Abs are quite possibly the most coveted look for our bodies and perhaps the most elusive. Some people could spend months or years working out and eating healthy but never get abs. Is achieving well-defined abs that difficult? Well, not quite.

Getting your abdominal muscles to the level of development necessary for a 6-pack is relatively easy. All you need is to know the type of workouts that targets this group of muscles and do them consistently and progressively.

Getting these abs to actually show is a different story. Unfortunately, this is where things tend to go wrong with people trying to get this look.

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The reason having 6-pack abs is so attractive for most people is arguably purely biological; it indicates excellent health and metabolism.

Getting abs takes more than just some lifting repetitions to achieve. While some websites claim that you can make those abs pop out in weeks with some weight loss pill or that one exercise, this is actually far from the truth.

It's a no-brainer that building up the right muscles is essential for getting those appealing lines on your stomach. But this is not the only type of workout you should be doing to get shredded; cardio and core exercise will be just as important in losing body fat and building muscle mass.

The main 6-pack muscle group you see on a ripped stomach is the rectus abdominis. The most popular exercises to work this muscle group are crunches, leg raises, and of course, planks. There are loads of exercises online for this muscle group (and every other muscle there is.)

The transverse abdominis is the muscle group that makes the V-lines near the hip bones. Some of the exercises you can do to exercise these muscles are the wipers and half wipers, plank rolls, and Russian twists. 

Internal and external obliques are abdominal muscles that are on the sides of your torso. These can be exercised using side planks, toe taps, and elbow-to-knee crunches.

Do You Have the Right Amount of Body Fat?

Only two factors will determine whether you have visible abs: the strength of the muscle groups we just explained and your body fat percentage.

Regardless of how much you exercise these muscles and how powerful and clear-cut they become, if you don’t have the correct body fat percentage, they just won’t be visible.

The vast majority of our body fat lies just underneath the skin. This means that your skin has a layer of fat that covers these muscles. For the muscular look to be actually visible, this layer needs to be pretty thin.

For abs to be visible, you need to get your body fat percentage to be less than 15%. Be careful, though. There’s a minimum of essential body fat that you should never go below, and it’s different from males to females.

Female bodies need around 10% body fat to be functioning well, while men need about 2-4% at least.

Not that having good gut health needs any more reasons to be a priority, but it plays a significant role in how your body handles food and exercise. 

Reaching this body fat percentage means that not only does your body need the right food, but it needs to digest and absorb it efficiently. Studies have shown that poor gut health is linked to having excess fat. So if your gut health is in tip-top shape, it’ll increase your body’s ability to lose fat.

Improving your gut health will also have the upside of eating healthier foods, which means you’re that much more likely to lose body fat.

What you consume, your gut health, and your body fat percentage are very closely interlinked. Eating high-fat foods will either increase or sustain your body fat level, which means your abs are not getting more pronounced no matter how hard you exercise.

The tagline of how to get abs is “abs are made in the kitchen.” Of course, many will try to prove this sentence wrong or give your shortcuts, but the truth is that the only way to get and maintain that 6-pack is by eating a sustainably healthy diet with a caloric deficit.

What Does it Take to Have Well-Defined Abs?

It’s important to understand that attempting to reach this goal in just a few weeks is not only very likely to fail but also highly unsustainable. The habits you’ll get into to get abs in weeks will not survive past that timeframe. So instead, it’s better to think long-term and plan accordingly.

Research has found that a healthy weight loss rate is 0.7% of your body weight per week. This rate ensures that you’re losing body fat with minimal muscle loss.

If you’re just starting the abs journey, you’ll likely need to cut down your body fat percentage by half or more.

That can seem a little overwhelming, but remember that all you really need is to lose 0.7% of your body weight per week. That’s only 1-2 pounds a week on average.

To understand what that timeline will look like for you, you’ll need to check your body fat percentage first. Then, calculate your target bodyweight based on that percentage, and see how long it’d take if you consistently lost 1-2 pounds a week.

Whatever comes up, remember that this is just an estimate. How your body responds to your dietary and exercise changes will vary from the calculations for sure, and you’ll need to adjust everything accordingly.

Set smaller goals before you get to the big one; the ripped summer body. This journey will not be a short one, but it’ll be full of milestones of your body looking leaner and meaner with every week and month.

How Long Until I See Results?

A lot of work goes into building abs, but it’s well worth it. Not only will you get a great look and the accompanying self-confidence, but your health will improve tremendously as you work towards this goal.

You’ll be building up those muscles as well as your perseverance when it comes to your fitness habits.

<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Cardio or Weights First for Exercising?</span>

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Everything You Need to Know on How to Get Abs

What Does it Take to Have Well-Defined Abs?

How Long Until I See Results?

Conclusion