10-12% body fat: This level of body fat is a sustainable level for men. Your abs can be seen, but aren't as chiseled or defined as a man with 6-7% body fat. This is the body fat percentage that is the perfect beach body most people strive for.
Is 12 body fat sustainable? For a man with average genetics and a healthy lifestyle, 14-20 percent is a great, sustainable body fat. It's lean enough to show some decent muscle definition, but high enough that you can build strength and muscle and enjoy your life without strict diets.
12-14% can be maintained quiet easily if your diet is good, 10% and below is really for stage - most guys think they are at 10-12% when in reality they are around 15% everyone underestimate their BF% the average guy around 15% is usually pretty healthy. I am late 50's and maintain 12-13% most of the time.
If you're between 12–17% body fat, you might be a bit fatter than you'd like, so cutting isn't wrong, but you're still in a great place to build muscle from. This is where it really comes down to personal preference. But if you're keen on building muscle, bulking is the best path forward.
Body Fat Percentage Men 10-12%
This body fat range is the classic beach body look that most men want and many women love. While not very defined, there is separation between muscles, some muscle striations potentially in the shoulders, or arms, but striations are not showing on every muscle.
8%-12%: Lean. 12%-20%: Moderately Lean. 20%-30%: Excess Fat. Above 30%: High Body Fat Risk.
For a man with average genetics and a healthy lifestyle, 14-20 percent is a great, sustainable body fat. It's lean enough to show some decent muscle definition, but high enough that you can build strength and muscle and enjoy your life without strict diets. For a woman, a similar range would be around 21-28 percent.
As a general rule of thumb, 10 per cent body fat is the safest place to be. You're lean enough to show muscle — including your six-pack — and you can see your veins from your shoulders to your hands, but you're not so shredded that you're becoming translucent.
It's a body fat percentage that is realistic and maintainable for the vast majority of gym-goers. And from there, you can always choose to go lower to 12% body fat if you want to or simply stay around 15%.
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, there are healthy body fat percentages based on your age. For people aged 20 to 39, women should aim for 21% to 32% of body fat. Men should have 8% to 19%. For people 40 to 59, women should fall between 23% to 33% and men should fall around 11% to 21%.
The body fat percentage needed to see your pack of abdominal muscles falls somewhere around 14 to 20% for women and 6 to 13% for men.
Male Body Fat Percentage: 10% – 14%
This is the range that most men want to be at for a classical “beach body” look. There will be separation between muscles, but not in every muscle. Veins will mostly only show on the arms, and sometimes the legs.
Joint range of motion can be negatively affected by excessive body mass and fat as well, and mass can form a physical barrier to joint movement in a complete range of motion. Thus, athletes competing in sports that require high levels of flexibility benefit from having low levels of body fat.
Men need about 3-5% body fat to survive, while women need 12-15% for child bearing. Women with lower body fat percentages are usually either very unhealthy or professional athletes.
“While a strong core is important for stability and functional movement, visible abdominal muscles should not be the sole measure of fitness. In fact, for some individuals, a pursuit of six-pack abs may indicate an unhealthy relationship with food or an overly restrictive diet.
If you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible and you're at or below 10% (men) or 20% (women) body fat, then you should bulk. And if you want to lose fat as quickly as possible and you're at or above 15% (men) or 25% (women) body fat, then you should cut.
If you're flirting with the upper end of that range, you might want to burn a bit of fat before bulking. If you're above 20% body fat, cutting is usually the best path. If you're skinny-fat and eager to bulk up, that's okay. You can build muscle just as leanly as anyone else, and perhaps more so.
For men, your abs will typically start to become visible at around 15%. But at 12% is when you start to really see some good definition with your six-pack. And at 10%, your six-pack is clearly visible and well defined. For women, I wouldn't recommend a “clearly visible six-pack” as being the goal.
If you're a man, and your body fat percentage is at or below 12%, then you should bulk. If you're a woman, and your body fat is at or below 20%, then you should also bulk.
🤯 The number of Americans with 6 pack abs are 1 in 25,000… 9% of the 118 million households in the US are millionaires (net worth) about 1 in 10. Our body is the temple of God (1 Cor 6:19). For men, if you're around six to 17 percent body fat, your abs should be noticeably visible.
The ideal male body set by the men (BMI = 25.9, WHR = 0.87, WCR = 0.74) was very similar to the ideal partner set by the women (BMI = 24.5, WHR = 0.86, WCR = 0.77). This was a lower BMI than the actual BMI of roughly half of the men and a higher BMI than the other half.
General body fat percentage requirements
While fitness models are expected to have a body fat percentage of less than six percent, the limit is higher for fashion models. Generally speaking, male models are expected to have a body fat percentage no higher than 15 percent.
The study found that 12% was the most attractive body fat percentage. Attractiveness by body fat followed a bell-shaped curve: 12% body fat is optimum. If you exceed this value, you become less attractive as your body fat percentage increases. Less body fat than 12%, however, also reduces attractiveness.