Oh, six-pack.
I was happy with my abs after about four months of consistent working out. More than happy. I was embracing them and high-fiving them and generally getting all up in their space.
I was thrilled with my abs after seven months of consistent working out. More than thrilled. Ecstatic. Euphoric. Rhapsodic. My abs had so much definition and were so flat and so strong.
It’s been more than a year of consistent working out and I regularly write poetry about my abs. I love my abs.
But, my bucket list — my tyrannical bucket list — specified six visibly distinct partitions of the abdominal muscles, and that I do not have. The item keeps taunting me.
I’m beginning to realize that a six-pack is a whole different level of physical fitness. It requires a devotion that frankly, I’m not sure I can achieve.
Belly Fat vs Abdominal Muscle
I didn’t realize, but my body really, really likes the protective, comforting layer of belly fat across my bellybutton and below. This sliver of fat is her favorite and she wants to keep it. It protects the organs she really likes and the reproductive bits she thinks I may want to use one day. She doesn’t really understand my six-pack quest and argues that my lower abs talk to me all the time. They’re healthy and happy. Why did I also feel the need to see them?
Having a visible six-pack has comically little to do with the abdominal muscles that talk to me. It has everything to do with the silent fat that sits on top of the chatty abdominal muscles.
Yup, the very same fat that my muscles adore.
You look the way you do because of what you eat.
I can plank until the sun comes home and it won’t give me a visible six-pack if I’m still eating things my body has trouble properly digesting or if I’m eating more calories than I’m using.
The problem I’m encountering is if I’m eating too few calories, my body takes back my hard-earned muscle. It really doesn’t want to give up the belly fat.
What I’ve Tried
1. Calorie Tracking/Food diary-ing
Logically, you should track your food intake and eat only as many calories as you need that day.
Lifting a lot of heavy weights and need fuel for building muscle? Eat 3000 calories. Sitting on the futon watching Netflix in your underwear, taking 145 total steps on quests to the bathroom and the kitchen? Eat 1200 calories.
You manage what you measure and, in an ideal world, you would consume only what you needed.
In reality, at least in my reality, measuring food intake sucks.
Since October 2017, I’ve been trying, off and on, to put hard numbers on my diet and failing. I tried tracking calories using an app, but I hate apps and fell off the wagon early and repeatedly before I just let the wagon go on without me. I tried using a spreadsheet I made myself, but looking up ten or more ingredients for a recipe got old pretty quickly.
More importantly, I doubted the integrity of my food diary. I frequently forgot to add snacks and I found myself guessing a lot. How much butter or oil or ghee did I use? What percentage of my meal did I just stuff in my face and how much is now snug in Tupperware in the fridge? At Chipotle, I asked for extra beans and hot sauce, so how much should I add to their website’s calorie counter?
My food diary never inspired much confidence and took so much time to maintain. Unlike most diaries, this was blech. So boring.
2. 100% compliance with food
I thought that maybe having a visible six-pack resulted from 100% compliance with the diet my body prefers. Maybe that sugar every other week or that dairy twice a week or the occasional grain were too hard to digest, causing bloat.
I had been cruising with 80% compliance for months with no problem. I figured after six weeks of 100% strict body-happy diet, I would take my final six-pack picture and move on with my life.
Except, right, 100% compliance is really fucking hard.
It’s no bread. No rice. No dairy. More vegetables. More vegetarian protein. Lots of water. More water. Hydration is vital. I think. No sugars. I even minimized fruit. So much food forsaken. It’s not eating much at other people’s events and thinking hard about restaurant choices. You’re murdering your social life. It takes so many brain cells and so much planning.
And I kept failing. For months. I couldn’t go more than 3-4 days before eating one of the No foods on my list. I found myself thinking about food constantly. It felt unhealthy and obsessive and not at all fun or happy.
And, worst of all, I felt myself getting weaker. My workouts felt harder. My energy sank.
It’s really hard to eat enough vegetables to get all your calories because vegetables are stomach-filling lightweights. I couldn’t keep track of my calories, but I bet I was under-eating. My body fat was decreasing, but my muscles were too.
Ugh.
Now what?
So that’s where I’ve plateaued and stopped thinking about food. I’m still working out, of course, and I love my abs, but the bucket list item is mocking me.
Any suggestions, recommendations, ideas, thoughts you can give me is greatly appreciated. How the heck do I get a six-pack? Here’s my list of ideas to try.
- Hire a personal trainer
- Do cardio daily
- Enter a fitness competition and follow a program to prep for that
- Alter my bucket list to “Get a 4-pack” (that seems like cheating, but I make the rules, so whatever)
- Try some sort of diet cleanse like Whole 30
- Focus and build muscle on my bottom half
- An occasional 24-hour fast
Ha, you have no idea what real belly fat looks like 🙂 You could start me to death and I would still have a ring around my midsection that just won’t go away
Ha! Thanks, that makes me feel better. 🙂
No answers here but I admire your doggedness!
Thank you! I’m a little frustrated if I’m being honest
nice map. reminds me of that youtube guy . my shock or something lol
I love that map! It used to hang in my office when I was a lawyer. It’s definitely a conversation starter.
“the reproductive bits she thinks I may want to use one day.”
Im too old to have kids now. Approaching 40…:( Feels like ive wasted time arrgh
It’s only wasted if you didn’t enjoy your time! Sorry, I know that’s a hard part of life that I struggle with too and a trite phrase won’t solve it.
I did a quick search for a picture of a woman with six-pack but couldn’t find one. Do you actually have an example of how you would like your abs to look like?
I would love abs like the woman in the picture in this article.
Keto intermittent fasting. Or just intermittent fasting.
I do intermittent fasting from noon to 8pm usually. Keto is really hard as a vegetarian. :'(
But I agree that’s the best way to go about it!
You look fabulous! I think you are partially fighting female hormones (from a physiological standpoint). Maybe accept it?
I get occasional emails from Marc Perry, a personal trainer. He seems to be very good. You may want to check out his site and send him your questions?
Bottom line though-You look GREAT- Congratulations!
kg
Yeah, I might be on the verge of just accepting it. Thanks for the referral! I just put Built Lean on my feedly.
And I appreciate your compliment!
Fasting. Try that
Like longer fasts? 24-72 hour fasts? Yeah, I’m reading up on that and it sounds promising.
Consider checking it off the list? You’ve put in so much effort, learned a lot, and made exercise a habit that you enjoy. (I really appreciated the post a while back where you realized how happy running made your body feel–it’s helped me reframe exercise, talk to my body more, and gravitate more towards physical activity that makes ME feel good, not what I feel obligated to do!)
If you don’t enjoy the further attempts at reaching a goal you set for yourself before you had a deeper understanding of the level of exercise/nutrition that feels optimal, doesn’t this creep into the realm of monitoring something so closely that the joy is sucked out of it?
Major high fives on all of the work you’ve put in, and thanks for the update!
The joy has definitely been sucked out of this for me. Thinking about food obsessively isn’t a good habit or lifestyle, so you’re probably right that I should just cross it off the list and smile at the universe. Gah, it’s so hard, though!
Also, I appreciate you telling me you like that article. I really think it’s the secret to life and I want to tell everyone about it! I’m glad you agree. 🙂
If you’ve got the muscle below and they’re highly developed (via the most effective ab exercises that involve lifting your legs and weighted crunches for the most resistance) then it mostly comes down to diet and burning those extra calories. That is if it’s in store for your genetics without bringing your body fat down to dangerous levels (as a man I know I can bring mine down more safely than women, but no clue about the specifics for your chromosomes).
The 4-pack is more sustainable, since evolutionarily we have been designed to store fat just in case food runs out for a while, and a common spot is the lower abs (those tricky SOBs).
If it’s for the pic and to cross it off the bucket list you can try:
– Switching your diet to focus more on hitting your macros
– Temporarily cutting down on starchy carbs
– I love intermittent fasting with the occasional 24 hour fast (it simplifies meal planning since now we’re talking 33% fewer meals to think about, while also minimizing overall calories, but more importantly helping bring down insulin levels and get some extra fat-burning in)
– Hitting the abs hard (mainly via leg lifting exercises)
– Doing big fat-burning exercises like squats and deadlifts
– HIIT instead of plain-jane cardio
– Tanning (it’s tacky and I like your current shade, but it helps show definition with shadows or something)
– Good lighting for the pic
– Timing the pic for post workout (being pumped and sweating out some water helps)
Ridiculous people dehydrate themselves (in the documentary on Netflix about Ronnie Coleman, he unintentionally dehydrated himself just by having hard liquor the night before the competition and that changed the entire trajectory of his bodybuilding career since getting the water our to make his muscles look even freakier was the tiny missing piece). But it’s not worth it unless you’re ultra-competitive and trying to win something external (and you don’t seem to be from what I’ve read on the blog, me neither, that’s why I’m fine with a 4 pack and being able to eat sweets and pizza occasionally).
Wow, thanks for the long and thoughtful list of suggestions. I think it definitely has to do with lighting, so that’s something to consider. Lighting and angles and sucking in more, flexing, maybe. I’m adding a lot of your suggestions to my list to consider trying.
Also, I appreciate the thoughts on the 4-pack. I do love my 4-pack and she is certainly enough to make me happy.
I think asking yourself why you want 6-pack abs is a good place to start. I find that when I’m having trouble attaining a goal it’s because I don’t actually believe achieving the goal will make my life better. I work out because it relieves stress and makes me happy, not for a 6-pack 🙂 I think if you find your “true” reason for getting a 6-pack, then dieting will be a lot easier – and dieting *is* the answer, not exercise! But I also don’t think you’d be a failure if you adjusted your goal, or even just said “My life is better with exercise but won’t be better with a six pack, so I’m calling this a success!”. Just my 2c – thanks for sharing your journey and thoughts!
Yeah, I love your thought process. My only reason for wanting a six-pack is to cross the item off my bucket list. I also have an article written “Bucket List Item Complete! Get a Six-Pack” that I wrote and can’t publish and I think it’s a pretty good article.
I would try to connect with bodybuilders, or hire a bodybuilding nutrition coach. They are the masters at this area of fitness. I have bodybuilding friends and they have a “peak week” where they achieve basically what you’re looking for. They don’t maintain it longer than that though.
Great suggestion! Bodybuilding.com is one of my favorite resources.
I’m a huge fan of Sohee Fit. Check her out https://soheefit.com/ She gives a lot of excellent advice and can also show you how to get fit if you want. She gives a lot of great free info on her instagram
Thanks! It doesn’t look like she posts any articles any longer (last one was from 2017), but if I ever go back to Instagram, I’ll definitely follow her.
As much as I and many members of society find six packs aesthetically pleasing, humans are actually designed to carry some belly fat. Your pic probably shows you having appropriate amounts of belly fat. Also as a woman, you’re supposed to have a higher body fat % than men. Appropriate fat content is healthy. It protects your body and balances your hormones.
If you’re looking for something more, I suggest finding a healthy dietary plan that you can stick to. Also find oblique exercise that won’t compromise your spine. The underlying musculature for the six pack is practically there. Keep up what you’re doing for your workouts.
I agree with everything you said here. Except I’ve never thought about oblique exercises and my spine.
With focus on brevity rather than accuracy:
Body builders tend to do it in cycles of first build muscles, then get rid of the fat while doing their best to maintain muscle mass. It’s varies exactly how long they do each part, but it’s usually counted in months.
You can do the 6-pack part of your bucket list, probably by keeping up the 100% compliance for a bit longer.
Keeping it for one year may be unwise. But then it may be unwise to take advice from random people on the internet.
LMAO on your last sentence. I’m also a random person on the internet giving out advice, so it’s all mutually good.
Bulk and then cut is what you’re referring to, I think. Lessons from bodybuilding.com!
First of all, you look amazing!!!! I would love to have your abs! But I know that frustration caused by the lower belly fat all too well, and it’s definitely a diet-related fix. I would look into adding more healthy fats to keep you fuller longer. Fats don’t make you fat (fats+lots of carbs do). Instead of vegetarian meat substitutes, high quality meats give you adequate protein and fat, which keeps you satiated longer. Also, if you want to eat a carby treat, do it right after a weight lifting workout (I think within like 30 min). Something about how your muscles use it up before your body fat can. Look into intermittent fasting (Joe Rogan and Dr Rhonda Patrick talk about this in several podcasts). Have you read the 4-hour body by Tim Ferris? It’s a must read 👍
I have read the four hour body by Tim Ferris! Thanks for the reminder. I remember him giving specific exercises for abs – the cat/cow stretch and one more I need to look up. Thanks for the information!
The men’s clothing section in many stores has 34″ waist pants as their smallest size. I’m 32″ and want to get down to 30″, but ain’t gonna happen. I’ve realized I’m where I’m at, and that’s the way it is. My goals are to continuously work out and eat as healthy as what I think is healthy. And that’s good enough.
Yeah, I’m a size zero and don’t really need to go down any clothes sizes. That may be good enough.
Possibly work with a personal trainer who also knows about nutrition. I filfol physiqonomics on his Instagram and bigb and he seems really knowledgeable. He works with clients online and they seem to get good results from working with him. Maybe give someone like him a try? More affordable than that personal trainer who is in all of the BuzzFeed workout transformation videos ( Steve Zim, A Tighter U).
Excellent idea. Thanks!
Prolly just have to work harder. Restrict more calories, maybe start eating sustainable fish or scallops/shell fish to boost up your protein and just work out more.
Break dancers and Shakira have great abs maybe try to learn those types of dancing to work different parts of your abs. Or maybe get into calisthenics or surfing, activities that demand a strong core to perform the task.
If it makes you feel better, I listened to a podcast with Laird Hamilton yesterday, hes a well known surfer and physical trainer to UFC fighters, nba players and other athletes. He said that while 6 pack abs are aesthetically pleasing, which you already are, the tightness of the abdomen restricts your diaphragm from moving which causes you to perform worse. Essentially he said that your breathing is negatively affected by having a 6 pack. So your body might actually be storing that little bit of belly fat to keep your lungs pumping strong.
Great comment. Thanks!
I love your blog! Thanks for being so honest!
Thank you for loving it! I’m just trying to get better and help anyone else get better who might be so inclined. 🙂
It’s working! You inspire me! Thank you!
Yes!!!!
Are you sure this bucket list item is a good idea? Is it a healthy option?
That’s an excellent question that I don’t know the answer to.
Any idea’s? Sure, first off all, no more Ghee! It makes food (especially curry) taste very-very-very delicious, but it is also quite unhealthy. And all those apps on your phone that are supposed to help you only make things more difficult.
Inspired by your comment “just do it!” I started working out daily for the last 5-6 weeks or so and I also started eating less, smaller portions and healthier (you can check out my blog for the result so far 🙂 ). Without counting calories, because that’s an impossible task for me. I just listen to my body and eat when I want, not because it is time to eat. And whenever I feel hungry for a snack, I try to grab something healthy. I resist temptations (like celebration cakes at work) and I don’t make it unnecessary uncomfortable for myself. When working out and dieting becomes a difficult task, there’s no more joy in it and it will fail.
So basically, just listen to your body and do what feels right. And be honest with yourself. An unhealthy snack should make you feel a little bit guilty. Try to compensate by doing an extra workout. I do 🙂 .
Another thing that really helps is doing lots and lots of abdominal muscle exercises. At least once a day.
I hope this helps you.
Thanks for the lengthy comment. I’m glad you’re working out regularly, office dwelling gnome. 🙂
Ask yourself, “Is this really that important in the ultimate scheme of things? What would I be focusing on if I were not preoccupied with the state of my stomach?”
I keep trying to pick a new bucket list item to work on and I think it would be a second book. You’re right that the book is probably a more worthy endeavor.
There’s fit and healthy; there’s 6 pack. You can have a perfectly womanly body and be able to complete a century ride, or even swim the channel. But, specifically, by the time you get a six-pack you’re not going to have the breasts you were used to, and they will never (short of surgery) come back as they were. If you want to keep your figure and still be really (REALLY) fit you can with coldwater swimming and bicycling and cross-country skiing/biathlon. You can even be quite fit with yoga. You can’t with marathoning or fasting while lifting weights or (as happened to a woman I knew) paddling 1000 miles of the Yukon River on short rations. Look up the sequence of body areas where women lose fat.
Why wouldn’t the boobs come back as they used to if you gained more weight?
It is very hard not to write that the boobs may but the breasts won’t, so I will not write that. The sequence for fat deposition is not that for loss, particularly as you distance from puberty. You might find an image search of women by the sport they excel in an instructive exercise. The only women I know of who reliably regularly obtrude a 6-pack are professional body builders.
Interesting.
I think Whole30 would be very difficult for you as a vegetarian. I tried it earlier this year (post coming soon to my blog) and liked it, but I definitely ate more meat on the program than I usually do.
For your six pack, have you tried glycogen depletion diets that people use when prepping for a fitness competition or an “after” photo shoot or a fitness photo shoot? It’s not about health and it won’t last, but just about making muscles pop and look defined in photos. I think that’s your best bet if it’s genetically difficult/impossible for you to obtain a six pack.
I’ve not heard of glycogen depletion diets, but thanks for the heads up!
Hi there,
Really enjoy your blog. Without wanting to be ‘that guy’, have you considered that the majority of women with six packs are probably on hormonal support (steroids etc.)? Outside of top level women bodybuilders/figure models, there really aren’t many women with six packs.
If you were really wanting to achieve your goal, I probably wouldn’t listen to a guy with a six pack. It is relatively easy for men to get one. Find out what the women who have one do. Read about their pre-comp/photo shoot diets. Look into their pre-show supplementation, how they drop the last stubborn areas. From what I have read (admittedly a few years ago), it is far more strict than male diets.
Good luck either way. 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to comment and the suggestion! I’m thiiiis close to giving up on the dream.
All of the women that I know who have what I would consider to be close to a 6 pack are either hardcore long distance runners or hardcore yogis. In each case, have been doing it regularly for 5+ years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but they don’t look like the pic from that article
That’s actually pretty encouraging. Like, if I keep at it, in five years, maybe I can cross off this bucket list item.
I’ve got a thought that I don’t think I saw skimming over the comments and you may not have tried it.
Have you looked at what sports tend to lead to their players having six-packs and not just at the topmost competitive levels but also at the moderate but serious weekend warrior type levels?
Off the top of my head I’m thinking it’s often long distance running, rock climbing, gymnastics, boxing, other combat sports. You could try getting into one of those sports or another one where you notice the competitors often have good abs, (i.e. , don’t bother with softball or baseball, where even the pro or college players are unlikely to have defined six packs). Yes it’s a bit cargo cult of an approach, or maybe a correlation=causation fallacy that ignores selection effects, but in the absence of proof of cause it might be the best you have.
You may just need to shock your body a bit as it may have gotten into a groove (you’ll find that concept of needing to change up your style of workouts to shock out challenge your muscles on bodybuilding.com sometimes but I’m not sure how much actual science there is behind it)
I’ve never thought of that, but that’s an excellent idea! I’ve heard Brazilian Jiu jitsu and cross fit are good for abs.
I think David has nailed it: find some sports to play in/with and that may take you off of the plateau Thrifty. You can do it!
I enjoyed this article. What I really want is a six pack and I got mine with this Lean Belly Method to play in my next Film. Strongly recommend it. Go get your your six pack Back Mate 😉
I couldn’t find a lean belly method, but the lean belly breakthrough book doesn’t get very good reviews on Amazon…
So a couple of thoughts.. bodybuilders and other professionals who have six packs, don’t actually have six packs. Or at least they do, but they only ever have it for one day at a time. They take their photo / do their competition and then those images are stored forever and it’s the way we remember/visualise them. But in fact, year round – or bodybuilders in their offseason – don’t have six packs.
If you read up on what they go through, what they put their body through to get to the six pack stage, it’s pretty clear that it’s not actually healthy. So maybe it’s something you don’t want to pursue?
Otherwise, read into how bodybuilder / physique competitor’s eat in the lead-up to a competition and good luck.
Yeah, I’m leaning towards giving up. It’s like I always say, when at first you don’t succeed, give up. 😉
Personally I’d consider altering the bucket list to eliminate the goal entirely. The ability to reconsider goals is one reason that I write down my long-term goals. I wrote one down fifteen years ago that indicated a desire to spend thousands on landscaping and a professional driveway. Later after I became more frugal, I realized those were pointless goals (I live on a homestead/farm – so those goals of mine were stupid), so I crossed them off my list with glee. And with the stroke of a pen (or the the underscore effect in MS Office), I have saved several thousand dollars in an instant.
To speak plainly, which for me and my limited writing abilities may mean: to speak bluntly, let me ask you to consider why it is that “6-pack abs” made it onto your list in the first place. Is it truly for personal reasons (and what are those, exactly?) or is it, in any sense, someone else’s idea of a physical goal? I mean, do you want them because society says you should? Because it is someone else’s idea of the best form? What will you have to do to get them, and to maintain them once you have them, and will that expenditure of time and effort be worth it?
By the way I’ve also read that just about any form of cleanse can be unhealthy and cause myriad side-effect problems, so I’d encourage you to consider costs vs benefits on cleanses.
As others have said, you appear to have nailed the overall fitness goals already, and for that reason I’d say you might want to be happy with the existing results and move on to the next bucket list items.
Yeah, I’ve most definitely added and removed bucket list items in the past, so I’m definitely considering it. It made it on to my bucket list very early because it’s so cliche! It’s the pinnacle of fitness or something.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I get it. Food diaries and tracking sucks. I also struggled with it until I gave up.
What worked for me was to just cut out a lot of types of food.
I tried slow carb and it was great since I didnt have to track anything as long as i didnt eat anything bad (slow carb = most carbs are out except lentils and veges)
I also tried keto, it was really easy (just dont eat carbs at all). Gross at times but easy.
I basically found it impossible not to lose weight on either of those and I actually felt like I was eating really well. I totally recommend trying either of them!
Yeah, I think you’re right that those two diets are the best. I’m going to look into slow carb. Isn’t that no white food? Keto is really hard as a vegetarian.
You can do it!; why not….bodybuilding.com has a page where you can ‘expose yourself’ to your development…if that helps (I don’t work for them). Once you get there, I will buy you a diet Manhattan (don’t look it up–I’ll have to figure it out). Go Thrifty Go!
don’t listen to those comments about why you shouldn’t do this, wondering how in your right mind you would even consider something so vain…it’s hard, it’s gonna’ look awesome, why not, looking fit and beautiful (you are) makes you feel good…Feel Good!, I’m rooting for you.
Thanks!