By Shane Duquette | July 17, 2019 | 20
The main scientific theory explaining why we find certain traits attractive is that they showcase genuine advantages (study, study, study). For example, the healthiest body-fat percentage range for men is between 10–20% (study), so we’d expect that amount of fat to be considered the most attractive by women. That is not what we see on magazine covers, though, where men are typically far leaner.
Do women really find men with the healthiest body-fat percentage the most attractive? Or do they prefer even leaner men with more chiseled abs?
Okay, so, first, why do women care about your body-fat percentage to begin with? If we can understand that, then we can better understand why they would prefer somebody-fat percentages over others.
There are a few reasons that having a healthy body-fat percentage is so important:
When a woman is choosing a partner, it makes sense that she’d be more attracted to the men with all of those benefits, even if that attraction is happening subconsciously.
Assuming for a moment that women are attracted to men who look healthy, the first anomaly we run into is body-mass index (BMI), which is the leading method that health professionals use to determine whether someone is overweight or not. Oddly enough, it turns out that women are most attracted to men with a BMI of 26 (study), which is technically overweight. For example, for the average 5’9 man, his most attractive body weight is around 175 pounds, which most health professionals would consider too fat to be healthy.
However, this mismatch is easily explained by the fact that BMI is a blunt measurement that does not differentiate between fat and muscle. If we look at the body composition of the men that women preferred, we see that women did not prefer men who are carrying extra fat, they preferred men who were carrying extra muscle. So much extra muscle, in fact, that it popped them into the overweight category. (Here’s our article on the most attractive amount of muscle mass.)
The reason strong men break the BMI system is because it is so rare for a man to be that strong. Most men do not lift weights, and even most men who lift weights do not do a particularly good job of it. If you do lift weights, though, and if you take care to do it properly, then your BMI will not tell you very much.
There is also the skinny-fat problem. Some guys are not overweight, they are just over-fat. In fact, 29% of men who have a technically healthy BMI are still at an increased risk of developing heart problems and diabetes because of their low muscle mass and high body-fat percentages (study). In this case, you might have a guy who is 5’9 and weighs 160 pounds, which medical institutions would consider perfectly healthy, except for the fact that most of that weight is in his stomach. (Here’s our article for guys who are struggling with being skinny-fat.)
Anyway, if attractiveness is based on how healthy someone looks, it is no surprise that BMI is a poor predictor of attractiveness. You can get a much better idea of how healthy someone is by looking at their muscle mass, overall body shape (such as shoulder-to-waist ratio), and, of course, his body-fat percentage.
When it comes to body-fat percentage, since men store most of their fat in their guts, the best way to tell a man’s body-fat percentage is to look at his stomach. (Here’s how to estimate your body-fat percentage by looking at your stomach.)
If having a lean stomach is a way for a man to showcase his health, that would explain why abs are so coveted. After all, to have abs, you need to have a very lean stomach.
Another little-known fact is that to have abs, you also need to be quite muscular. Now, some overweight people naturally have muscular abs because of how much bodyweight they’re carrying around. For skinny guys, though, they often need to intentionally bulk up their abs.
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