Stop obsessing over six pack abs

“Get shredded!”
“Lose your gut!”
“See six-pack abs in six weeks!”
“Six-minute abs!”

If you’re even a casual consumer of fitness magazines, books, DVDs and the like, these phrases sound all too familiar. Starting in the mid-nineties, the six-pack became the sine qua non of fitness: if you have one, you must be fit; if you don’t, you’re a tub of lard.

I don’t buy it. I happen to be pretty lean — I recently tested at just over 10 percent body fat — and I work out and watch what I eat meticulously. But I also realize that my genetics (in this case, anyway) did me right. I’d probably remain fairly lean (maybe a four-pack in strong overhead light?) even if I curbed way back on my exercise plan.

For other guys, it’s a different story: they can diet and work out more diligently than I do for months and never see a single ab. It’s just not in the cards for them. For these people, they’d have to diet and exercise so strenuously that even if they finally did unearth their abs, they’d have to lead a 24-7, 365-day life of asceticism and self- denial in order to maintain them. It would literally be a full-time job. Just as it is for professional models and actors — who are paid handsomely, by the way, for their willingness to suffer.

And who wants that?

Reality check: a 2003 study revealed that for men, a healthy body fat percentage is one that’s somewhere between 10.8 and 21.7 percent. If you’re under 22 percent (almost forty-five pounds of fat at a body weight of two hundred pounds), you’re already at a level that science tell us is reasonably healthy, and losing weight won’t necessarily make you healthier.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t try to get leaner; that’s also not to say, let’s all bulk up to 22 percent body fat. It’s just to say that depending on structure, activity level, and genetics, some people can actually carry a substantial amount of body fat and still be exceptionally healthy.

For those of us out there who still harbor dreams of getting — and staying — in the single-digit body fat club, consider the following recent body fat measurements of elite-level male athletes:

• One-hundred- to –two-hundred-meter sprinters: 6.5 percent
• Marathoners: 6.4 percent
• “Weight class” athletes (boxers and wrestlers): 7–8 percent
• Body weight–supported sports (canoers/kayakers/swimmers): 13 percent
• Off-season-physique athletes: 14–15 percent
• Contest day–physique athletes: 4–5 percent.

Impressive numbers, to be sure. But bear in mind that these athletes are (1) in the prime of their athletic life, (2) on a super-intense and rigorous training and dieting schedule, and (3) do not maintain the same level of leanness in the off-season. These athletes look this way only when they are peaking: training their hardest, eating their cleanest, resting their best.

Also note that off-season-physique athletes — and some in-season pro athletes —  are actually not obsessively, fanatically lean; instead, they maintain a level of body fat that’s very sustainable and realistic for most guys.

If, for a brief time, you want to work out and diet single-mindedly, and then snap a picture when the day comes before resuming a more temperate lifestyle, I say go for it. But bear in mind that it’s not sustainable — and I sincerely hope that most of us have better things to do.

The eight-by-eight-inch square of flesh on your abdomen does not define who you are as an athlete, a man or a human being. If you’re going to obsess over something in your health and fitness, obsess over feeling better, moving better and performing better. Six-pack abs may follow . . . or they may not. Either way, you’re healthier and happier for it. And that’s a win-win.