Why I Didn’t Get a Six Pack Training Abs Daily for 5 Months

154 days ago, I began training my abs every day. That’s just over five months of daily, dedicated ab training. I trained with intensity and I gave it my best effort, yet I still do not have a visible six pack. How could this have happened? What a disaster, right? Well, it’s not as bad as I am making it sound, and the reason is quite clear…

I didn’t get a six pack after 5 months of daily ab training because I did not lower my body fat percentage to a low enough level to see my abs. Achieving a visible six pack requires a body fat percentage of between 6-9% for men. I did not achieve that, so no six pack for me.

Training hard is great, but to get a six pack you also must focus on diet and nutrition. I trained hard every day for five months. That’s truly awesome, and I will continue to train my abs daily moving forward. Still, the evidence is clear… for my abs to start popping, I need to spend more time on my diet and nutrition.

Let’s check out the progress photos throughout my five months of abs training to see what I am talking about.

Some More About Me

I’ve been a big boy and overweight pretty much all of my life. I peaked at the age of 17 at 296 lbs. (134.5 kgs.). It was not a muscular 296 lbs. Despite being somewhat tall (6 feet, 2 inches), that’s still obese.

I just turned 34 years old, meaning I have doubled in age since I weighed my heaviest. Did I also double in weight? That would be 588 lbs.!!!

Fortunately for me, that’s not how weight and age work. Instead, I had lost 108.6 lbs. by the 30^th of July, 2019, and I was pretty healthy.

Despite being healthy, my body was feeling the effects of years of obesity. It was time to take my body transformation to another level and train even more seriously and more consistently than ever before in my life.

It was time to begin training my abs every day and to finally get six pack abs!

How Do I Train My Abs?

There are many ab routines that you can choose from. Many of them are great options. With years of binge-watching YouTube videos about health and fitness under my belt, I decided to choose the 22 Day Ab Workout (NO REST!!!) by Jeff Cavaliere at ATHLEAN-X as my daily ab workout routine. It’s a fantastic routine. Click the link and watch the video and see for yourself.

In a nutshell, I performed the six exercises in this workout every day until I went extinct. You can read more about the routine and all of its requirements in this first blog post that I wrote about it: Can You Get Abs in 22 Days with ATHLEAN-X? (Honest Results) You can, of course, also watch the ATHLEAN-X YouTube video, too!

The Results After 154 Days of Training My Abs

As the title of the routine would suggest, each round of the workout lasts 22 days. So, I took a video and photos after every 22 days to see how my body changed over time. Here are the dates for each round:

Round 1: Jul. 30, 2019 – Aug. 20, 2019 (22 days)
Round 2: Jul. 30, 2019 – Sep. 11, 2019 (44 days)
Round 3: Jul. 30, 2019 – Oct. 8, 2019 (71 Days* / 66 days)
Round 4: Jul. 30, 2019 – Oct. 30, 2019 (93 Days / 88 days)
Round 5: Jul. 30, 2019 – Nov. 21, 2019 (115 Days / 110 days)
Round 6: Jul. 30, 2019 – Dec. 13, 2019 (137 Days / 132 days)
Round 7: Jul. 30, 2019 – Jan. 4, 2020 (159 Days / 154 days)

Pay special attention to the 3^rd round. You will see that there were 5 extra days added to the dates. That’s because I got quite sick and needed to take 5 days to rest and recover. Once fully healthy, I returned to my daily ab training and I have not missed a day since then.

I also kept track of my weight during this five-month period. I thought it would be interesting to see how much weight played a role in the development of my abs, and (superficially, I admit) in my overall appearance. These are my weights at the end of each round:

Day 1: 187.4 lbs. (85.2 kgs.)
Day 22: 185.7 lbs. (84.4 kgs.)
Day 44: 187.4 lbs. (85.2 kgs.)
Day 66: 187.2 lbs. (85.1 kgs.)
Day 88: 185.2 lbs. (84.2 kgs.)
Day 110: 185.7 lbs. (84.4 kgs.)
Day 132: 189.2 lbs. (86.0 kgs.)
Day 154: 191.4 lbs. (87.0 kgs.)

Everything was great through the first 110 days. My weight stayed pretty stable, and I had even lost a little bit of weight. Then things changed, and I put on 5.7 lbs. (2.6 kgs.) over the last 44 days. The reasons for this include, but are not limited to:

An increase in holiday food and drinks: Thanksgiving, Sinterklaas (I live in the Netherlands), Christmas, my birthday, New Years, and other birthday parties
A corresponding decrease in the non-abs physical training that I performed
A classic giving-in to holiday temptations
Colder weather led to an increase in calorie-rich, warm, comfort food

It happens. It sucks, but many people put on a few extra pounds around this time of year. I am no different.

But enough of the chit-chat… let’s see the results:

Here Are the Before and After Photos from Each Round:

Here Are the Before and After Photos from Day 1 to Day 154:

Well, then. What I lost in abdominal definition I made up for in upper body mass. I look way bigger and broader in my chest and shoulders than I did 154 days prior. That’s great, but this is an article focused on training and developing abs into a six pack, not in growing the chest.

Why All Is Not Lost

So, I ruined it all over the last 44 days, right? I will be fat forever and never have a six pack!

Not so fast. I still trained my abs every day for 154 days. While a picture tells 1,000 words, it does not let your feel how much fuller, stronger, and defined my abs are underneath the layer of fat that is obstructing them.

The photos also do not demonstrate how much better my other lifts in the gym are (especially the squat and deadlift) not that my core is more developed and engaged in each movement. And despite the weight gain, I still look better than I did on the 30^th of July, 2019.

All that being said, what do I need to do moving forward to begin seeing the abs I have worked so hard to develop?

In simple terms, I need to lose even more weight and get my body fat percentage to a level where my abs will be visible. According to this Livestrong article, the target body fat percentages for men and women are:

Men: between 6-9% body fat
Women: between 16-19% body fat

I am happy to say that as of writing this article I am already on the right track and am losing some of my holiday weight. My diet and nutrition are back on track, and I am hitting the gym hard. I will get there, no matter how long it takes.

But I don’t want it to take forever, and neither would you! So, I will say with confidence that getting a six pack requires two things:

Development of abs through intense training
Reduction of body fat percentage

And between these two requirements, the reduction of body fat percentage seems to be more important. Lesson learned, and not soon forgotten.

I trust that the analysis of my before and after results has been useful and enlightening for you. I highly recommend training your abs every day, and I super-highly recommend the 22 Day Ab Workout (NO REST!!!) by ATHLEAN-X.

Above all else, I strongly recommend that you focus as much time on your diet and nutrition as you do on the floor training your abs. If you do that, you will have even better results than I did!

Jack Clancy YouTube Video

In addition to my website, I also have my Jack Clancy YouTube Channel. Check out the video I made talking even more about the results here:

I would be so happy if you checked out my YouTube channel . If you subscribe and hit the notification bell, all of my update videos will be automatically sent to you so that you never miss an update, or any of the other helpful and entertaining content that I plan on publishing moving forward.

Learn More About This Challenge

Have you seen my Fat, Broke and Stupid Abs Training Page yet? If not, click the link to head on over and see a summary of this daily ab workout challenge, plus more…