Can Bread Prevent Six-Pack Abs?

By Lorra Garrick | Last updated 03/23

Trust me on this: There is absolutely no association between bread consumption and the development, or lack thereof, of six-pack abs.

I never told my personal-training clients, “If you want tight and toned abs or a six-pack, stop eating bread.”

Now when I say “consumption,” I’m referring to the ingredients in bread, a flour-based processed food. I am NOT referring to total daily calories when I say “bread consumption.”

I’ll get to calories in a moment. But first, I must reiterate: There is nothing inherent in bread’s ingredients, including white flour, that would make getting a six-pack difficult, let alone impossible.

Formula for Six-Pack Abs

Shutterstock/Dusan Petkovic

The formula for this most appealing trait is a low body fat percentage combined with trained abdominal muscles.

This begs the question:

Won’t bread prevent low body fat percentage, thereby preventing getting a six-pack?

The only thing that stands in the way of achieving a low body fat percentage is consuming more calories than you can burn off in a day.

If you’re in caloric deficit mode (but are still eating enough to maintain a good amount of lean body mass), you’ll have a low body fat percentage — and that buff physique..

How do you cut back on calories to lower body fat so that the six-pack is visible?

This can be done by deleting 500 calories a day of food — namely heavily processed food. In one week you’ll lose a pound of body fat.

This plan is ideal for those who are eating more food than they need.

A pound of fat = 3,500 calories.

Shutterstock/ESB Professional

On the other hand, an increase in exercise is all it takes to lower body fat enough to show the abs in some individuals.

Bread, in and of itself, has nothing to do with the calories in vs. calories out fat loss model, nor a medication or medical cause of difficulty shedding body fat.

Now, if you’re chowing down lots of bread every day, that’s too many calories from one type of food — a type of food that’s not essential to good health.

If you cut back on your daily bread consumption (if it’s 500 calories/day), then of COURSE this will result in fat loss of a pound a week. It’s fewer calories! Doesn’t matter what the omitted source is.

You’ll get the same result if you cut back on 500 calories worth of other foods you might be consuming in excess, such as pasta, beef, cheese or potato chips.

Fewer calories mean your body will dip into fat reserves for energy, including fat that’s hiding your six-pack.

The reason not all “skinny” people have a six-pack is because, though a person may be thin in terms of abdominal diameter, they’re packing enough fat in their stomach to hide abdominal definition.

Another reason why many slimmer folks don’t sport a six-pack is because their abs aren’t trained adequately, that is, the muscles there aren’t tight and strong.

To get a six-pack, you must have trained abs, plus a low body fat percentage from appropriate caloric intake combined with exercise that burns a lot of fat, such as high intensity interval training and big compound moves like the deadlift, squat and barbell work.