Q: Hey my name is Alexis and my friend is trying to lose weight but he only 15 years old. But we wants get abs before school starts. So what should I tell him so he can have abs before school. Also school starts on aug 17.

A: The only people who can get abs in 3 weeks are those who are almost there already. The most fat a typical person can realistically lose in 3 weeks is 3 pounds if you do it smart (meaning slow weight loss -- the kind required to ensure that the fat doesn't come back) or 6-8 pounds if do it in a hurry (which means that the fat and the weight are most likely going to come back soon afterwards). So unless your friend is already in very good shape, he can forget about getting abs in 3 weeks.

However once he sets his sights on a more realistic target (and not "abs before the school starts") the good news is that at his age he can become as buff as he wants to be over the next year or two. It's not going to be a quick process but if he is serious about it he will see significant changes in 2-3 months and in 1-2 years he can look absolutely great.

Here are things he needs to do:

1) Be very active physically. He doesn't need to go to the gym or run on a treadmill necessarily, but one way or another he needs to be physically active at least 1 hour per day and more would be better. This includes playing sports, running, biking, swimming, skiing, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, etc. Walking counts too, but a more vigorous activity would be much better.

2) Eat as healthy as possible. This is the hard part but it's also the most important part. He needs to learn what eating healthy means and then actually do it for at least 90% of all his meals. A few junk meals here and there won't hurt much as long as most of his meals are good. What most people consider "healthy" is actually not all that great. He needs to read http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/nutrition and focus on the Principles (the first part of articles). Exactly how much he eats is not that important. He should not be starving himself and should not be overeating on every meal. Being hungry once in a while is about the right balance. Again, the most important thing is to learn what is healthy and eat that and only that.

3) Be patient and continue to grow. At his age his best ally in losing fat and getting closer to that six-pack is his continuing growth. All he has to do is help it along by being active and eating healthy. Growing four inches in height is like losing 30 pounds! He just needs to let his body grow. For this reason he should NOT be starving himself -- if he eats too little his body won't have the nutrients it needs to grow. He needs to eat well and healthy to let his body grow to its maximum potential. He can even gain weight while he grows and still be losing body fat and eventually get his six-pack. I cannot overemphasize this enough: teenagers are the luckiest people in the world in having their growth as an ally in losing fat. They can lose fat and build muscle easier and faster than at any other age. He needs to understand and appreciate this fact and let his body grow.

That's it. The above three things are enough for big changes in a few months and a complete transformation in 1-2 years.

If he cannot or does not want to be active in everyday life he can definitely start on weight training and cardio in the gym. The important things there are having adult supervision and NOT pushing himself too much too fast. My weight training article -- http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/weight-training -- is meant primarily for adults. For teenagers like your friend most of the advice will also apply, except they should NOT train to the point of muscular failure until they are done growing. The reason is that training to failure increases the risk of injury and an injury increases the risk of stunted growth. As I said above, his growth is his biggest ally as far as losing fat and getting abs and he definitely does not want to stunt it with a bad injury.

So he should not be training to the point of muscular failure. Instead he should learn how to perform all the exercises safely and then select weights that he could potentially lift 10-15 times but only actually lift them 6-10 times or so. This way he is never exhausted at the end of a set and thus avoids injury problem. Aside from that weight training will definitely help him reach his goals. Good luck to him!