Whenever you see someone with a shredded six-pack, you can be sure that they do more than just hit the gym. Lifting weights is a piece of the puzzle, but the best ways to lose weight and maintain body fat in the single digits require your diet, supplementation, and training to be on point.

Cutting back on the obvious junk foods and becoming more active are the best ways to lose weight for starters, but to unearth your abs requires another level of dedication. For example, you’ll need to start counting your calories to ensure you’re eating enough to maintain your muscle while losing the fat. Then, you need to replace starchy carbohydrates with veggies to lower your intake while staying full. How many times a day you eat plays a role too to keep your energy levels high. Of course, there are supplements you can take that aid fat loss and retain muscle, which is important when you’re dieting for an extended period of time (which is what you need to do for extreme body fat loss).

If this is making your head spin just relax. We’re not suggesting that you make all of these changes at once. If you’ve been dieting and training for a few years and really want to dial in your fat loss progress, read the tips below and pick a few (say, three to five) and implement those for two weeks to a month. Then, when you hit a plateau or feel ready to push yourself a little more, add a few more.

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