The six-pack revolution that may take over a gym near you
Scott Harrison says he was 89kg of ‘love handles, moobs and belly fat with a fat neck and even fat stored behind my ears’. After 75 days his paunch was replaced with an enviable six-pack. This is how he did it. Enticement: he eats six times a day.
Ten years ago, when he was in his early forties, Scott Harrison, a father-of-three from Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire, had what he describes as “a fitness epiphany” on the school run. Waiting for his children at the gates of their primary school he clocked the dad-bods, spare tyres and paunches on other parents and realised he was no different.
“There were so many people who were too fat and out of shape,” Harrison says. “It suddenly struck me that I was like them and on that December afternoon I made the decision to change my life for good.”
Over the Christmas period he read up enough on exercise and nutrition to devise a basic plan of attack and set himself the seemingly unrealistic new year resolution of attaining a six-pack in three months. “At that time, I was 14 stones [89kg] of love handles, moobs and belly fat with a fat neck and even fat stored behind my ears,” Harrison says.
“But I wanted to be a healthy role model for my kids, not a tired, overweight middle-aged man.” In the early days he admits he was “winging it” in terms of knowledge.
“I was a black belt karate instructor so I knew the fitness basics,” he says. “But my nutrition plan was largely born from reading The Zone Diet, a [low-carb, high-protein] diet book by an American biochemist called Dr Barry Sears [published] in the 1990s, which I adapted and simplified for myself.”
On January 1, 2016, he posted a video from his phone on Facebook “to hold myself accountable” with the message: “Hi, this is day one of my 90-day Six Pack Challenge – wish me luck!”
Thirty-six male and female Facebook friends responded asking to join him. Within two weeks of cutting out alcohol and processed snacks, increasing his protein intake and consuming only wholesome carbs, committing to working out 5-6 times a week as well as “huffing around the park” on weekly runs, Harrison began to notice visible changes to his body and after 75 days his paunch was replaced with an enviable six-pack.
“I had lost almost three stones [19kg], reduced my waist by six inches [15cm] and dropped my body fat from 23 per cent to 12.5 per cent much more quickly than I thought I would,” he says. “Nineteen of my Facebook friends stuck it out and saw incredible transformations too.”
Harrison quickly gained the moniker “the six-pack guy” and had so many people asking him for advice that demand outstripped the time he had to devote to helping them.
By the following year he had quit his role as co-owner of a double-glazing company with a turnover of £18 million (currently $35.6m) and “took a gamble” on turning his new-found role as an unlikely middle-aged fitness guru into a business.
Fast-forward less than a decade and the success of Harrison’s Six Pack Revolution plan has a touch of the Joe Wicks magic about it. Wicks – known as the Body Coach – emerged as an Instagram sensation in 2015 with his “Lean In 15” 90-day plan devised in the kitchen of his tiny one-bedroom flat above a shop on Surbiton High Street.
Similarly, Harrison has affable “guy next door appeal” for midlifers and uses the power of social media – he has amassed almost 85,000 followers on Instagram – to change the way we train and eat, posting impressive “before and after” pictures of whittled-down clients who have embraced his online plans.
From 370 subscribers to Harrison’s first paid-for programs in 2017, he now has tens of thousands of devotees from 90 countries who sign up at a minimum cost of £139, which includes meal plans, fitness schedules, a personal online coach and support network, for the 75-day fat-blasting and muscle-sculpting programs. Harrison has since qualified as a personal trainer and his wife, Victoria, as a nutritionist. They have also hired a team, including a GP and psychotherapist, for support.
“So far this month we have had 3000 people joining,” Harrison says. “And we are anticipating 15 to 20,000 new sign-ups this year.” There are, inevitably, celebrity devotees including Sara Cox and Rylan Clark, and reportedly Alexandra Burke, Alex Scott and Carol Vorderman, in addition, he says, to “some of the cast of Line of Duty and most of the Towie crew”.
His first book, Eat Your Way to a Six Pack, was a Sunday Times bestseller and he has just launched his second, High Protein Meals in Minutes (DK), which is expected to head the same way.
His client base has evolved from 75 per cent women in the early days – “surprisingly as you would think the six-pack would appeal more to men” – to a 50:50 split with most middle-aged, although he has followers in their seventies and eighties.
With no cheat days, no alcohol allowed and gruelling fitness challenges, his approach is anything but easy. Yet it appeals to the same band of midlifers who might choose hardcore Hyrox over regular gym workouts, for example, or train for an ultra-endurance race over a local 5km.
“I think a lot of people identify with the fact I wasn’t a guy who was ripped in his twenties, but an out-of-shape dad and I still managed to turn myself around at age 42,” he says. “They are prepared to work at having that for themselves.”
Here are his rules for getting a six-pack:
1. Eat six times a day
Aim to eat six times a day in the form of three high-protein main meals and three snacks, keeping a minimum of two and maximum of four hours between eating. “These can be consumed in any order or at any time you wish,” Harrison says. “Some people like to alternate meals and snacks, others to have all of their meals early on and save snacks for later.”
Practising this from the start is important. “A lot of people feel they are overeating early on, but as the effects of progressive exercise kick in, so their metabolism increases through the roof and they need this regular supply of energy,” he says. “It also helps to regulate blood sugar levels so that you don’t get hunger pangs and elevates the body’s fat-burning processes when combined with exercise.”
A typical day might include an 8am snack of smoked salmon with melon, a tofu flatbread with chilli sauce at 11.30am, a salad with chicken or fish at 2pm, sweet potato pancakes at 4pm, a turkey stir-fry at 6.30pm and a berry smoothie at 8.30pm.
2. Don’t think about calories
“When you are out of shape with surplus body fat, your metabolism is flat and unresponsive,” Harrison says. “The biggest mistake people make when initially trying to lose weight is to reduce calories, which reduces your metabolism even more as the body desperately tries to preserve energy.”
All meals, snacks included, should be a mix of protein, wholegrain and wholesome carbs and healthy fats, that help to keep energy levels but also mood and appetite in balance. Staple proteins on the plan include chicken and fish as well as plant proteins such as tofu, tempeh, seitan (made from wheat gluten) and Quorn. Harrison also recommends eating protein and fibre-packed chickpeas and lentils twice a week. Pack in green vegetables, sweet potatoes and healthy carbs such as couscous, bulgur wheat and freekeh so that “you get all of the essential nutrients and the energy you need”.
3. Aim to do some exercise every day
Harrison works out six days a week but says that for most of us workouts need to fit into a busy lifestyle. On his Signature 75 Day plan there is a minimalist everyday routine called “the dailies” with push-ups, glute strengtheners and core moves (starting with 10 repetitions in week one and building up each week) performed six days a week as well as 2-3 weekly physical challenges, usually an HIIT-style circuit with exercises using kettlebells and battle ropes (see below), as well as bodyweight moves such as mountain-climbers, leg-raises, push-ups, step-ups, full planks, squats, side-jumps and reverse-crunches. “You can do all of this in your own home and don’t need to go to a gym,” Harrison says. “And minimal equipment is required.”
4. Use battle ropes for speedy fat loss
One of Harrison’s first fitness purchases in 2016 was a set of battle ropes – weighted ropes that can be hooked around a post or a tree and manoeuvred up and down at speed to work all the body’s major muscles. “They are so incredibly effective they became the basis of my exercise regime and I still advocate using them if you have body fat to lose,” he says. “Wave them up and down with alternate arms and then both arms together for 60-second repetitions.” Investing in a kettlebell is also worthwhile.
6. No ‘cheat days’ are allowed
To succeed on the plan you need to commit to it for seven days a week. “This helps to rewire your mind so that you are not tempted to cheat, which can lead to a downturn in motivation,” Harrison says. “That is what can lead to yo-yo dieting and a sense of failure or lack of progress.” It’s not forever. Once you have achieved your results, Harrison says you should allow yourself to “socialise or party twice a week” provided that you are healthy the rest of the time.
7. Alcohol is strictly banned
On the Six Pack Revolution website, Harrison states “there is 100 per cent no alcohol whatsoever so please do not join unless you have accepted this as a reality”. As someone who used to drink a glass of wine most nights, he knows how hard it can be to stick to this rule, but he says it is essential for progress. Alcohol contains unwanted calories that can lead to weight gain, particularly around the middle, and switches the brain into starvation mode, sending signals that you are hungry even if you’ve already eaten.
8. Stay away from the scales
Harrison doesn’t advise using scales because muscle is denser than fat so it’s possible to stay the same weight while your body is getting stronger, trimmer and firmer. He recommends his clients weigh themselves only at the beginning and end of the program. “I try to encourage people not to focus all of their energy on the numbers on the scales,” Harrison says. “Instead, they should start to think about monitoring the more important outcomes such as improved health, better muscle strength and power, higher energy levels and healthier-looking skin.”
9. Limit yourself to two black coffees a day
Cutting out caffeinated drinks – tea, coffee, energy drinks and cola – is the best approach – “every single client who gives it up says they feel better” – but Harrison does allow his clients two black coffees (no sugar) per day if they prefer. “Caffeine restricts blood flow to the brain and coffee has been shown to encourage the body to hold on to belly fat,” he says. “Caffeine raises adrenaline levels and that in turn increases circulating levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which encourages stubborn belly fat to be stored around your middle.”
(thesixpackrevolution.com; High-Protein Meals in Minutes by Scott Harrison is published by DK)
THE TIMES
More Coverage
Naloxone shortage puts lives in danger
Access to lifesaving overdose medicine has become ‘critically’ precarious, foregrounding the shortcomings of a federal program in a crisis of stigma, stimulants and supply issues.
‘If I had waited any longer, I could have gone blind’
Eye exams for under-65s are subsidised every three years under Medicare, but optometrists say that’s too long and goes against best practice.