How to Finally get visible Abs
Introduction
Visible abs are often seen as the gold standard of a well-built physique—highly coveted, yet elusive for many. Despite countless efforts, most people struggle to achieve them, often chasing unrealistic methods or unsustainable routines. This article breaks down exactly what it takes to reveal your abs—not through extremes, but through strategy, consistency, and realistic expectations.
It’s important to understand that visible abs aren’t a direct measure of health or strength. Plenty of elite athletes with incredible power and endurance don’t have a shredded midsection. And striving for abs doesn’t automatically mean you’re becoming healthier. Many go to unhealthy lengths to get lean, but that’s not the approach here.
Instead, this guide is about what it actually takes—physically and mentally—to uncover your abs in a sustainable way. Let’s cut through the noise and get to the truth.
Are Abs Really Made in the Kitchen?
Let’s be real—everyone has abdominal muscles. The challenge isn’t building them, it’s revealing them. And that comes down to one thing: body fat. If you want visible abs, you must reduce the layer of fat sitting above them so your skin can showcase what’s underneath. That’s why the phrase “abs are made in the kitchen” exists—because nutrition is the key to unlocking them.
Here’s the hard truth: fat loss is not evenly distributed. Most men tend to hold onto fat in the midsection the longest, while women often store it in the hips and thighs. But this isn’t universal, and it’s one of the biggest reasons people give up. If your abs are the last thing to lean out, it can feel like you’re doing everything right and still not seeing results. That’s when most people quit—just shy of the finish line.
If you can’t see your abs, it’s because body fat is still covering them. To change that, you’ll need to enter a calorie deficit—consuming fewer calories than you burn. The time it takes depends on three main factors:
How much fat you need to lose
Where your body tends to lose fat first
The intensity and consistency of your deficit
Most people can safely lose between 0.5 to 1.5 pounds per week. So, if you need to drop 10 pounds, a 2-month timeline is realistic. If you’re aiming for 20+ pounds, expect a journey of 3.5 to 6 months or more.
And here’s something important: if you’ve never had visible abs before, you won’t know exactly what weight you need to reach to see them. It’s a process of discovery, patience, and persistence. But with the right strategy and mindset, it’s absolutely achievable.
Stop Doing Ab Tutorial Videos (If You Think They’ll Reveal Your Abs)
Let’s clear something up: no amount of ab exercises will make your abs visible if they’re covered by body fat. That’s just the truth. While training your abs can help the muscles grow and protrude slightly more, it won’t magically burn the fat sitting on top of them.
This is one of the biggest reasons people give up. They follow ab workout routines religiously, expecting a six-pack to appear, and then quit when it doesn’t—despite all the effort. The reality is that abs are revealed through fat loss, not just training. You must diet down and reduce overall body fat to uncover them.
That said, ab training still has value. A strong core improves stability, enhances performance in compound lifts, and helps prevent back injuries. So don’t skip ab work—but don’t expect it to be the secret to visibility either.
The best approach? Combine consistent ab training with a caloric deficit. Train your core a couple of times a week and focus your nutrition on fat loss. That’s the formula for building strong abs and eventually seeing them.
Body Fat Percentage: What It Takes to See Your Abs
While it’s not universal, here’s a general reference for the body fat percentages typically needed to reveal visible abs:
Men: 10–15%
Women: 18–20%
Keep in mind, these are guidelines—not absolutes. How a specific body fat percentage looks on you can vary based on genetics, muscle mass, and body composition. Two people at the same percentage may look completely different depending on how much lean muscle they carry.
Body fat percentage refers to the proportion of your total body weight that’s fat. The more muscle you have, the more you can weigh while still maintaining a lower body fat percentage. That’s why building muscle can actually make it easier to achieve a lean, defined look.
For context, the average healthy body fat range is:
Men: 14–24%
Women: 20–30%
So, it’s no surprise that most people aren’t walking around with a six-pack—it takes a dedicated and consistent effort to get there. And it’s worth noting that the level of leanness required for visible abs may not be the healthiest or easiest to maintain long-term. As long as you understand the trade-offs and still want to pursue it, you’re making an informed decision.
The Mental Side Of Getting Lean : What It Takes
Getting lean takes determination and most of all consistency. Mentally, it can be hard to sustain the discipline it will take to get lean and see visible abs. As mentioned, it can take several months to achieve a lean physique. If you are needing to lose weight to see your abs you will need to be on a calorie deficit, depending on the intensity of your cut, you most likely will need to endure times of hunger in between meals, and or add on cardio to your workout regimen. Mentally, you will need to be prepared to stick to a deficit and training in the gym consistently several times a week.
You will also need to mentally be able to adjust your plan accordingly, to prevent plateaus and keep progress moving. As you lose weight your body will adjust to the deficit and also the less you weigh the less the calories you will need to maintain your weight. During times of dieting, you will have to make losing weight a priority. Meaning for most people to stay consistent meals will have to be prepped ahead of time and ready for the week and also grocery shopping, gym sessions and cardio routines will have to be a priority. You may have to skip out on some events, say no to eating out, and be determined. If you already are not a regimented person, going from zero to this level of discipline will be tough. If you are already used to these things, then it will just take time and focus. If you don’t have any experience, with these things its might be a bit of a stretch to expect yourself to do this for months on end.
Don’t expect any journey to be without its’ flaws. The journey to having visible abs will most likely include downfalls, and errors. If you fall off plan or miss a few marks. Don’t get discouraged. You can always get to where you want to be. If you fall off plan, simply get back on and keep going. Don’t beat yourself up. Approach it forgivingly, and with an attitude to learn and grow. The journey to anywhere is tumultuous and not void of mistakes or hard patches, keeping yourself in it for the long term even after these hard times and setbacks will ultimately bring you the best results.
What A Sustainable Diet Looks Like
You have your workout plan, and your motivation is high. Arguably the most important step is setting up a meal plan that will work for you. The first step is determining your maintenance calories. This is the number of calories it takes for your body to maintain its’ current weight. Depending on how much weight you have to lose, activity level, genetics, sex, level of muscularity, your calorie range can vary greatly. I have usually found that for women a good starting point is anywhere from 2,300 to 2,000 calories if you are already in the gym and are decently active. For men anywhere from 2,500 - 2,300 calories could be a good start. These are just estimates and again can vary greatly from person to person. Regardless, the goal is to find the calorie level that the scale isn’t fluctuating.
You could cut calories drastically and hop on a 1,500 or 1,000 calorie diet but this is not necessary and is most likely unsustainable. The reason finding your maintenance is crucial is because you may maintain at 2,200 calories and can drop them slowly starting with a much higher level than 1,500. You will be able to continue the cut more sustainably and for longer. Ultimately getting more results that are easier to maintain and decreasing the chance of having to stop because of intense hunger, low energy, and cravings.
I would recommend weighing yourself at the start of the week, then select a calorie level and eat at that level for a week. Weigh yourself a week later, if the scale went up a little (1-2) lbs range, decrease calories by 100 and check back again the next week. If your weight went up drastically, then cut by 200 -300 calories and reassess. The same is true in reverse, if you lost roughly a pound then continue with this level until weight loss stalls. Then cut by 100 calories and continue. If you lost a lot of weight (more than 2 lbs) then increase calories by 100 until you hit a rate of loss of about 1 lb a week. Keep checking in on your weight loss and responses to calorie adjustments.
It is also important to note that calorie deficits are additionally made through movement like cardio. Adding in more cardio, about 20 minutes at a moderate intensity, several times a week is a good way to increase your deficit without dropping portions of food. Using a combination of both cardio increases and food decreases is a good strategy.
Not All Progress Is Reflected On The Scale
Take progress photos and remind yourself that a week worth of meal prepping and adhering to a diet is no easy feat. Be proud that you showed up. The scale is a total derived from the combination of fat, bones, organs, water, and muscle. Water is a variable that cannot be fully controlled, and your scale weight fluctuations can’t discern the difference between water retention, muscle gain, or fat gain. Using progress photos as a reference is a good way to interpret what is actually happening. If you look leaner than when you started but the scale went up, you are still making progress.
Post - Abs Plan
Now that you have achieved visible abs, it is important to maintain your progress. If you had to cut calories low to achieve them, you might have to do a reverse diet. A reverse diet is one in which you gradually bring calories back up to maintenance just like how you gradually brought them down during your cut. If your body has adjusted to eating a low-calorie diet, you could add on several pounds by jumping back up to the calories you were consuming before or in the beginning of when you started. Also, it is important to note that if you return to the eating habits you had when you didn’t have visible abs, you will again not have visible abs. It’s going to take a dedicated effort to maintain your results. But it can be done with flexibility and sustainability if done in the right way. Gradually, bring up calories, and decrease cardio while monitoring photos and scale fluctuations.
If you completed your reverse diet, you are now ready for maintenance phase. In maintenance the goal is to maintain your weight and results. Again, if getting abs puts you in a place that is unsustainable you may need to put on some more muscle so you can be leaner at a higher weight and bodyfat percentage. Maintenance calories should be targeted around .75 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. You can go on the high end and aim for 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight but if doing so is causing you to forfeit carbohydrates or fat to stay within your calorie range the “low” end of protein will be just fine. Aim to have about 30% - 40% of your total calories coming from fat and fill the remainder of left over calories with carbs.
Conclusion
All in all, the journey to abs is a learning experience and often a trial and error. If you follow this guide, adjust as you go, and keep dedication high, your journey to visible abs will be that much closer. If you would rather have a coach for accountability and workout and nutrition programming, taking the guesswork out of your journey, fill out the coaching application on my website, and let’s talk about what it will take for you to get there.
