let's face it six-pack abs are something
that most men want they not only
complete a lean muscular physique but
are also representative of all the
dedication and hard work you've put in
to attain them however with the amount
of people wanting a six-pack of their
own comes the overwhelming amount of bad
advice out there on how to actually get
them for example a quick google searches
all it takes to come across a plethora
of misleading information some say you
have to ingest certain types of special
foods and drinks while avoiding others
some advocates special fat-burning pills
as all you'll need whereas others
promote ab exercises as the key to
stripping off that belly fat which is
now something that most people
unfortunately believe in well coming
from someone who has personally stripped
off that belly fat to reveal my six-pack
I can tell you that none of those
previously mentioned methods alone will
help in fact taking just a quick look at
the research proves my point
for example this 2011 paper from the
journal strength and conditioning
research found that six weeks of direc
AB training 5 days per week had no
effect on reducing belly fat and
overweight subjects simply meaning that
no amount of ab exercises alone will get
you a six-pack so what should you do
instead the good news is that the real
evidence-based way to get a six-pack is
actually quite simple and with the
following three steps I'm going to cover
by the end of this video you'll have a
complete game plan to get you there step
one is the most important step and
involves setting up your nutrition which
is going to be responsible for stripping
off the excess fat that's covering your
six-pack in order to reveal them as many
of you know in order to lose fat you
must be at a calorie deficit and the
easiest way to create a significant
calorie deficit is simply by eating less
and although you could theoretically do
this by exercising more instead that's
actually much harder to do and sustain
for example most people would find it
much harder to burn an extra 500
calories daily by jogging for 40 minutes
as opposed to just eating a little less
which is exactly why you need to
prioritize your nutrition now as for
exactly how much you should be eating in
terms of calories and macronutrients
I've simplified everything by setting up
a calculator on my website that will
calculate everything for you based on
your stats and I'll leave a link to this
page in the description box down below
after you get those numbers write them
down and that's what you'll want to
stick with until you refine them in step
3 of this video and as for the types of
foods to eat to hit your numbers here's
a helpful graphic that provides some
examples of what the majority of your
diet should consist of step two involves
setting up your resistance training
program which is recommended because
when combined with the calorie deficit
it's going to enable you to maintain
your muscle mass as you lose fat and
help better shape and define your
midsection as you lean down for example
this 2015 systematic review and
meta-analysis looked at the
effectiveness of a calorie deficit alone
a calorie deficit plus cardio and a
calorie deficit plus resistance training
on body composition in overweight
individuals their analysis found that a
calorie deficit combined with resistance
training provided the most favorable
changes in terms of fat loss and muscle
gain as for what resistance training
program to use for a good routine I'd
highly suggest checking out my
upper/lower workout split videos which
come with a PDF you can download and get
started with right away and again these
will all be linked down below and as for
direct ab training despite what I said
earlier it actually is something I'd
recommend incorporated in your routine
the main reason is because compound
movements and resistance training
exercises in general don't stimulate the
ABS are very well in fact this 2014
EMG paper from the journal strength and
conditioning research found that
activation of the ABS and external
obliques during the back squat was quite
minimal less than 20% whereas the
standard sit-up led to more than double
the activation at around 40% so since
the abdominals and obliques can be grown
just like any other muscle these
findings mean that you should be
training them directly as this will
improve their look once you strip off
the excess fat covering them my
recommendation is to train them around
two three times per week with a mixture
of both weighted and unweighted
exercises which can be done on your rest
days and or after your main workouts for
example now as for cardio it's not
necessarily needed from the start and
will be mainly use as a tool to speed up
the fat loss process which will be
discussed in step three one step one and
two are in place the last thing you need
to do is monitor your progress
throughout the weeks and adjust
accordingly to ensure you're heading in
the right direction
and you can start by simply weighing
yourself every morning and tracking that
overtime multiple studies like this 2011
paper by Garth and colleagues have found
that aiming to Lewis around 0.7 percent
of your body weight per week is a sweet
spot in order to maximize fat loss while
minimizing muscle loss for example a 170
pound individual would aim to lose
roughly 1.2 pounds per week so what he'd
do is track his morning weight over time
and take a weekly average of it if he's
getting close to his goal weight loss
per week then we know he's on the right
track
if however he's not losing weight at all
or not fast enough then he should just
by either slightly reducing his calorie
intake or adding a little bit of cardio
in order to now hit his goal and
conversely if he was losing way too
quickly which isn't necessarily a good
thing would simply do the opposite you
will inevitably have to lower your
calorie intake and/or slightly add more
cardio as you progress but the key is to
do so gradually also keep in mind that
weight is just one measurement of
progress it's also important to assess
how your strength is doing in the gym
how your body changes look in the mirror
and so on in order to get the most
accurate depiction of your progress so
basically you keep doing this until you
reach roughly 12% body fat or below
which as you can see is the level of
leanness you'll have to attain in order
to see a well-defined six-pack just note
that you will lose fat from other areas
like your face and arms before it
eventually comes off your stomach due to
the fat cells there being more stubborn
so the key is to be patient and trust
the process
although attained in a six
may seem impossible to you or far off
from where you are now trust me on this
with dedication and adherence to the
three-step protocol I went through you
will get there thanks so much for
watching everyone I hope this helps some
of you out who are struggling with all
the misinformation out there although it
will take a lot of hard work and
patience just trust me the end result
will be worth it and if you're looking
for an all-in-one evidence-based program
that not only covers training but also
comes with a custom-built nutrition
software to automate the nutritional
adjustments you should be making over
time in order to transform your body as
efficiently as possible then what you
can do is simply head on over to built
with science comm and take my starting
point analysis tool I have up in order
to discover which program and which
approach is best for you anyways if you
haven't already I'd really appreciate a
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next time
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