Timeline To Your Six Pack
How long till you see your six pack
Congratulations, you’ve decided to take action and lose some fat! Though you still might be wondering how long it will take you to get that illusive six pack. This is one of the most common questions I receive as a personal trainer. Even when experienced clients say they understand what they need to do in order to get lean, they still ask “how long will it take?”
Visual Journey
Let me illustrate two different paths to that six pack. Path one is ambiguous and path two is specific. Both paths are taken by two novice trainees, equals in fitness level and body fat percentage. Trainee one takes path one (ambiguous), their strategy isn’t detailed. They don’t know how much weight they have to lose or at which body fat percentage their goal can be reached. Every other week trying a different workout routine and jumping from one nutrition plan to another.
Trainee two takes path two (specific). They know their current body fat percentage and how much weight they need to lose in order to get that six pack. They stick to one training program that adjusts to their elevating fitness level and adhere to a balanced nutrition plan.
Who do you believe will reach their goals first?
You can see how having a game plan effects your journey. Essentially this article will go over three very important questions:
- What body fat percentage am I?
- What body fat percentage do I need to see my six pack?
- How long will it take?
Body Fat Percentage Breakdown
The American Council of Exercise is a reliable resource that breaks down which category you possibly fit into at a certain body fat percentage.
The essential classification shows the minimal amount of body fat any gender needs to sustain life (i.e. so you don’t die). Typically, male trainees will see their six pack at around thirteen percent and female trainees at roughly nineteen percent. Here’s a personal example where I went from roughly twenty percent body fat to below ten percent body fat, which took about 37 weeks to achieve. I lost on average 1.25 pounds per week, this was a modest approach to my fat loss journey.
Now that you’ve seen an example of what body fat looks like at the high and low ends let’s breakdown how you can customize your fat loss to fit your allotted time frame.
Steps to Six Pack
We need to figure out your current lean body mass. This means how much weight is left after removing the fat from your body. The equation would look like this:
- Current Lean Body Mass = Weight (lbs) x (1- Body Fat Percentage)
If a trainee is at twenty percent body fat at a total weight of two-hundred pounds, their current lean body mass would be at one hundred sixty pounds.
Next step is to figure out your goal lean body mass. Unfortunately, when consuming at a caloric deficit you can’t exclusively lose fat, some muscle is lost during this process. Though if the trainee’s nutrition, training, and recovery plan are balanced this muscle loss can be minimal.
Let’s use a conservative estimation of three percent loss of lean body mass. To figure out your goal lean body mass the equation is as follows:
- Goal Lean Body Mass = Current Lean Body Mass x 0.97
Your goal lean body mass will be at one hundred fifty five pounds. The third step would be to find out what your goal weight is. This is found when your fat and lean body mass are combined. The equation is:
- Goal Weight = Goal Lean Body Mass / (1- Goal Body Fat Percentage)
The goal body fat percentage is going to be thirteen percent for men and for nineteen percent for women. Remember these are the percentages where most trainees start to see their six pack.
This would look like:
This one hundred seventy eight pounds is very important! This is the weight where you’ll roughly be at thirteen percent body fat (for woman just switch the thirteen for nineteen and you should get one hundred twenty five pounds).
Time to Six Pack
Now we’re finally at the last step to figure out how long it’ll take you to see your six pack! The final equation looks like this:
- Time to Six Pack = (Current Body Weight- Goal Body Weight) / Rate of Weight Loss Per Week
In regards to how much weight you should lose per week, it should be between a half a pound to two pounds. Anymore than this and you run the risk of losing more muscle than is necessary. Below there’s a breakdown of the “time to six pack” equation:
It will take roughly fourteen and a half weeks for you to lose twenty one and a half pounds, and finally see your six pack! Again you can decide to lose two pounds per week which will decrease the length of time, but increase the difficulty of sticking to a caloric deficit.
This is a reasonable timeframe, but remember these equations are educated estimations that only work if your disciplined and stay on track. That means sticking to an affective training, nutrition, and recovery plan that gradually adjusts to your elevating fitness level.
Best of luck on your fat loss journey and remember, “It Starts With You!”
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