feeding it at slow pace all day, the stomach will reduce size accordingly and adapt to this new regime. I feel hungry the first few days of doing this, and I use ical to remind me to eat. I just hang in there with water and eat the same amount, spread out.

Sleep longer

Sleeping in every day that I can helps reduce fat. It’s been written in many articles that sleeping 10+ hours stretch gets you leaner. It’s true, at least for me. Because you don’t have any intake for 10-12 hours, your body still functioning (yes, differently), it consumes much more. This is debatable as an actual reason of getting leaner, but having a nasty lifestyle and rhythm sure don’t help!

You have to be motivated and consistent to get it. It is harder the first time simply because you are not convinced that you can achieve it! The second time is much easier. Self-discipline, as for everything you get into, is the key.

Having build up muscles previously helps a lot. Because your body muscle mass is bigger, the idle consumption of calories on a daily basis is much higher from the start. The lower your muscle mass (and it’s lower than you think), the less calories you should eat! That can be pretty hard. That’s why I can’t do anything but recommend weight training. It changed my life. I will talk more about that in the future.

I hope this helps. Now I wonder, what are your tips?

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