How fast get six packs

Hormones, underlying health conditions, medications you take and many other things can also speed up or slow down your rate of fat loss. So, how long does it take to get a six-pack? The short answer is that you can estimate the timeline to be a minimum of the number of pounds of fat you have to lose, divided in half, but it will likely take longer.

The body fat percentages required for a visible six-pack can be perfectly healthy for some people, but they are not sustainable or healthy for everyone.

Listen to your body and address any concerns with your doctor. You don't have control over a lot of factors that determine how long it takes to get abs, but you can control both you nutrition and exercise to get six-pack abs faster. Here are the most important guidelines to follow. If your current body fat percentage is higher than your target, you need to consume fewer calories per day than you use for energy.

Still, when it comes to creating caloric deficits, bigger isn't always better. Calories contain the energy your body needs to thrive.

Start by reducing your daily caloric intake by no more than calories and adjust from there to help you stay in that healthy weight-loss range of 1 to 2 pounds per week. Load up on fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, low-fat dairy, eggs, beans, nuts and legumes.

All of these foods contain the vitamins and minerals you need to support your workouts and fat-loss goals. Use these whole, healthy foods to crowd out heavily refined or processed foods that contain fewer nutrients. To lose fat, protein is critical. Plus, even when you're cutting calories, it encourages the body to maintain, or even gain, muscle. That's a win-win for revealing six-pack abs. Trying to Build Muscle? Vigorous cardio burns more fat in less time compared with long, slow cardio.

Plus, high-intensity exercise comes with an afterburn effect, according to ACE , meaning your body keeps burning calories at a higher rate in the hours following your workout session. To gauge your exercise intensity, use rate of perceived exertion, or the RPE scale. The more muscle you have, the faster you'll burn fat, which is why strength training is so important to getting defined abs. Build muscle fast by choosing multi-joint exercises, such as squats, deadlifts and rows, over single-joint isolation exercises like biceps curls.

By recruiting more muscles with every rep, these compound exercises build more muscle, burn more calories while you're doing them and encourage the afterburn effect for increased fat loss. Focus on working at an intensity or using weights that allows you to maintain proper form while feeling challenging. Dedicated core exercises and workouts can help grow your abdominal muscles, but they will not make a large difference in your fat-loss progress since spot-reduction is a myth. Incorporate a few ab exercises into each workout to build your abdominal muscles, which you will uncover with the rest of your exercise and nutrition plan for abs.

This at-home routine will help build your abs in just 10 minutes. Fitness Workouts Ab Exercises. Andra Picincu is a certified nutritionist and personal trainer with more than 10 years of experience. Pair abdominal exercises with a healthy diet and cardio to optimize results. Upping your intake of high-protein foods can help promote weight loss, fight belly fat and support muscle growth on your road to six-pack abs. According to one study, consuming high-protein meals helped increase feelings of fullness and promote appetite control in 27 overweight and obese men 5.

Consuming protein after working out can also help repair and rebuild muscle tissues as well as aid in muscle recovery 7 , 8. Plus, one study even found that a high-protein diet helped preserve both metabolism and muscle mass during weight loss 9. Meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, dairy products, legumes, nuts and seeds are just a few examples of healthy, high-protein foods that you can add to your diet. Protein may help reduce calorie intake, as well as decrease body weight and fat.

It can also help repair and rebuild muscle tissues and preserve muscle mass during weight loss. High-intensity interval training , or HIIT, is a form of exercise that involves alternating between intense bursts of activity and short recovery periods.

HIIT keeps your heart rate up and increases fat burning. One study showed that young men who performed HIIT training for 20 minutes three times per week lost an average of 4. One of the simplest ways to try HIIT at home is to switch between walking and sprinting for 20—30 seconds at a time. You can also try alternating between high-intensity exercises like jumping jacks, mountain climbers and burpees with a short break in between.

High-intensity interval training can help increase fat burning and may be especially useful for reducing belly fat and achieving six-pack abs. Water is absolutely crucial to just about every aspect of health. It plays a role in everything from waste removal to temperature regulation. Staying well-hydrated may also help bump up your metabolism , burn extra belly fat and make it easier to get a set of six-pack abs.

Water requirements can vary based on a variety of factors, including age, body weight and activity level. However, most research recommends drinking around 1—2 liters 34—68 ounces of water per day to stay well-hydrated. Studies show that drinking water can temporarily increase metabolism, reduce appetite and increase weight loss to help you lose stubborn belly fat.

Heavily processed foods like chips, cookies, crackers and convenience foods are typically high in calories, carbs, fat and sodium. Not only that, these foods are typically low in key nutrients such as fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals.

Nixing these unhealthy junk foods from your diet and swapping them for whole foods can increase weight loss, reduce belly fat and help you achieve a set of six-pack abs. This is because it takes more energy to digest whole foods rich in protein and fiber, which can burn more calories and keep your metabolism up The nutrients in whole foods, like protein and fiber, also keep you feeling fuller to curb cravings and aid in weight loss 15 , Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes are all nutritious alternatives to prepackaged convenience items like frozen meals, baked goods and salty snacks.

Processed foods are high in calories, carbs, fat and sodium. These foods require less energy to digest and are also lacking in important nutrients like protein and fiber that can aid in weight loss. Cutting back on your consumption of refined carbohydrates can help you lose extra fat and gain six-pack abs. In fact, you might have already figured out that creating muscle definition in your midsection can be a challenge. But who said you weren't up to the test?

The first thing to know is that not all of the factors that influence whether or not you can actually see your abs are under your control. For example, body composition or the ratio of body fat to lean muscle mass you have is impacted by diet and exercise, sure, but also genetics. Plus, belly fat, in particular, can be impacted by hormones such as cortisol, a. In fact, stress has been linked to higher levels of abdominal fat in non-overweight women, according to research.

Assuming your diet, training, and genetics support the goal and where you are starting from , Costello says noticing six-pack abs would mean safely shedding 1 to 2 percent body fat per month until your desired body fat percentage is achieved.

However, Costello does point out that body type can influence the specific body fat percentage necessary to "reduce subcutaneous fat to the point the underlying muscle structure becomes evident. But this information comes with a caveat, Costello says: "It is not a goal I would advise for the general population.

My hesitation would be that it is not a realistic for most women, and can cause unnecessary frustration and damage to self-esteem. Costello's preferred focus? That involves taking aesthetics out of the picture—in other words, "I want a six pack!

The good news? That can still include super-toned abs. You've heard of goal revision, right? Well, this one is an easy revise on semantics. Instead of focusing on six-pack abs, envision and break a sweat for a tighter core and sculpted midsection, both of which can be obtained by scrolling down for intel on how to get stronger abs , ASAP, according to certified trainers and research. It's hardly surprising that one of the things Kourtney Kardashian's trainer had the reality TV star start doing to get in the best shape of her life visible abs and all was incorporate cardio into every workout.

Because aerobic exercise is a great way to burn fat. The more cardio you do, the more belly fat you stand to lose, according to a review of 16 clinical trials that looked at the connection between the two. And since there's no such thing as spot training a muscle group, you can lose overall body weight, too. So, when you do cardio consistently as part of a fitness routine that's also focused on core and muscle building, you'll start to see your body composition shift and more tone and definition from head to toe—abs muscles included.