With all the knowledge the world has to offer just a click away, learning how to get a six pack should not be difficult. However due to the gargantuan amount of information on the internet these days, the problem isn’t that people don’t have access to the right information, it’s that they can’t distinguish the good information from the bad. I’m here to clear it up. Not the whole internet, just this one little piece of it. The following article will teach you how to get a six pack in two months.
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How to Get a Six Pack in 2 Months
1. Track Your Macros – The most important key to developing a visible six pack is knowing your body’s caloric needs. If you consume more calories than your body uses for fuel, you will gain weight. Conversely, if you consume fewer calories that your body uses for fuel, you will lose weight. It’s simple thermodynamics.
While ensuring you are in a caloric deficit is important, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. If you want to lose fat, and not just muscle mass, you must eat the right kinds of food. That’s why you NEED to calculate your body’s daily macronutrient needs.
For our purposes, there are three macronutrients you should focus on.
- Protein is the most important macronutrient. In fact, the word comes from the French word “protéine”, a theoretical substance thought to be essential to life. Without enough dietary protein, your body will cannibalize the protein in your muscles for fuel and you will end up being skinny fat. Nobody wants that.
- Carbohydrates are where your body gets the majority of its energy. Without proper carbohydrate intake you will become lethargic and your metabolic function will suffer. Carbohydrates aren’t bad, they are simply easy to over-consume because they are so plentiful in our modern diet.
- Fats are what allow your body to create the hormones it needs. Back in the 90s fats got a bad rap which still lingers on today, but the truth is, without adequate fat intake your testosterone levels will plummet, and without testosterone your body will lose muscle mass and you will feel like dirt.
There are a lot of calculations necessary to determine a person’s ideal macronutrient split. Luckily you don’t have to do any of them. I’ll tell you exactly what you should be eating to get a six pack.
During these next two months you should consume…
- 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight
- 1 gram of carbohydrates per pound of body weight
- 0.2 grams of fat per pound of body weight
So if you weight 170lbs, you should be consuming 170 grams of protein, 170 grams of carbohydrates, and 34 grams of fat each day.
2. Daily Weigh-Ins – A strategy which I have found to be key to my own success has been daily weigh-ins. Some people think weighing yourself every day is pointless due to daily fluctuations, but I strongly disagree.
I find that daily weigh-ins keep me motivated and focused on my goal. That daily reminder each morning influences all of my decisions that day.
Not only that, but with daily weigh-ins it’s hard to stall for too long or to go on a backward slide. Imagine if you only weighed yourself once a month, but after a month you found that you hadn’t lost any weight. You would probably get frustrated and quit. Had you been doing daily weigh-ins however you would have been able to tell within just the first few days that something was wrong and been able to make any corrections necessary in your training and diet.
On the other hand, imagine that you did monthly weigh-ins and you had been losing weight, but the day before your weigh-in you went out for a big dinner. On the scale it would appear that you hadn’t lost any weight at all and you would again get frustrated and quit. Had you been weighing yourself every day though you would have known that what you were seeing on the scale was simply a temporary fluctuation from the food you had eaten the previous day.
It is always better to have more data points than less data points.
My preferred method is to weigh myself each day, then add together my daily weights for the week and calculate my average weight for that week. I then compare my average weight for that week with my average weight from the week before. This compensates for any discrepancies or random daily weight fluctuations. As long as the weight is moving down each week, daily fluctuations don’t matter.
3. Intermittent Fasting – How many times a day do you eat? Some of you may think you only eat three meals a day. If you really looked at it though you would probably find that you were eating much more often than that in the form of snacking throughout the day.
How do you expect to lose weight if you keep filling your body with food?
I recommend intermittent fasting to solve this problem. Intermittent fasting is an eating strategy in which you strategically don’t eat for certain lengths of time.
There are many ways to do this:
Some people eat all their daily food within a certain time window. (Between 1pm and 4pm for example.)
Some people don’t eat at all during one day out of the week.
Some people only eat every other day.
My strategy is simple. I only eat two meals a day; lunch and dinner. That’s right, I skip breakfast every morning.
“But isn’t that unhealthy?”
Not really. Quite the opposite in fact.
Fasting is actually extremely good for you. Our bodies are naturally designed to go long periods of time without food.
If you were a caveman, you would wake up in the morning and start your day off by heading out into the wilderness in search of sustenance.
Your body is adapted to wake up and work for its food. In evolutionary terms, the concept of breakfast is fairly new. Contrary to what the cereal companies tell you, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day.
For the next 8 weeks, cut out breakfast from your diet. By pushing back your first meal by a few hours you’ll cut out calories from your diet without even having to think about it, and as an added bonus, you’ll save time not having to prepare an extra meal.
4. Strategic Stimulant Use – When people hear the word “stimulant” they get a bit nervous. It conjures up images of crack heads and meth junkies. But there are mild stimulants too. Caffiene is probably the most widely used stimulant on earth. It provides a slight energy boost and increases metabolic activity. Strategic use of caffeine and other mild stimulants can dramatically increase the rate at which you lose body fat.
There are three main methods I would recommend for your strategic stimulant boost.
- Coffee is the world’s most widely used stimulant. In fact after oil, coffee beans are the most highly traded commodity on earth. A cup of black coffee each morning on an empty stomach has a dual fat loss effect. The caffeine in coffee increases your metabolism so you burn more calories AND it blunts hunger so you consume less calories.
- Caffeine Pills may be a new concept to you. Yes you can actually consume powdered caffeine. No it will not turn you into a crack-head. In fact caffeine is actually better utilized by your body in its pure form than it is when consumed in its “natural state” (aka: in coffee or chocolate.)
- Lipodrene at its core is a combination of caffeine and ephedra. By combining these two stimulants, Lipodrene creates a synergistic effect. In other words, combining these two ingredients produces a greater fat loss effect than simply taking either of them separately would.
Depending on which stimulant you choose (caffeine pills, coffee, or Lipodrene) I would recommend consuming it in the morning on an empty stomach as its effects are diminished when taken with food.
5. Drink a Gallon of Water a Day – Drinking more water is probably one of the best things you can do for your body. Not only will it help you achieve a six pack, it can also give you clearer skin, and even make you taller.
The real purpose of drinking more water however is to decrease hunger pangs. By filling your stomach with water, you won’t feel as hungry throughout the day.
Drinking a gallon of water a day also burns off a few extra calories. If you drink a gallon of water a day for 2 months you’ll burn an extra 3,374 calories (or a little less than a pound of fat.) Certainly not the most prominent benefit, but a nice little added bonus for doing something that is good for you.
6. Fasted State Cardio – Working out on an empty stomach will increase the rate at which your body uses fat for fuel. I go for a 45-60 minute jog every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday morning. If you don’t like long, steady state cardio (jogging) you can do interval sprints instead. In that case however I would recommend taking the caffeine or Lipodrene after your workout rather than before.
7. Strength Training – Strength training also plays a key role in developing a six pack as it helps to further reduce muscle loss from being in a caloric deficit. I recommend doing some kind of strength training routine on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with routines consisting mainly of bench press, squats, deadlift, overhead press, and myotatic crunches.
If you don’t have a gym or just don’t want to go to one you can do pushups, bodyweight squats, and crunches instead.
(NOTE: If you’re new to weight lifting, go easy the first day or you’ll be sore and won’t be able to work out the rest of the week.)
8. BCAAs Before Workouts – Working out on an empty stomach will increase the rate at which your body breaks down your muscles for protein, so I strongly encourage you to consume branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) before your workouts (along with caffeine or lipodrene). BCAAs provide your body the amino acids it needs to avoid muscle breakdown, while keeping your body in a fasted state for greater fat loss.
9. Cut Out Alcohol – I’m not anti-alcohol by any means. I enjoy drinking a beer or two while hanging out with my friends, and I usually have a glass of wine at dinner. But the fact is, if you’re trying to get a six pack, alcohol will hinder your fat loss goals.
It’s simple physiology. While alcohol doesn’t “make you fat” like the bro-scientists might tell you, alcohol is a depressant and decreases the body’s rate of fat oxidation. It’s also full of carbohydrates in many cases. The bottom line is, if you’re trying to lose body fat, giving yourself a depressant while adding in extra carbs isn’t going to help.
10. Throw Out Bad Food – Let’s be honest with each other. If food is in your house, you’re probably going to eat it at some point. I know that’s true for me. If I’ve got a package of Oreos in my cabinet, it’s only a matter of time until I start chowing down on them. Just having them there is a temptation that I don’t need.
Getting a six pack is hard enough. Why torture yourself while you’re doing it? Take all the junk food in your house and throw it out.
I know throwing out perfectly good food seems like a waste of money, but ask yourself how much having six pack abs is worth to you? Would you pay $50 to have them? Would you pay $60? $70? If you’re serious about getting a six pack, throwing out some food is small price to pay. So just suck it up and do it. Consider it your “six pack tax”.
On the same token, you should fill your house with food which is good for you that you can easily fit into your daily macros.
For the next 2 months, this is your grocery list:
- Eggs
- Fish (salmon, tuna, cod, etc)
- Chicken/Turkey
- Beef
- Protein Powder
- Beans (Black, pinto, kidney, etc)
- Greek Yogurt
- Grains (brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal)
- Fruit/Vegetables (apples, berries, broccoli, etc)
- Low-Fat Cottage Cheese
- Sweet Potato
- Nuts (almonds, cashews, etc)
- Avocado
And remember to stick within your macronutrient parameters.
11. If You Slip Up, Skip a Meal the Next Day – One of the biggest mistakes that people seem to make isn’t “slipping-up” on a diet. It’s slipping-up and then letting that one slip-up derail them completely. I’ve had this happen to me multiple times. I’ll be doing well sticking to my diet for a week or so, then temptation will take over and I’ll eat a couple chocolate chip cookies or something. Afterwards I’ll tell myself, “Damn it. Now my diet is ruined. I’ll just start again next week.” What ends up happening though is that I keep putting it off until the next week, then the next week, then the next week. Eventually three months had passed and I still wasn’t any closer to a six pack. Don’t let a single slip up throw you off your diet completely.
I know everyone wants to follow their diet to the letter, but reality doesn’t work like that.
Sometimes your sister graduates from college and you all go out for drinks. Sometimes someone you know has a wedding and you drink some champagne and eat some wedding cake. Sometimes you just get really hungry after religiously sticking to a diet for three weeks straight and then you go out and stuff your face.
It happens. We’re all humans with real lives and real cravings.
Don’t let slip-ups derail you completely. If you slip up on your diet, just skip a meal the next day. This will put you right back where you were calorically before you slipped up. Yes you might be a bit hungry the next day, but you’re only really putting food off for another few hours. It’s not the biggest hassle.
On the same token, don’t let one slip up turn into a landslide of mistakes. If you eat an Oreo or two, that doesn’t give you leeway to say, “Screw it. My I’m already cheating. I might as well eat the whole bag.”
12. Feast and Fast – I like to take one day out of the week and use it as a “refeed day”. This refeed day does not give me leeway to eat whatever I want in unlimited amounts, but it affords me the opportunity to eat some of the foods I’ve been craving throughout the week. I don’t stuff my face, but if I’ve been craving some ice cream for the past couple days, this allows me to responsibly fulfill that craving.
However the day after my refeed I do an all day fast. This stays in tune with the previous strategy of skipping a meal the day after eating a cheat meal. As you will be eating two “cheat meals” on your refeed day, you will skip two meals the next day, (and as you are only eating two meals a day you will essentially be doing an all day fast.)
It’s easier to stick to a diet when you know the food you’ve been craving is only a couple days away.
(NOTE: Try to eat out for these reefed meals. Don’t go to the grocery store and buy a big cake or an entire tub of ice cream, because what will end up happening is you won’t finish it all in one day, and your one reefed day will end up becoming three.)
13. Adjust – If you’re following this advice for two weeks and haven’t lost at least 3 pounds, do a self evaluation to make sure you are following all the advice in this article.
Be aware that the nutritional labels on food containers can be off by as much as 20% and still meet FDA guidelines, so be mindful of your caloric intake. You may be consuming more calories than you think. Cut back on calories from carbs and fat specifically, but don’t reduce your protein intake.
Also consider increasing your workout intensity. If you’ve been taking it easy during your weight lifting or runs, it may be time to up the intensity. Put yourself to the test.
Conclusion – So there you have it. It will take some discipline, but if you follow the above advice the body of your dreams will be just a few short weeks away.
Enjoy your six pack.