Losing Weight and Building 6-Pack Abs

Losing weight is a billion dollar industry in America, there are thousands of devices and programs you can buy that promise to get you "6-pack abs fast" but they don't work!  If it were as easy as buying a pill, shake, or ab machine then the shopping malls across America would be filled with men who have rippling washboard abs-of-death but what do we see instead?  Obesity everywhere!

You can't buy 6-pack abs!

I'll let you in on the secret of getting 6-pack abs for free - are you ready?  Here it is, its a two step process: eat less and exercise more!  Lets clear up one huge misconception right now, ab machines will NOT get you 6-pack abs!  95% of the work in getting 6-pack abs is losing bodyfat and no ab machine will do that.  You can have rippling muscular abs but if they are covered with an inner tube of fat then nobody is going see 'em.

A common sense approach involving exercise and nutrition is all that is required to get ripped, washboard abs.  Just a warning though, there is nothing fast about losing weight and getting ripped, it's simple but takes time and dedication. Proper nutrition does not mean diet though! "Diets" lead to deprivation and hunger which eventually leads to binging - a lose-lose proposition. "Diets" offer only temporary weight loss, when you go off them, the weight comes right back. What we want is permanent weight loss! Yo-yo dieting is way too much work, just learn to make smart nutritional choices and the weight comes off and stays off for good!

Smart nutritional choices + exercise = ripped abs

You cant 'target' fat removal unless you are using a machete.  All you can do is lose weight and let the body decide where the fat is coming off.  When you have lost enough weight, the belly and love handles will disappear.  Lets talk about expectations, you cant get ripped in 10 days or even 30 days.  A good weight loss program will let you lose the weight gradually, a pound a week is a good rate - 2 pounds a week max.  If you are 50lbs overweight count on 6 months to a year to remove it.  Losing fat at this gradual rate means you will never be hungry or feel deprived. Another reason to lose the weight gradually is so that you don't burn off muscle - who wants to lose muscle? Nobody!

If you already have 4-pack abs or 6-pack abs (8-12% bodyfat) and want to remove the final bit of fat over your lower abs to get a true 8-pack washboard, then the advanced carb cycling technique is for you.

Step 1 for fat loss: Exercise

Lets look at what its going to take to lose that bodyfat and get abs, remember I said "eat less and exercise more", lets start with the 'exercise more' part.  You lose fat by burning off more calories than you eat, pretty simple huh?. To burn off the calories you need to do at least 30 min of cardiovascular exercise EVERY day.  What constitutes cardiovascular exercise, good question. Good cardio is anything that elevates your heart rate to 70%-85% of your maximum for 30-60 minutes:

Age 75% 85% Max Heart Rate
20 150 BPM 170 BPM 200 BPM
30 142 BPM 161 BPM 190 BPM
40 135 BPM 153 BPM 180 BPM
50 127 BPM 144 BPM 170 BPM
60 120 BPM 136 BPM 160 BPM
70 113 BPM 127 BPM 150 BPM

By the way, its a very good idea to consult your doctor before starting any exercise program, your target rates may differ from the chart above if you have medical conditions.  For a young person in good health, jogging or swimming is a great form of cardiovascular exercise.  Walking and cycling can be good cardio but you need to push yourself to walk really fast, no sauntering strolls - wearing a heart rate monitor while walking or cycling can help keep you from lollygagging.    At the gym, I shake my head every time I see people "exercising" on the stationary bikes using level 1 and reading the paper -what exactly do they think they are accomplishing? Their heart rate is about the same as if they were watching TV or sleeping! If you don't have a heart rate monitor, listening to high BPM music that you really like is a great way to keep your heart rate elevated too. If you find your iPhone/iPod cords too constraining during your cardio, get a iPhone remote or wireless headset.

Now lets talk about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), this is all the rage. There is research that its burns off more calories in a shorter time but I still don't like it, why? Because I have found that most people do interval training with running and that their incidence of injury skyrockets. When you are injured you cant do any cardio, so I don't recommend HIIT running workouts except for elite athletes. If you want to do interval training, I suggest you do it cycling or swimming rather than running. The other thing people fail to realize is although HIIT burns more calories per unit time, you still need to keep your heart rate elevated for 20-60 minutes a day. People often ask if they can do 10 minutes of intervals rather than 20 minutes of steady cardio - No! You must keep you heart rate elevated for 20-60min. If one woman can make a baby in nine months, does that mean that nine women can make a baby in 1 month? No! Good things just take time! Find a way to enjoy your cardio rather than looking for ways to get it over with!

Its not just cardiovascular exercise that is important, weight lifting is just as important in my opinion in the quest to lose bodyfat. Weight lifting burns off calories too but more importantly it helps increase your metabolic rate so you burn off more calories 24hrs a day. Muscle is very "expensive" for the body to maintain and the more muscle you have, the more calories that are burned off every hour maintaining it. The more muscular you become, the easier it is to stay ripped.

Remember 95% of getting 6-pack abs is losing the bodyfat, the rest is ab exercises to make the ab muscles bigger.  For that we will do crunches and you don't need anything except your carpeted floor.

Caution: You can always out-eat your exercise!

A word of warning, don't fall into the trap of thinking that because you are exercising so much you can eat what you want - you cant.  No matter how much you exercise, you can eat more than you burn off and end up gaining fat rather than losing it unless you accompany your cardio program with good nutrition.  

Step 2 for fat loss: Good Nutrition

First of all, 'good nutrition' does not mean diet!  If you are ON a diet then you are admitting to yourself that it is a temporary thing and you will go OFF it later.  We want to change your eating habits permanently!  Good nutrition, no calorie counting, no hunger, and you will still lose weight - sound too good to be true?  Well, kinda. 

Lets start with the basics - many small meals.  You cant lose weight eating one or two meals a day, it puts your body in starvation mode and lowers your metabolism.  You need 6 meals a day. I know your are thinking already, "I CANT eat 6 time a day, I don't have time!"   Well, I cant cook and even I can eat 6 healthy meals a day. Check out my nutrition section for help with quick recipes or no cook recipes.

The 6 small meals a day you are eating need to be well balanced - what does that mean?  The bulk of every meal will be veggies and whole grains, some form of lean protein (beans, dairy, meat), and fruit.  Your body doesn't store protein, you cant just have a big steak at dinner and call that your daily protein.  This is especially important if you are doing a weightlifting program in conjunction with your weight loss program. Every one of you meals needs to have 1/6 of your daily protein! The below chart gives you the approximate amount of calories and protein you need in each of your six meals based on your current weight:

To lose 1 pound fat per week

Current Weight

Calories

Protein
280lbs (127kg) 610cals x 6 meals = 3700 cals 46g x 6 meals= 280g protein
260 lbs (118kg) 560 cals x 6 meals = 3400 cals 43g x 6 meals= 260g protein
240 lbs (109kg) 510 cals x 6 meals = 3100 cals 40g x 6 meals= 240g protein
220 lbs (100kg) 460 cals x 6 meals = 2800 cals 36g x 6 meals= 220g protein
200 lbs (91kg) 410 cals x 6 meals = 2500 cals 33g x 6 meals= 200g protein
180 lbs (81kg) 360 cals x 6 meals = 2200 cals 30g x 6 meals= 180g protein
160 lbs (72kg) 310 cals x 6 meals = 1900 cals 26g x 6 meals= 160g protein
140 lbs (63kg) 265 cals x 6 meals = 1600 cals 23g x 6 meals= 140g protein

If you want to calculate precisely your nutritional needs, use my new calorie calculator! Ok, now you know how much protein that each of your 6 meals must have and how many calories in can have. Now, what to eat? Can you eat whatever you want as long as it has the protein required and doesn't exceed the calories in the above chart? No! The quality of every calorie counts!!! Each meal must:

By the way, I get asked this all the time - There is no such thing as a "snack" - strike that word from your vocabulary! Everything is a meal and must meet the above criteria, period.

Notice something really interesting in the above calorie chart, as you lose weight you need to eat less and less if you want to continue losing weight. If you plateau in your weight loss, its probably because you have not adjusted your caloric intake as the above table suggests.   If you weigh 300lbs and eat 410calories per meal, you will lose weight rapidly at first then your weight will stabilize at 200lbs and you wont lose any more unless you decrease your intake further.  Use this chart as a starting point to give you approximate portion sizes, stick with that a month and see what happens with your weight and adjust the portion size to help you zero in on 1lb/wk fat loss.  With the meals I show, the portion sizes are appropriate for someone around 180lbs.

People often ask if they can skip the cardio if they have really, really good nutrition - NO! You need to do your daily cardio!

I just did a book review of "Burn the Fat" by Tom Venuto and was kind of embarrassed. Although I present most of the same concepts here, his book does a much, much better job. If you don't feel like the information I present here on losing fat makes sense to you, I highly recommend his book Burn the Fat.

Lets talk about protein powders and weight gain powders.  If you follow these nutritional suggestions, you don't need any supplements or protein powders - you will get plenty of protein and vitamins in the meals suggested here.  If you have trouble eating 6 real meals a day then protein powder can be a valuable dietary aid because it lets you get the protein you need without any calories from fat or carbs. In a pinch, mix the protein powder with nonfat milk, soy milk, rice milk or orange juice for an inexpensive meal replacement. Remember though, real food with all its fiber, vitamins, and minerals is always best! "Weight Gain" powders never make good meal replacements, they would better be named "Fat Gain" powder and who wants to gain fat??? I am a pseudo-vegetarian -  I only eat meat/fish/chicken about once a week.  Because of my low meat consumption, protein powder in the form of dairy whey is my most important source of protein.  I like dairy whey without any artificial stuff in it, the product from optimum nutrition is the one I have been using for seven years.

Gain muscle and lose fat at the same time!

Yes! You can simultaneously gain muscle and lose fat, especially if you are beginning or intermediate bodybuilder - its tougher for advanced bodybuilders. Don't believe those bulker/cutters who claim that you have to get fat to gain muscle, that's a myth! To gain muscle at the same time as you are losing fat follow exactly the same nutritional advice as above - no difference. To add muscle, all you need to do is add a good resistance training program.

Here are some easy nutritional meals, all these are really quick and have only two or three ingredients. If I can make these meals then you can too.

 

Overview Videos On How To Lose Fat
Ripped Abs Fast! In this video I illustrate many useless and humorous "fat loss" products, don't waste your money on these! You can't buy abs, you have to earn them!  
6-Pack Abs By July 4th! This video gives you a quick overview of what's required to get 6-pack abs. In short, you need to do daily cardio and watch your nutrition carefully  
Resolution:Lose weight and get in shapeAre you completely new to fitness? You want to get in shape but don't have much time and have no idea where to start? This video is for you!!!! I will show you how to achieve your resolution of losing weight and getting stronger with a simple 30 minute home workout.  
6-Pack Abs Fast! Part 1: This video "6-pack abs fast" gives an introduction and some of the basics you need to know for losing fat and gaining muscle.  There is no such thing as "6-pack abs fast". You cant buy 6-pack abs from an infomercial or get them from a bottle.  

Ab Exercise Videos
Crunches! The crunch is the premiere ab exercise, if you only do one exercise this is the one to do. Most people do it incorrectly, this video illustrates proper form  
Killer Ab Workout! This is a complete advanced ab workout.  
Side Crunches For Obliques, this variant of the crunches is good for the obliques  

Bicycles for Obliques, I like these because it works abs and obliques at the same time.

  
Four most common ab mistakes, Learn what NOT to do when working toward ripped, washboard 6-pack abs.  

Nutrition Videos
Quick meals for students and other busy people In this video I show you how to eat 6 inexpensive, nutritious meals a day without cooking or shopping. This video is in response to the hundreds of people who have written me saying they knew their nutrition was horrible but felt powerless to improve it because of the schedule constraints of their work, school, or life.  
6-Pack Abs Fast! Part 2: This video goes into depth on nutrition for muscle gain and weight loss. I show you 8 very healthy meals that you can make in 3 minutes or less .  
Reading Nutritional Labels is criticial if you are going to be successful, if you dont know how to figure out if a particular food is good for you or not then please watch this video!  
What Is Good Cardio? Is biking good cardio? How about running in place? How about martial arts? How about sex? This video explains how to tell what is good cardio and what is not.  
Quinoa, easy quick meal. Easy meal with a high protein grain  
Easy 2min healthy meal. Beans and salsa, the perfect meal!