Exactly How to Eat and Train to Build a Six-Pack

YOU KNOW THAT to get visibly chiseled abs, it’s not just about your workouts. It’s also about what you eat. But exactly what and how much to put on your plate isn’t always clear.

The truth is there are plenty of workout and diet combinations that will shred your abs, but some will get you there more efficiently than others—and without radically altering your daily meals. In fact, the best ones can make crushing every rep feel a little easier, boosting your energy and your recovery.

To get you on the path to a rock-solid core STAT, we’ve gathered the best ready-to-use training and meal advice, plus compiled simple guidelines for you to build your own routines. Whether you’ve been working your abs for a while or are just starting out, here’s what you need to know.

Why It’s Challenging Building Abs

EATING AND TRAINING for abs requires a balancing act. You need to eat enough protein to build muscle, but if you pile in too many calories, you may limit your ability to drop bodyfat. Training-wise, you need to challenge your abs enough to promote muscle growth, but you shouldn’t be working so hard that you’re too sore to move when you’re done working out. Add to that the fact that men are predisposed to store excess weight around the middle and revealing your abs can feel like an uphill battle.

The Best Plans to Help You Build Abs

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE in wasting no time on the way to gains, we created a daily workout and meal plan for you to fast-track your ab evolution. You won’t have to figure out how often to train, what exercises to do, when to rest, how much protein to get, or how many calories to consume. All you have to to do is follow the plan. If you prefer building your own programs, skip to the next section. Otherwise, here’s what we recommend.

6-Pack Fast Track

Why It Works: This plan trains your abs from every angle—which is key to getting a six-pack that pops—and cycles through four powerful workouts at the optimal muscle-building pace. You’ll challenge your muscles enough to expedite results and get enough down time to avoid burning out. Best of all, it trains your whole body, so you stay fit all over while you shred your abs.

DOWNLOAD 6-PACK FAST TRACK

Eat for Abs

Why It Works: There isn’t one magic food that will give you abs, but eating the right amount of calories, protein, fat, and carbs can make slashing belly fat and packing on muscle easier. This guide gives you a base 7-day meal plan you can repeat and adapt indefinitely, flexible nutrition guidelines for building your own meals, plus tons of recipes.

DOWNLOAD EAT FOR ABS

You can start both plans today if you’re a Men’s Health MVP Premium member plus all of our MVP Training Lab plans, including those below. Sign up here to join and access now.

If you prefer to create your own regimen from scratch, read on for the critical elements your workout and diet need.

How to Build Your Own Ab Training Plan

DEVELOPING YOUR OWN workout programming allows you to personalize your routine to your fitness level and lifestyle. Make sure it includes these vital pieces.

4 Types of Movement

If you only train your abs in one direction, such as by crunching forward in a situp, you won’t achieve the functional or aesthetic results you’re after. Instead, incorporate these four types of exercises.

Bracing

Creating tension between your shoulders and hips, a.k.a. bracing, helps stabilize your midsection and activates a whole range of core muscles. Try it with moves like planks and bird dogs.

Rotation

Twisting your torso from side to side during rotation exercises such as bicycle crunches primes your body for everyday movements (like turning to check your blind spot) and chisels your obliques and deep abs. Add them to your workout with these ideas.

Anti-Rotation

The ability to resist twisting or rotating when met with force is also crucial to your ab work. Moves like renegade rows and plank rows force you to steady your midsection as you momentarily shift your weight to one hand. Here are some of our go-to anti-rotation moves to try.

Spinal Flexion

Here’s where your crunches and situps come in. These are often the first moves that come to mind when thinking about ab work and that’s because they help carve the front of your abdomen. Also consider v-ups and hollow holds to hit this movement pattern.

Progressive Overload

Doing the same workout for months won’t help you build muscle. In order to grow, your muscles need new challenges. Progressive overload encompasses a range of methods to increase the challenge: doing more reps, using heavier weights, or cutting a rest times, for example. As a general rule, employ progressive overload whenever you’re able to complete all reps of an exercise with perfect form.

Rest Days

When you want to build abs fast, it’s tempting to train every day until you start seeing definition. But if you never give your muscles a break, you never give them the chance to grow. That’s because muscle growth—that is, the process in which your muscles rebuild the fibers you tore while working out—happens when those muscles are at rest. Give yourself at least one true rest day per week, no workouts, just light activity like walking.

How to Build Your Own Ab Eating Plan

Once you understand the building blocks of a solid diet, you can create nutritious and delicious meals on the fly. Plan your meals with these key pieces.

Balanced Macros

Macronutrients are the nutrients you need in large quantities and consist of protein, fat, and carbs. Each plays a role in powering your workouts.

Protein

After a tough workout, protein is essential for muscle recovery and growth. Eat too little and your body will lack the building blocks to add muscle mass. Aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. That means if you’re 190 pounds, your protein goal should be 190 grams per day.

Fat

Fat helps your body absorb essential vitamins and minerals, which ensure you’re functioning at peak performance during your workouts. To determine your optimal daily intake, you’ll need to factor in your carbs, which we tackle below.

Carbohydrates

This is the fuel that will power your weekly gym sessions and give you the energy you need to hit every rep with good form. To determine how much fat and carbohydrates you need, you’ll have to do some math. Follow our step-by-step guide to calculating your personal macros to figure out your daily needs.

Flexibility