6 Pack Diet Plan Disaster (CALORIE CUTTING!) – ATHLEAN-X™

by YouTube Team

Stop starving yourself and build ripped lean muscle here

The biggest mistake one can make when trying to diet for a 6 pack is creating their caloric deficit through reduced food intake alone. You simply cannot look at your nutrition that simply. Food provides so much more than just calories and energy. The right types of food can trigger a hormonal cascade that can not only tip the scales of protein synthesis but can set the stage for whether you can continue to stick to your hypo caloric diet long term.

Eating for a six pack is one of the most overcomplicated things that lifters will do. They attempt to cut fast by eating far fewer calories than they normally take in. All this does is cause reflexive hunger and cravings that wind up catching up to you sooner or later and preventing you from sticking to your weight loss plan long term. The proper way to achieve a state of hypo caloric deficit is to focus more on creating the deficit through training and not diet.

If you are eating a clean diet and just can’t seem to lose those last levels of body fat, you likely are suffering from this phenomenon first hand. The key is to actually increase the calories that you are eating and aim towards creating more of a calorie burn through training instead. The burst training workouts that ATHLEAN-X is known for are a great way to start doing that and they won’t take you very long to do this.

In just 20 minutes or less, you can start burning hundreds of calories while allowing you to resume eating more calories and still lose body fat. The increased food intake will carry along with it, important micronutrients and macronutrients that are necessary for stimulating muscle growth. Over time, the more muscle that you accumulate the more metabolically active tissue you have which itself will require a higher set point of daily caloric intake.

This is why athletes can eat much more throughout the day and still be ripped. The amount of calories they burn training or playing allows them to increase their food intake which helps them to provide their muscles with the nutrition and quality foods needed to support muscle growth. If you keep making the abs diet mistake of cutting calories alone, you will find that your metabolism will slow and your fat burning efforts will come to a halt.

For a complete program that helps you to make nutrition simple, head to and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. See exactly how to eat to get a ripped six pack while building all new lean athletic muscle at the same time.

For more ab workouts and nutrition videos as well as diets for six pack abs, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at

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43 comments

PhilFX April 30, 2020 - 3:04 pm

How do I know how much calories I need for maintenance?

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bavaro Polo May 7, 2020 - 3:53 pm

I always thought dieting is expensive and 'healthy' food costs a lot. Little did I know. I got my diet plan from Next Level Diet and I was able to select foods that fit my budget.

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Bill Black90 May 9, 2020 - 2:01 am

IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT AND STILL EAT FOOD YOU LIKE JUST CHECK NextLevelDiet. They provide you with personalized meal that contains only food you have selected, personalized training plan and amazing tips that helped me lose 30lbs.

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Atma Khalsa May 9, 2020 - 6:56 am

Thanks for being a voice of reason!!! So great to have a trustworthy and consistent source of information w a healthy dose of humor!!

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Aziz Delta May 15, 2020 - 6:25 pm

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Texan Football Houston May 15, 2020 - 7:35 pm

It's a dad and daughter day hot wings delivery today love hot wings

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Batoul Kassem May 28, 2020 - 6:36 pm

If I exercised then I will get hungry😩

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Jordan Epperson June 2, 2020 - 7:41 pm

This is great. I'm having so much touble. I workout. I have lost 20lbs. I can't seem to lose anymore. I consume between 1800 and 2000 cal a day and I am at a plateau. Thing is I'm burning 3500-4500 cal a day according to my Fitbit. I'm very active and I just don't get why installed. My deficit is way too low.

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MDCMR- -FAMILY June 2, 2020 - 11:09 pm

What if you burn 1000 calories a day

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TrentjHill June 27, 2020 - 12:50 am

1) Is he saying the 2000 is maintenance calories with activity included? Then only a 100 cal deficit and workout to get the other 400 calories burned?
2) How do accurately track burring 400 calories through lifting weights. My Apple Watch gives me like 600 calories + after my lifts, (i set it to weight training) is that accurate?
3) when fat loss stalls, should you increase the calorie deficit to 200 and keep weight sessions the same duration or create longer sessions and keep calories the same?

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meli idk July 1, 2020 - 7:57 pm

So hes basically telling me to just eat more? Damn

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Jeff M July 8, 2020 - 4:16 pm

I'm doing a bit of both (cal restriction and cardio). I'm about 6 weeks into a cut, and I've had great results. I'll be done cutting in a few weeks and then its increasing calories/protein and lifting.

'm cutting calories to 1800 per day, walking for 50 mins at noon, then doing cardio in the evening, usually cycling. It's worked great. But, it's been alot of hard work. I love it though. At this point I'm not just focused on reaching my fitness goals, but thinking about how to channel this mental state into other areas of my life. It's a great way to learn how to discipline yourself to work hard for something.

I would disagree slightly about cutting without building muscle. Nothing will improve the way a guy looks than cutting the body fat down. I'm not big, and I get the point about looking too skinny. I'm border line on that now. But, have enough muscle to still look good. I haven't lost any muscle during this cut. But, I chose to cut first, then will focus on building muscle next.

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Bob James July 24, 2020 - 1:07 am

I have a six pack. How do I sustain it?

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Ian Jones August 4, 2020 - 8:20 pm

What if I can cut down 500-600 calories but I still get enough protein 1-1.2 times by body weight. Can I still build muscle? Or as much as I would without the calorie deficit?

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ADM August 22, 2020 - 5:41 pm

Ugh, I'm ashamed to go back to these videos in knowing I forget these.

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Toby Howat October 13, 2020 - 8:07 pm

Having tits on a bull

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Moosa Quadri October 28, 2020 - 11:34 am

I have a question so hear me out, I have been in a calorie deficit plan before and I lost 10kg in 5 months, and now i started doing more weights and i have gained muscle and i have a very slight visible six pack and i want to take my training a step further and get more shredded and drop my body fat levels so i am thinking of going through another calorie deficit plan. my question is will i be able to eat an equal amount of calories burnt once i have dropped my body fat percentage or do i have to stay in a calorie deficit forever to have visible abs?

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Hithesh shettigar October 29, 2020 - 9:05 am

👍super👍

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Muhammed Ali October 29, 2020 - 9:06 am

If you want to lose 20kg like I did, you need to visit website *Agoge Diet*. They provided me with 30 days plan meal, training plan, fitness tips and healthy recipes. Visit their site and transfrom your body!!!

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Гулим Атабай November 26, 2020 - 9:29 pm

Is there a better feeling than eating a pizza without a guilt knowing that it wouldn't mess up your fitness plans? AgogeDiet, thank you for everything!

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Abhisar Dahiya December 6, 2020 - 4:39 pm

"Tits on a bull"😂😂😂😂😂

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Aabba aliyu January 3, 2021 - 12:38 pm

Nice one

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gauravsinghbhathalja January 10, 2021 - 2:49 am

Hii

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James Knight January 30, 2021 - 2:22 am

Nothing but standing ovation and respect for Jeff Cavalier, AthleanX.

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Gary Michael Flanagan February 5, 2021 - 1:34 pm

Do you guys really think you can raise your maintenance calories with slightly more muscle growth as a natural athlete? I don’t think it’s a very big jump, but I’m curious if any of you have been able to make 500-1000 calories jumps up based on more muscle gained. Anyone have any success in this?

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PalatablePuddle February 23, 2021 - 2:17 pm

"Why the hell won't this thing stick not so smart"
Smart board: "My goals are beyond your understanding"

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Kunal Vatwani March 7, 2021 - 11:34 am

Will cardio nut burn muscle loss along with fat loss??

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Mehrankhan Lohani March 23, 2021 - 12:41 pm

Does wieght training burn calories ..

Because cardio won't build muscles ..

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Omar Fbg March 28, 2021 - 5:09 am

This is exactly what I did and it works 100000% and you maintain size literally

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Aaron Alaniz March 29, 2021 - 5:38 am

So all this caloric deficit talk I see on TikTok is false?

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yrureadingthisname March 29, 2021 - 9:40 am

I’ve been eating one meal a day for close to two months and I lost 20lbs. Want to lose another 15 ideally.

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Hank Mancil April 1, 2021 - 1:47 pm

One word, “CrossFit”.

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Josh Mansfield May 21, 2021 - 6:17 am

How do you work out your daily maintenance level for calories can please someone help me?

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/Digga 7 June 14, 2021 - 8:46 pm

Hey i need help pls. I am 5.11 weigh 165 lbs and I want to go down to about 155 I’m like 13-15% bf and I want to reach 10% I eat about 120-150 grams of protein a day, I eat about 1800-2000 kcal max I workout 4-6 times a week, I walk 10km a day, (burn around 400-500kcal a day through walking and workout) but I reached a plateau I cannot lose anymore fat for about 2-3 weeks, pls help !!

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Adonis95 July 7, 2021 - 1:53 am

smart tv, smart water, one life

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Michelle Colledge July 10, 2021 - 12:49 pm

This is what I've been doing wrong. I read, alot, that you shouldn't eat less than 1000 calories per day but at 4" 7' it's hard to lose weight even on 1000 calories. So, training just got more intense. I'll do it Jeff's way. Thank you.

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Commando303X August 8, 2021 - 2:48 pm

This video feels to be rather antithetical to most that are shared on the ATHLEAN-X channel, which latter usually emphasize dietary habits rather than aggressive physical exercise, as a better approach to fitness and health.

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Warda August 11, 2021 - 9:01 pm

I need some adivce yall – i am 163 cm tall 73kg ( with muscle) trying to lose some fat , i weightlift 5 times a week wit 3-4 times cardio. for 3 months i am eating around 1600- 1700 kcl a day, at first i saw change but now it feels like i am plateauing, should i just keep going or should i increase/decrease my kcl?

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DJ A Sen September 3, 2021 - 12:43 pm

Calorie restriction is killing your gains! 🥳

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sutthinee souriau hong-in September 5, 2021 - 9:18 am

So eat and excersice# that the way

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ambra raouda December 18, 2021 - 8:28 pm

I DID KETO LOST ALL MY ACNE BUT NEVER EVER LOST WEIGHT

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michael k December 25, 2021 - 12:05 pm

binge watching videos ughhhh

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George Merrick January 4, 2022 - 4:09 pm

Great points. But wouldn’t the situation also be handled by fasting 2 separate days and eating normally 5? That way you’re in a weekly deficit but still feeding.

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