Six-Pack Abs: The Complete 12-Week Guide

Transform your body and your lifestyle with this comprehensive guide. Everything you need to know about training, eating, and supplementation for your abs is right here!

The hardest part of the journey to get ripped and bring out your abs may just be the first step. Not only is getting started physically hard, but you also have to deal with conflicting and confusing advice from all sides. That's why we've combined the thinking of some of the top names in physique sports to create this comprehensive six-pack guide. 

Think core definition is all about your core workout? Think again. We'll lay out everything you need to know in terms of nutrition, nutrient timing, full-body training, core work, and strategic supplementation to redefine your midsection. 

To create the guide, our BPI Sports Panel pooled their best advice, tips, and tricks to help you get shredded and show off your abs like never before. The panel includes: 

• Steven Cao, NPC physique competitor 
• Courtney King, Ms. Olympia Bikini 
• Jose Raymond, eight-time Olympia 202 and Arnold Classic 202 champion 
• Whitney Reid, national sales director of BPI Sports 
• James Grage, co-founder of BPI Sports and creator of the Rewired training program

This is the one-stop plan you've been waiting for. Let's make it happen!

Step 1: Set Your Calories And Macros

The road to muscular definition all starts with making your nutrition match your goal. One tried-and-true way to figure out the amount of protein, carbs, and fat you'll need is to use Bodybuilding.com's calorie calculator to get values for all your macronutrients. Just enter your age, height, weight, how much physical activity you get every day, and your fat-loss goal. 

This calculator distributes the macro amounts to create a high-protein, moderate-carb, moderate-fat diet: 40 percent of your calories come from protein, 40 percent from carbs, and 20 percent from fat. It also builds in a daily caloric deficit that usually ranges from 300-700 calories, depending on your weight and activity level. 

The calculator prioritized proteins because they are slower-digesting, help add and maintain muscle mass, and trigger the release of appetite-suppressing hormones. Without enough protein in this diet, you'll feel hungrier and your body will tend to metabolize your hard-earned muscle mass to get the energy it need to follow this program. 

Your calculator results will enable you to lose 0.5-1.0 percent of your body weight each week, a safe and sustainable amount that can deliver surprising results over 12 weeks. A 180-pound man, for instance, could lose 0.9 to 1.8 pounds each week, or about 4-8 pounds a month. 

If you're like many people, you may drop a few extra pounds the first week, partly because of extra water loss. If your weight doesn't start trending downward after two weeks, you may still be consuming too many calories. If so, adjust your daily protein, carb, and fat intake to get yourself down to a more aggressive weight-loss range of 2-4 percent body weight per week. 

Step 2: Build Your Carb-Cycling Plan

You build your abdominals in the gym, but until you get rid of the fat that covers them, no one but you will know they're there. And even you will have your doubts! Our BPI Sports Panel all agree: To drop serious body fat and keep up high-quality training, carb-cycling is a must. 

The carb number you got from the macronutrient calculator in Step 1 is for moderate-carb days. On low-carb days, cut that number in half to bring down your daily calorie count. The easiest way to do this is by packing these days with high-fiber, low-calorie carbs like leafy greens, broccoli, and low-sugar fruits. On those days, eat far fewer starchy foods like potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and plantains, and shy away from foods made from grains, such as bread, pasta, rice, noodles, cereals, couscous, oats, barley, and tortillas. 

Following an extended low-carb diet can affect your energy level, and depending on the approach you take, cause you to burn through valuable muscle mass. To preserve this hard-won tissue, follow a 3/2 carb split. Stick to the low-carb approach for three days, followed by two days of moderate carbs. You'll repeat this five-day cycle about 17 total times over the course of the 12-week program. Be sure to get your carbs from a variety of sources. 

On moderate-carb days, you can do the most with the fewest calories by consuming most of your daily carb allowance during your pre- and post-workout meals. This strategy will fuel your workouts and restock your supply of stored muscle glycogen. Remember, this isn't a low-carb approach, it's a carb-cycling approach, so don't succumb to the "less is always better" mindset!

Step 3: Match Your Cardio To Your Carbs

The next step in our Six-Pack Abs program is to crank up the cardio to burn even more calories. These routines are a combination of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and steady-state (SS) cardio.

High-Intensity Interval Training

HIIT is an effective way to burn more calories in less time. Unlike SS training, HIIT involves alternating intervals of high- and low-intensity exercise, with your heart rate rising and falling appropriately. To optimize fat burning, do the high-intensity intervals at a pace you can't keep up for very long. Follow up with the low-intensity intervals to recover and prepare yourself for the next high-intensity session.

HIIT burns more calories in less time than SS, and it elevates your metabolism so that you burn calories at a higher level for as long as 24 hours post-workout. This elevated fat burning is due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC, in which your body gives off more heat than normal. Along with burning fat like crazy, this may actually increase your muscle mass.

If you haven't done much of this type of cardio, start with a light warm-up, then follow a work-to-rest ratio of about 1:3, or 1 minute of sprinting followed by 3 minutes of slow jogging. If that's too intense, use 30-second intervals: 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 90 seconds of jogging. Over time, as your cardiovascular fitness improves, aim for a work-to-rest ratio of 1:1.

Steady-State Cardio

When you keep a steady pace and steady heart rate on the elliptical machine or treadmill, you're engaged in steady-state cardiovascular training. Such programs typically range from 30-45 minutes with a heart rate at 60-75 percent of your maximum heart rate (MHR). 

This type of cardio gets a bad rap these days, but it has its place in a program. For one, it isn't demanding in terms of recovery—indeed, it can actually help to reduce muscle soreness. Because it isn't incredibly intense, you can do it on low-carb days. And finally, it helps to build endurance, a quality that can help you get more out of both training and life. So ignore the haters who say you have to choose either HIIT or steady-state. For most people, a balance of both is best!

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