Stop Pursuing Six-pack Abs. You Don’t Need it.

Lately, the abdominal muscles have wrongfully become the barometer of someone’s fitness success. This is especially true in the age of the internet when fitness has become popular on social media platforms (mainly on YouTube and Instagram), where everyone seems to have rock-hard abs. The abdominal muscles, scientifically known as “rectus abdominis”, that are supposed to support our body, have another function now: flaunting your fitness status.

My Journey

When People notice that I go to the gym, often the first question I get is if I have six-pack abs yet. I sarcastically reply, “everyone has six-pack abs. How do you think your torso is connected to your leg?” I get annoyed with such questions because I truly believe what they are asking is wrong and does not help them whatsoever. People have never asked me how they could exercise consistently, or how they can start exercising.

Back when I started working out, I wanted people to see that I have six-pack abs. So, I decided to lose weight. I was 154 pounds and had around 22% body fat. I knew I had to lose a few pounds but did not know how much. I knew I needed to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight. Therefore, I started counting my calories rigorously.

After rigorous dieting and exercising, I dropped my body fat to around 9 percent. I lost a total of 25 pounds in about 16 weeks. That’s when I finally got what I had always wanted, visible six-pack abs. Despite achieving my dream, I was not happy.

Towards the end, I started feeling lightheaded often. My body felt light, and I could run easily but my strength went down significantly. Anytime, I had to lift something heavy, I would get nervous and quit. People and friends started asking me why I looked so scrawny. Did I look good naked? Yes! But when I wore clothes, I looked malnourished. I did not like how I looked and felt. I could not eat the foods that I enjoyed, and it started affecting my sleep. I would wake up in the middle of the night for no reason.

Not just that, it also affected me psychologically as I started taking pictures of my stomach constantly in the hopes that a six-pack could appear anytime. That’s when I decided to stop the madness.

The Problem

Six-pack abs are not “markers of health and wellness” Sam Leahey, director of sports science at precision Sport Science, told Men’s Health. “Mortality issues aren’t correlated with how many abs you can see in the mirror or the level of skin fold at the abs.”

Similarly, in a Times of India article, clinical nutritionist Pooja Makhija said, “Maintaining a six-pack for months means that the essential body-fat percentage (12% in males and 18% in females) is compromised. This also affects the lining of the internal organs.” This increases the risk of injury.

Maintaining a visible set of abs means that, a male often needs to be around 10% body fat, and a female needs to be around 20%. This mainly comes down to a low caloric diet and genetics. For people who are obese, eating a low-calorie diet daily becomes incredibly difficult since they get hungry often. Also, for some people achieving visible abs is all but impossible since genetics determines how deep the muscle in our stomach goes. Just Google Dwayne Johnson’s abs pictures. Despite being enormous, he does not have good abs genetics. Therefore, for some people, a six-pack is just a pipe dream.

Regularly pursuing six-pack abs for attracting the opposite sex is not worth it either. Studies increasingly show that women aren’t all that interested in chiseled abs. Rather, females are interested in someone who have a flat and undefined belly, someone they can relate to.

Everyone who starts working out wants to have visible abs. There is nothing inherently wrong with the desire, and if pursuing the six-pack makes you happy then you should do it. But the problem arises when we start thinking the defined stomach is the final goal and do not consider all the factors that go into getting them. Our endmost aim should be a strong core, functional body, and good health: not visible six-pack abs.

A good-looking body is a byproduct of a number of things: good sleep, well-rounded nutrition, sustainable exercise routine, low stress, and much more. Being healthy means doing your best on all these factors. Focusing on just one factor, getting the body fat down could be dangerous.

When obesity is at an all-time high, I am not advocating that we should all have a beer belly either. Having a high body fat percentage is not good for health. As most of us know, high body fat increases the risk of hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and much more.

My point is, let’s not swing between two extremes. If obesity causes problems so does consistently pursuing low body fat levels. Psychological issues, low energy, poor recovery from injury, sub-optimal sleep, are not worth bearing for mere six-pack abs.

A good-looking body is a byproduct of several factors: good sleep, well-rounded nutrition, sustainable exercise routine, low stress, and much more. Being healthy means doing your best on all these. It is not about consistently looking malnourished and having sculpted abs. So, let’s not glamorize the unobtainable physique.

Instead let us build a culture where people can celebrate all, small and big, fitness results. If you moved half a mile more than the day before, kudos to you. Celebrate the achievement and try to move more next time. If you are obese and just managed to lose 10 pounds. Good for you! Continue losing weight until you feel healthy. If you are someone, who always manages to stay the same, you should celebrate as well. However, you should not beat yourself down just because you don’t have six-pack abs. It is not a measurement of anything, let alone health. Just work on your cardio, lose belly fat, and aim for a functional physique, whatever that may be for you.

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