How did I help him get 6 pack abs? And how long did it take? Continue reading to find out.
This is Cam …
A YouTuber who has been on a journey to transform his body. After his wife told him this:
Cam:
"So, basically, she called me fat."
So, for the next few months, I’m going to see if I can use the best science-backed strategies for training and dieting to help Cam ditch the dad bod and get 6 pack abs for the first time in his life.
Day 1
On Day 1, Cam started out at 160 pounds and, according to a DEXA scan, 25% body fat.
The first step was getting Cam to track everything he ate using our BuiltWithScience+ app.
On average, he was eating about 2,600 calories a day. Now, that’s not terrible. It’s close to what someone his size would need to maintain weight.
But it wasn’t low enough to start losing fat.
To shed around 1 pound of fat per week, we needed to bring that down to about 2,100 calories. But rather than completely overhauling his diet, I wanted to focus on strategic food swaps.
The goal was to cut calories without making it feel like he was sacrificing the foods he loved — especially when it came to snacks.
Addressing Cam's Obstacle To 6 Pack Abs
But there was one obstacle we needed to overcome to help him achieve 6 pack abs: Cam’s weakness for ice cream.
And for that, I had a secret weapon up my sleeve. The Ninja Creami.
Jeremy:
You mentioned you like ice cream.
Cam:
I love ice cream.
Jeremy:
You’re gonna be eating ice cream and getting shredded.
With our game plan for Cam’s diet in place, it was time to start training.
Cam's Training Overview
While Cam aims to get 6 pack abs, focusing on ab exercises alone won’t cut it.
When you’re in a calorie deficit, your body looks for energy, and without proper training, it can burn muscle along with fat.
The result? A “skinny” look instead of a lean, muscular physique.
To prevent that, we’re implementing a well-structured training program that targets all his major muscle groups.
And since Cam hasn’t trained or dieted properly before, he’s in the perfect position to build muscle while losing fat. And by broadening his back and shoulders, we’ll create that V-taper look to complement his 6 pack abs and achieve a truly aesthetic transformation.
Cam:
"Okay so Jeremy has set me up to test out his Built With Science + App.
I am supposed to log my weight, track my calories, and log the reps for all of my workouts all on here, so not only is Jeremy gonna be coaching me on and off, it’s gonna be like I have a little pocket Jeremy that I just carry around with me.
So for my pull-ups, this man has me doing 3 sets of band-assisted pull-ups, which I usually take to failure, but then he also has me doing 2 more sets of slow negatives, and honestly, those…
Those are the worst parts."
See, when we tested Cam’s pullup on Day 1, he maxed out at just 3 reps ...
But with the right training and strategy, I have a feeling we can get that number up to 10 by the end of this challenge.
With Cam now logging every calorie he was eating, he was staying right on track to achieving his 6 pack abs with a daily target of 2100 Calories, and his weight on the scale was quickly moving in the right direction.
One Month Update
While this is a great start, getting down to 15% body fat means Cam will have to lose more weight than he anticipated to achieve the 6 pack abs he wants.
After crunching the numbers, based on his current muscle mass, he’ll need to drop all the way down to 139 pounds.
That might sound surprisingly light for someone at his height (5 foot 9).
But the truth is, most of the shredded physiques you see online at heavier bodyweights are often the result of performance-enhancing drugs, genetic advantages, or decades of smart training.
So as I’m working with Cam, I’m curious to see just how far he’s willing to push before the diet starts to wear him down.
Cameraman:
How do the workouts compare to your regular workouts?
Cam:
"It just feels more intense.
Every exercise feels like it's harder, but I feel like, in a way, I'm doing fewer reps, but it just feels harder.
Everything feels more focused, more controlled, slower, more painful. It's good, though. It's good. It's definitely making me work for sure."
Jeremy:
"All right, give me half reps. Half reps.
One, control, two, three. Okay. Hold the bottom. And all I want you to do is squeeze your shoulder base together.
There you go. One, let it go. Let's do three more of those.
Just squeeze Here, go two. One more. Come on. There you go. Nice."
Cam:
"Dude. I feel like on leg days I sweat like this. I never sweat like this on back days or anything else."
Wait, What About Cardio?
While Cam was making good progress in the gym and with his diet, you may think there’s one thing we’ve overlooked in helping him achieve 6 pack abs: cardio.
But think of it like the cherry on top.
The weight tells your body to keep your muscles, the diet does most of the hard work of losing the fat, and the cardio can just help speed up the process.
And rather than forcing Cam to do grueling cardio sessions he’d never stick to long term just to achieve 6 pack abs, I wanted to find something he actually enjoyed.
Jeremy:
"So today we’re playing basketball, and to test how many calories he burns, we’re gonna put this mask on."
Basketball clearly isn’t exactly my strong suit, but it was fun.
And the best part is, you don’t even feel like you’re “working out.” In just 25 minutes of gameplay, Cam burned over 300 calories, which isn’t bad at all.
But here’s the thing: if Cam wanted to rely on cardio alone to lose the same amount of fat he’s been losing through his diet, he’d need to play nearly an hour of basketball every single day.
So, when it comes to fat loss, a combination of both is key. And in Cam’s case, it was just enough to speed up his progress toward achieving 6 pack abs without affecting his strength in the gym.
90 Days Check-In
Jeremy:
"Bro ... Bro … You have abs?"
In 90 days, Cam lost 11 pounds and shaved 3 ½ centimeters off his waistline.
But while his progress has been incredible, he’s not quite at full 6 pack abs yet.
He’s sitting somewhere around 18-20% body fat. And that’s perfectly fine. Getting lean and staying lean is a marathon, not a sprint.
And because we’ve been taking a sustainable approach, Cam was eager to keep pushing to see just how lean he could get.
But now that he’s proven his dedication to getting full 6 pack abs, it’s time to take things up a notch with my favorite science-based exercises to make his abs really pop.
Also, my favorite ab exercise:
Okay, so maybe this one isn’t science-based.
But to make up for my prank on Cam, I wanted to see if I could help him with one of the biggest challenges he’s faced in his fat loss journey. Getting served food but not knowing the calories.
Fortunately, this is a problem I and my incredible team at Built With Science has been working hard to solve with the food recognition feature on BWS+ app.
Cam's Progress Beyond 90 Days
As Cam’s journey to achieving 6 pack abs continued beyond 90 days, he kept getting leaner and lighter on the scale.
But this is where most people hit a wall. They drop to under 20% body fat and then progress stalls.
Why? Your metabolism adapts as you lose weight. Research shows that losing just 10% of your body weight can cause your body to burn up to 200-400 fewer calories per day.
So when Cam first started, he needed to eat around 2,100 calories daily to lose a pound of fat each week. But now, after losing 15 pounds, we’ve adjusted his target to 1,900 calories to keep the fat loss going.
And that’s where the BuiltWithScience+ app comes in.
Its built-in diet coach automatically adapts your nutrition plan weekly as your metabolism changes. So, for Cam, the app could sense whenever his metabolism dropped and adjust his nutrition plan so he never got stuck.
However, as Cam’s weight started dropping into the 140s, he noticed some side effects. He was more tired and had to go lighter (instead of heavier) in the gym.
What Cam’s experiencing is rooted in our survival.
Back in the day, having too little body fat meant you couldn’t stay warm and were at risk of starvation during famines.
So, if your body senses your fat levels getting too low, it fights back.
Here’s how it works: your fat cells produce a hormone called leptin.
Leptin signals your body, “Hey, we’ve got plenty of fat to work with. Feel free to use it for activity and let’s also lower the hunger signals.”
But as you lose fat, your body produces less leptin. In response, your body cranks up hunger signals and tries to conserve energy by decreasing your desire to move.
Which can also start to affect your strength in the gym.
Now, the point at which this starts to happen varies for everyone.
But for most men, it begins at around 15% body fat, and for women, it is around 25%.
And as you get leaner, these effects intensify.
That’s why getting shredded — around 10% body fat or lower — is not only incredibly difficult to maintain but can also become unhealthy.
Cam:
"I felt like I was taking slightly longer rests to try and just keep up with where I was the week before. And it just took the life out of me at the end of it where I'm like, 'Is this eally worth it?'"
So after 150 days of Cam’s fat loss journey, we decided to stop his diet here.
The extra push to get full 6 pack abs just wouldn’t be worth it, especially if it meant he wouldn’t be able to maintain his shape afterwards.
But now it’s time to check in on his final results.
Final Check-In
Cam:
"In a lot of ways, this felt kind of simple. It felt kind of easy.
I tried to stay consistent with everything and focus a little bit more on tracking my calories and weight, and it just felt like a bunch of little things that really added up to substantial success.
Oh, and as for my wife, recently, she told me this …
"You look hot."
TL;DR
Cam embarked on his journey to achieve 6 pack abs after his wife basically told him he was fat.
Cam started out at 160 pounds and 25% body fat. To get visible 6 pack abs, he’ll need to get down to at least 15% body fat. The priority is to dial in his diet with the BWS+ app.
As for his training, simply focusing on ab exercises won’t cut it for achieving 6 pack abs. He needs a well-structured training program that broadens his back and shoulders, too.
At the 90-day check-in, Cam had lost 11 pounds and shaved 3.5 cm off his waistline. But he wasn’t quite at full 6 pack abs yet.
Cam pushed on for another 60 days before we stopped his diet. The extra push just wouldn’t be worth it, especially if it meant he couldn’t maintain his shape afterward.
At his final check-in, Cam came in at 143 pounds and 14.6% body fat.
Transform Your Body With The BWS+ App
Getting 6 pack abs or any meaningful transformation is a marathon, not a sprint.
But the key is a sustainable plan you can actually stick to long-term. And what's crazy is I only worked with Cam in-person a handful of times throughout his journey.
The rest? That was all thanks to our brand-new app, BWS+.
It's just like having me as your personal coach, guiding you every step of the way with science-backed training, nutrition, and progress tracking.
And you can try it completely free for 2 weeks by clicking on the link below, and see the difference yourself.:
Click the button below to try the BWS+ app for 2 weeks, for free, no strings attached:
