

Once you’ve entered your current bodyweight levels and the body composition you want to achieve, the app will automatically work out your daily calorific needs, your exact macronutrient breakdown, and a timeline of how long it will take to achieve your goals. Most people will need to be in at least a small calorie deficit (meaning eating fewer calories than you burn each day) to lose enough fat to make their muscles. My advice would be to use an app such as UP Transform, which will do all the work for you. This can be a minefield unless you have an experienced personal trainer in your corner, but if you want to get a visible six-pack, you’re going to need to get this macronutrient breakdown right. The other main stumbling block people have is calculating their macronutrients – how many grams of protein, carbohydrates and fats – to consume. However, it is important to note that as time progresses and your body fat levels drop, you may need to tweak your diet and increase the calorie deficit if you want to avoid plateauing. It is not an exact science, but a general rule would be to subtract 500 calories per day from your calorific maintenance level so that you are in a deficit. There are all sorts of formulas available on the internet that allow you to enter your current bodyweight and how sedentary your lifestyle is, and it will work out how many calories a day you need to consume to maintain your weight – this is known as your calorific maintenance. Working out what this calorie deficit looks like, day to day, is where a lot of people stumble. The first thing you need to do is put yourself in a calorie deficit – consuming fewer calories per day than you expend.
EATING TO GET RIPPED HOW TO
There’s no special abs diet that is different from the fundamentals of how to lose fat and build muscle. What should you eat to get a six-pack?Īchieving a six-pack means applying the same dietary principles as you would if you were looking to strengthen any muscle. Diet will help you reduce body fat, but to speed up the process by which you burn fat and build muscle, you will need to do resistance training. The best way to achieve such a low level of body fat is to put yourself into a long-term calorie deficit and exercise regularly. Going from 13-14% to 8-9% requires a much greater investment of time and effort. Most clients can get there through following a good diet, training hard regularly and staying consistent.

If we take a typical client who starts at 20-25% body fat, getting them to 13-14% is no problem. And to achieve that, you’re going to have to diet hard. Unless you’re blessed with incredible genetics, you’re going to need to get your body fat percentage as low as 8-9% for your abs to be visible. Technically speaking, everyone has a six-pack, but for most people they are hidden underneath a layer of fat, or they’re not strong enough, or most likely both.

Most people don’t understand, or at the very least underestimate, how hard it is to get visible abdominal muscles. Bohannon has more than 15 years of experience of training clients and was named personal trainer of the year at the UK Fitness Awards in 2017. Mark Bohannon is a certified personal trainer with Ultimate Performance, which specialises in body transformations.
