I'm sure that probably 75% of the population in the United States has typed in the words "Six pack abs" into the Google search engine. What everyone is looking for is a great quick and easy solution to get the six-pack of their dreams. Their search leads them through a myriad of websites claiming to have found the secret for success. Instant abs in three weeks!!! What these websites fail to acknowledge though is that it will not take just three weeks to get the abs that you desire.
Getting and maintaining a six pack is not easy. It requires a careful diet, daily exercise and isolation exercises, and a very low percentage of body fat. An estimate of the amount of body fat required to see abs is about 15 to 18% for women and 7 to 10% for men according to Miriam Nelson, strength training researcher at Tufts University. This is why six packs are more common among younger people (high school and college aged) because they have a higher metabolism so they can be less careful of what they eat when compared to someone who is in their forties.
Getting a six pack for doing sit-up and crunches is also another fitness myth that has been proven ineffective. Crunches are not a way to carve out your abs, crunches help build your abs muscles but they do not help burn any body fat. Burning calories is much more important than doing crunches. Even if you spend hours and hours in the gym or at home working your abs by doing crunches or any other type of exercise the work put in will be obscured by your body fat. So to everyone trying to get a toned physique remember that burning calories and fat is just as or even more important than building strength.
