It's crunch time for resolutioners

Arnold Schwarzenegger used to have them, Matthew McConaughey can't stop showing his off, and late-night infomercials will have everyone believe it's possible to have their own.

Whether in magazines or on television, it seems just about everybody has a six-pack - except you, that is.

But it's not a package of cold ones. As people around the country flock to gyms to keep annual New Year's resolution promises of weight loss and exercise, one golden standard continues to drive people to do hundreds of crunches and sit-ups - six-pack abs.

Area personal trainers say a flat, fat-free stomach is much more a case of easier said than done. Not only that, but trying to achieve washboard abs could end up being an unhealthy pursuit of an impossible dream.

"Forget about it," said Jim Nonnemacher, a trainer at the Jewish Community Center in Brighton. "You can develop strong abdominal muscles without showing a six-pack. It's a Madison Avenue sales pitch to try to sell magazines and many other things."

First and foremost, Nonnemacher said the ability to get a washboard stomach begins with genetics. If someone doesn't have the ability to build lots of muscle, it would be hard to establish a six-pack.

Even then, it takes extreme dieting and dedication for the desired result.

In order to get enough definition to show off their abs, a person would have to drop their body fat down to around 5 percent, which can be unhealthy. Andy Schuler, owner and trainer at the Pittsford Nautilus and Personal Training Center, said a normal healthy level of body fat would be around 15 percent for males and 18 to 20 percent for females. Or, about the difference between a shirtless McConaughey and funny man Will Ferrell.

All that dieting only works if you also exercise for hours daily.

"People have to realize that you can't devote all the time because it's going to take two to three hours a day," Schuler said. "Anyone can reduce their body fat down to an acceptable level where you can see some abdominal muscles slightly defined, but do they want to give up that much of their life to do cardio in the morning, cardio at night and weights during the day?"

Even with so much dieting and work going into achieving a goal, psychologist Michael Ofsowitz said people are willing to push themselves to the limits to get rock-hard abs because society makes them dissatisfied enough to do so. Living in a hyper-sexualized culture breeds men and women who believe that having something like six-pack abs is the key to attract a mate, he said.

"But there's also some rationality behind it - people generally are attracted to physically attractive individuals, especially when seeking a romantic relationship," said Ofsowitz, a professor at Monroe Community College. "Given that there's not all that much we can do to change how attractive we are from the neck up, besides hygiene and haircuts, we can work on the shoulders down."

It doesn't stop there. Tom Proietti, a media professor at MCC and St. John Fisher College, said six-pack abs are just a form of ideal beauty that American society values because it's marketed so voraciously. Having a six-pack is tied to looking youthful, which is something that Americans consistently strive for, he said. This encourages people to search for ways to feel attractive according to what they see.

"(It's) the concept that even if one is not beautiful, one can purchase the goods and services that will do the trick," he said.

Canandaigua-based personal trainer Jeremy Biernat said that if a six-pack is something a person truly wants to achieve, more power to them.

"Anything is possible and that's one of those things that I can't underestimate what people can do," he said. "But on the flip side, that takes a lot of work."

The most important aspect of trying to get six-pack abs is diet, which eliminates cheating with things like soda, beer or sweet treats, Biernat said. A meal plan high in low-fat and high-protein foods and low on sugars and sugary carbohydrates is necessary, he said, noting that it would be similar to the diet of a bodybuilder.

The most important thing for anyone - six-pack or not - is just to get in shape and stay that way, Biernat said.

To lose weight the right way, Nonnemacher said people should eat six small meals throughout the day based on a well-balanced diet, drink more water and eat food slower, which helps your stomach communicate with your brain easier to alarm you when you're full.

Schuler emphasized that exercisers should focus on realistic goals based on their lifestyle and what they're able to do regularly. Something as simple as going for an hour-long walk each day can make big differences, he said. And, if six-pack abs are what someone is truly looking for, Schuler said he always offers words of encouragement.

"Everybody's got a six-pack," he joked. "It's just in storage."

Brighton-Pittsford Post writer Bryan Roth can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 270, or at broth@mpnewspapers.com.

Weight-loss tips

If you're looking for ways to drop a few pounds in 2008, Marie Lovenheim, a nutritionist who teaches at Monroe Community College and is on staff at Pittsford's Pilates Plus, suggests:

- Don't skip meals. Missing a meal can lower your metabolism, which makes your body less efficient at burning calories.

- Skip the artificial. Try to eat natural foods instead of artificial ones. Avoid additives like high-fructose corn syrup and cheap sugar and stick with natural food.

- Minimize the white. Don't go overboard with white sugar and flour. Whole grain products have fiber that helps to keep stomachs feel full longer.

- Don't just diet. Diets typically address weight loss and not overall health.

- Increase activity. Focus on small exercises that can be performed in everyday life.

- Use stairs instead of elevators and park farther away from a building to walk the extra distance.