1,000 sit-ups, special supplements, sweating on the cardio machine, skipping breakfast or those in the evening Carbohydrates – how do you get that six-pack? The good news: You already have one – all you have to do is expose it! In this blog I will explain to you how you can make your abdominal muscles visible.
In principle, it is all about mobilizing or burning the fat that is currently still above the abdominal muscles . In this regard, you should know that there is no such thing as local fat burning. So, for example, you can’t get the body to break down fat in the belly with a lot of sit-ups – otherwise you could walk around with a washboard abs all year round and simply store the fat somewhere else. The body alone decides where to put reserves – and unfortunately also where to mobilize them first.
For example, it may be that someone has already burned fat through a diet and thighs and chest appear a lot slimmer, but still not much has changed in terms of waist size. This is not because something is not working optimally, but simply because the body has not yet mobilized as much fat at this point.
I know people who have an almost visible six-pack almost all year round but accumulate more fat on the buttocks and extremities. Others, on the other hand, gain weight on the stomach first and lose weight there last.
How do you get rid of your (stomach) fat?
The answer is as always: with appropriate nutrition and exercise . I don’t assume that people reading this would consider liposuction, or I hope so. (Even if the fat has been surgically removed, it will come back over time, and you don’t know any more than before how to get rid of it.)
Nutrition
Even women who don’t have a pronounced six-pack want to have, have to do the same thing as those who want to have visible abdominal muscles.
You should not go on a crash diet (short-term diet), as success is forced with a lot of overcoming, hunger and effort, but does not last long. The so-called yo-yo effect will catch up with you when you can’t anymore and you fall back into old patterns. So you should work on your diet or change it over the longer term. There are a number of possibilities, but I would not advise you to follow a one-sided diet such as keto, low or high carb. A healthy middle ground leads you to success without the body missing anything.
In any case, you have to create a calorie deficit with your diet, i.e. you have to consume fewer calories per day than you actually use. In this way you force the body to attack its reserves bit by bit in order to compensate for the energy deficit.
Tip: For very overweight people, there is a deficit of up to 1,000 kcal at the beginning possible per day, as there are correspondingly many reserves. I would recommend a deficit of between 300 and 500 kcal to all others who feel a little too fat or simply don’t have a visible six-pack.
Training
Use exercise as an additional tool to consume more energy, thus increasing your calorie deficit and shortening the time to a visible six-pack. You can do this with endurance sports, but keep in mind that these will only burn more calories during the time you are doing them. After that, it ends relatively quickly and you no longer have any benefit in terms of fat burning.
That’s why I would like to recommend you once more resistance training (strength training), be it on machines, with dumbbells, equipment or even your own body weight. Work against resistance and make your muscles grow.
As always, I advise you to use the dumbbell!
The advantage of weight training over endurance-intensive sports is as follows: The muscle growth causes you to burn more. Simply put, you increase your consumption because the muscle mass always has to be supplied with blood and the larger it is, the more energy it needs. (That’s why I advise anyone who wants to change their body to do weight training.)
The result: You consume more energy, you can reach the required calorie deficit more easily and thus also the six-pack or you can even eat a little more for the same deficit as before! There is also the optical component: You will look more athletic than if you just do endurance sports.
Do you have to strengthen your abdominal muscles?
If you do not have strong abdominal muscles by default, you can It may be useful to strengthen them with strength training so that they are more visible under the skin.
In principle, the way to a six pack is still through fat loss. No matter how strong your abdominal muscles are – they will never be visible without a correspondingly low body fat percentage.
Conclusion
In the end, there is no big mystery behind the often hyped six-pack: It is simply about visible abdominal muscles. Accordingly, everyone already has a six-pack that needs to be exposed by breaking down fat.
This requires proper nutrition, a sensible calorie deficit, exercise (ideally weight training, because you permanently increase your energy consumption) and – as with everything – patience.
