Do you want to know how long it takes for a six-pack, how do you get it and how do you have to eat? You can find the answers here.
In fitness coaching we help those who stay tuned to train properly, to eat the right thing – and to have as much fun as possible with the change. That’s our thing.
And in this article you will get answers to the most common six-pack questions that Jenny and I hear:
- How do you get a six pack?
- How long do you need for a six pack?
- How long do you have to train for a six pack?
- How do you have to eat to get a six-pack?
Perhaps you are frustrated because you have been working on the washboard usage project for months and have not yet reached your goal. But maybe you’re just getting started.
Either way, this article is for you.
How long does it take for a six-pack?
How fast you get there depends on several factors.
Here are three questions you should ask yourself first:
- How high is your body fat percentage now?
- How trained are your abs?
- What exactly do you mean by a washboard abs?
In other words …
There is no one answer that applies to all people in every situation.
Nobody can tell you exactly how long you need for a six-pack because nobody knows exactly.
But there are a few clear principles and rules of thumb and you will get to know them in this article.
In principle, “only” two things belong to a defined belly:
You need a low body fat percentage and sufficiently trained abdominal muscles.
Even if you have the best trained abs in the world … as long as they are under a layer of fat, you will not see them.
The first and most important step is: Reduce belly fat.
You can take your time for this. Maybe three months, maybe twelve or more. Depending on where you start from and how fast you are making progress.
For a real six-pack, you can develop your abdominal muscles in parallel.
You can get a flat stomach without it, but you can only get the three-dimensional look with training.
How much targeted ab training is necessary depends on your disposition.
There are people who are genetically so blessed that they can largely do without abdominal exercises. If you are one of the “normal people” like me, you will not be able to develop your sixpack without regular ab training.
Muscle growth needs patience and continuity.
In this respect, your abdominal muscle acts like any other muscle in your body.
You lose fat faster than muscle.
If you gain two kilos of muscle in a quarter of a year, that’s great progress – especially at the beginning.
But you can lose two kilos of fat in four weeks. That is doable.
People don’t just differ in their muscle building speed. You can also react differently to training stimuli.
Some lucky people build muscle comparatively quickly as soon as they start exercising. 1 Researchers call them “fast” or “extreme” responders. Others need more time even after eating the same food and following the same exercise regimen.
If you belong to the latter group like me, it’s not a drama.
You can achieve your goals in the same way, but you can be a little more patient.
In order to reach the point at which your abdominal muscles really “pop out”, like with a fitness cover model, a few years of regular strength training are necessary.
Can everyone get a six pack?
Anyone can reduce belly fat and develop their rectus abdominis (ergo, the straight “washboard” abdominal muscle). That’s the good news!
A “real” six pack is not available for everyone.
You can train all abdominal exercises in Looking Good Naked, from the plank to the ab-wheel rollout. You can eat as healthily as you can eat. And yet you have no guarantee of a six-pack.
The first obstacle would be excess skin.
Anyone who has been very overweight in their life and had a few dozen pounds too much on their ribs can get rid of all that and get a slim, athletic figure.
Depending on the degree and duration of the previous obesity, it is possible that excess skin remains. Without surgery, you can usually not get rid of them.
In addition, not everyone is predisposed to six packs.
The straight abdominal muscle is one single muscle. It starts at the chest and ends at hips.
The rectus abdominis is divided by several horizontal intermediate tendons. These tendons are what give it its profile.
The appearance of your abdominal muscle depends on the arrangement of your intermediate tendons.
Here is an earlier version of the cover for Looking Good Naked. 2
As you can see, my lower abdominal muscle is relatively flat. Even with a low body fat percentage – here is a little over 8% – I have more of a “four pack” than a “six pack”
How many “segments” your abdominal muscle has – whether four, six or eight – is predisposition.
Some people can get a six pack while others can be satisfied with a four pack.
To get there you need a very low body fat percentage, i.e. as a man under 12% and as a woman under 20%.
As soon as you have reduced belly fat enough, you will see where you are.
Every stomach looks a little different:
- Some people can get a six-pack while others “only” have a four-pack.
- One side of your abs may look different than the other (e.g. three segments on the right, two on the left).
- For some, the washboard stomach pops outwards like cobblestones, for others it is more flat, like a brick wall.
Regardless of how your genetic makeup is expressed, there are enough reasons to be grateful for it.
Every abdominal muscle is beautiful.
It is part of your muscular “powerhouse”. It improves your posture, gives you stature and security and supports you in breathing. Despite its universal function, it remains as individual as your fingerprint.
This is how you get a six-pack
Reduced to the essentials, the way to the washboard abs is very simple:
- Reduce belly fat (men should aim for a body fat percentage below 12%, women below 20%).
- Continuous training of the basic exercises (correct strength training).
- Develop core muscles ( e.g. ab wheel training, plank, renegade rows, leg raises etc.).
That’s all – without magic tricks, miracle diets and slimming pills.
If it’s so simple, why doesn’t everyone have a six-pack?
Quite simply because it is work. Because it is an effort. Because you need a lot of healthy habits to do that. Especially if you want to enjoy your defined belly in the long term.
All four components of the M.A.R.K. Formula for a role that you may already know from Looking Good Naked:
- Mental training: Your success stands or falls with the right attitude, your mental software and a clear goal.
- Balanced nutrition: To lose fat, you need a calorie deficit. You can only achieve this in the long term with a healthy diet made from foods that you love AND that move you forward.
- Proper strength training: Muscles not only shape your athletic figure. They increase your daily calorie requirement even if you just sit lazily on the sofa.
- Cardio training: Also increases your calorie consumption, among many other positive effects.
To get good in all four areas, you need patience and continuity.
We recommend our coaching clients to take 60 minutes a day for the three months that we accompany them in mentoring.
Change takes time, patience and attention.
The good news is: once you have developed the right habits and integrated them into your life, it is comparatively easy to stick with it.
Okay, now let’s get it done.
A six-pack in 8 weeks, is that possible?
What results can you realistically expect under good conditions?
In fact, fat loss is comparatively fast.
As long as you know what you are doing, the path to a defined belly may be shorter than you previously thought.
The following diagram gives you an idea of how many weeks are realistic.
If you do everything right, you can expect about 500 grams of fat loss per week. With a higher body fat percentage it is a little more, with a lower body fat percentage it is a little less.
How to use the graphic:
- Start coordinates: Find your current body fat percentage in the top line (week 0). (You don’t know the value? This is how you can calculate your body fat percentage.)
- Target coordinates: If you are a woman, follow the column downwards until you come across an orange cell. And as a man you follow the column to a green cell.
- Time invest: Read the week number on the scale on the far right or left. That’s about how long you need to bring your abdominal muscles to light.
Would you like an example? Suppose you are a man and you start with a body fat percentage of 21%.
First you go to the column with the starting body fat percentage, here 21%:
Then you follow the column down to the first green cell:
At last you read off the week number:
Voilá! A man with 21% body fat can get the body fat he needs for a six pack in 20 weeks.
Before you start, there is one more thing you should keep in mind:
This number is a “Best Guess”.
It is possible that you will need a little longer. It is also possible that you will reach your goal faster.
Your progress depends on the one hand on how well you have your diet under control, how continuously you train and how your body responds to the changes.
Ultimately, the measurement method also plays a role.
The most accurate way to measure your body fat percentage is with a DEXA scan. The measurement with caliper pliers, which I recommend, deviates by a fixed amount from the actual value.
For me this deviation is around 2%. That means, if I have a body fat percentage of 11%, I measure 9% with the pliers.
You either know how big the deviation is when you compare DEXA and Caliper measurements. Or as soon as you see your abs.
Ultimately, this “offset”, i.e. the deviation, is not decisive for your feedback system and thus your success.
What counts is that you recognize the CHANGE in your body fat percentage.
The most effective way to do this is to measure the skin folds with caliper pliers. I recommend this model to my clients.
A few final words about change …
1One point I keep emphasizing to my clients is this:
The slimmer you get, the more patience you can be with yourself.
For example, to get from 25% to 20% body fat, you can want the change and of course do something about it.
The next 5%, i.e. from 20% to 15%, then do not require as much, but require more changes in your everyday life – and usually also require significantly more focus.
The same applies to the last percent, from 15% to 12, 11 or even 10% body fat.
That is why it is so important that you find a path that feels “good” and “right” for you and that above all gives you pleasure. strong>
The easiest way to do it is to replace counterproductive routines step by step with healthy habits.
They are the key to a long-term lean and athletic figure that you can maintain without it feeling like “work”. Because training and a healthy diet have become an integral part of your life.
Get a six-pack: My conclusion
You need two things for a washboard abs: a low body fat percentage and well-developed core muscles.
How long you need for a six-pack varies from person to person. The pure fat loss can be estimated relatively well from a theoretical point of view. The diagram above will help you with this.
If you’re just starting out with strength training, give your abs a few years (and plenty of continuous training) to develop.
If you asked me what advice I would give to my 19-year-old “I” when I started training more than two decades ago, it would be:
- Take some time to think about what you have just read.
- Think about how long you need in about to get a defined stature: maybe 12 weeks, maybe 12 months, maybe longer.
- Double this number.
Now think about your goal …
Do you still want it?
Then get started! Because you are probably not too wrong with your assessment.
