How to get a six-pack fast.
Isn’t that what we all want?
We want those six-pack abs as fast as humanly possible…
Without all that grueling diet and hard work in the gym.
Well, if your goal is to learn how to get a six pack fast, then I have good news…and I have bad news.
Which do you want first?
Here’s the good news:
You absolutely CAN learn how to get a six pack fast.
Now here’s the bad news:
The word “fast” is a relative term.
My definition of getting a six pack fast might not be the same as yours.
So for starters, let’s set some realistic expectations.
How to Lose Weight Fast: The Cold Hard Calorie Facts
Your body burns approximately 4 pounds of calories per week.
(~2000 calories/day x 7 days = 14,000 calories ÷ 3500 calories/pound = 4 pounds.)
Does this mean you can burn 4 pounds of fat per week?
NO!
This doesn’t take food into account.
(In case you were wondering, yes. You do have to eat.)
You can fast intermittently for short periods at a time, but you can’t go for days on end without eating anything. Doing that will wreck your metabolism, your health, and cause you to break down crazy amounts of muscle.
Realistically, the amount of fat you can lose in a week is 1-2 pounds.
So when I say you can learn how to get a six pack fast, by “fast” I mean 2 pounds/week.
(The exception would be if you’re very overweight. In that case you can burn fat faster, but once you start to get leaner you’ll also be limited to about 2 pounds/week.)
If you’re disheartened by this news, don’t be.
You shouldn’t want to burn any more than 2 pounds/week. Because if you did, you’d be losing a lot of muscle mass and setting yourself up for rebound weight gain.
Losing 2 pounds/week, on the other hand, is sustainable. This is a rate of fat loss that you can maintain for life.
How to Lose Weight Fast: The Rapid Fat-Loss Protocol
Your next question is probably, “How do I lose 2 pounds per week?”
Great question.
I’m going to share a rapid fat-loss protocol with you to help you shed your belly fat as fast as possible.
This protocol won’t take you from 30 pounds overweight to shredded overnight…but it will help you lose fat as fast as you realistically can.
One quick note before we get started:
Many people think they need to do abs exercises to see their abs. This is not true. If you want to see your abs, priority #1 is to lose fat.
Feel free to do some abs exercises—there’s no harm—just be aware that you will not get visible abs from working your abs alone. The only way to see your abs is to remove the layer of fat that’s covering them up.
With that said, here’s your rapid fat-loss protocol. The protocol has 3 main parts.
Rapid Fat-Loss Protocol Part 1: An Aggressive Calorie Deficit
This is the first and (by far) the most important part of the protocol.
You need to generate a calorie deficit.
Here’s a very simple way to figure out how much you should be eating:
- Take your bodyweight and subtract 10 pounds. This is your short-term goal.
- Multiply that times 11 to get your calories/day.
For example:
- 185 – 10 = 175 lbs (goal)
- 175 x 11 = 1,925 calories/day
So if you weight 185 pounds right now, you’ll want to eat about 1925 calories/day.
To do this, I highly recommend counting calories with an app like MyFitnessPal.
Hitting your calorie goal should be priority #1. But if you want to get more specific, here are 3 more tips:
- Eat less carbs. This is really helpful for losing weight quickly. You’ll shed some water weight in just a few days, which is highly motivating. Eating less carbs should also keep your insulin levels low and help keep your body in a fat-burning state.
- Eat more protein. This has 3 benefits: first, it helps you to feel full. Second, it has a muscle-sparing effect. And finally, protein has the highest thermogenic effect of any macronutrient. (If you eat 100 calories of protein, your body burns about 30 calories to digest it.)
- Eat less sodium. Too much sodium leads to water retention and bloating, which makes you look and feel fatter than you really are. To get to 6-pack shape, you want to minimize bloating. The best way to do this is to cook your own meals with real food (not microwave meals).
Rapid Fat-Loss Protocol Part 2: Full-Body Weight Lifting Routine
Lift weights three times per week (I recommend Monday, Wednesday, & Friday).
Focus on big compound movements:
- Squats (front & back squats)
- Deadlifts (conventional & sumo)
- Bench press (flat & incline)
- Standing overhead press (barbell or dumbbell)
- Rows (barbell or dumbbell)
- Pull-ups & chin-ups (or lat pulldowns if you can’t do pull-ups)
Make sure you hit your entire body each workout. For example:
Monday
- Back Squats x3
- Incline Bench Press x3
- Barbell Rows x3
Wednesday
- Sumo Deadlifts x3
- Standing Overhead Press x3
- Chin-Ups x3
Friday
- Front Squats x3
- Conventional Deadlift x3
- Flat Bench Press x3
Your goal here is to stimulate as much muscle as possible in as few sets as possible. This has several benefits:
Hormonal. Big compound moves like this generate the biggest hormonal response. Stimulating hormones like testosterone and growth hormone will help maximize fat-burning.
Muscle sparing. The other benefit to a workout style like this is that you’ll be sparing your muscle from breakdown. Because you’re in a calorie deficit, you want to stimulate muscle fibers without overdoing it. This will send a signal to your body that you need that muscle…so your body will hold on to it, burning fat instead of muscle.
Low volume. You don’t want to do a million sets. As you can see above, there are only 3 exercises per workout. Because you’ll be in a calorie deficit, you won’t be able to handle too much volume. So keep your workouts short & sweet. (If you try to do too much lifting in a calorie deficit, your body won’t be able to fully recover in between workouts.)
Rapid Fat-Loss Protocol Part 3: Intense Fasted Morning HIIT
Finally, I want you to start each morning with a fasted burpee tabata.
Let’s break that down in case you missed anything:
- Fasted: This means you do it in the morning before eating. In fact you should probably do it before showering. This will really energize you first thing in the day, get your metabolism revved up, and give you a great feeling of accomplishment.
- Burpee: This is a move with 3 basic positions. First, stand up straight (position 1). Now drop down and put your hands to the floor (position 2). Kick your feet back so that you’re in a plank position (position 3). Now jump forward again to position 2. Finally, either stand up (positon 1) or jump up in the air. Now repeat. For a demonstration, watch the video.
- Tabata: This is a style of workout with 30-second intervals. Each interval consists of 20 seconds of intense exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat 8 times for 4 minutes total.
It’s a short but brutally effective workout.
Best of all, you can do it anywhere. All you need is a little space and a Tabata timer, which you can get on your phone for free. (Search the iTunesapp store or Google Play store for “Tabata timer.”)
And that’s it guys!
Let me know in the comments what you think of this protocol.