Females have less testosterone than males and more estrogen. Testosterone supports muscle growth, while estrogen can make it harder to burn body fat. It is still possible for females to have well-defined abs. However, they can be more challenging to achieve and may require a lower body fat percentage.
Women have less muscle mass and more body fat than men, and they often find it harder to lose weight. These factors combined make reducing body fat low enough to reveal chiseled abs very difficult — but not impossible.
For optimal health, body fat ranges of 18-30% are recommended for women and 15-25% for men. So, women naturally hold onto more body fat than men. They need more, just to function properly. Getting visible abs requires reducing body fat to very low levels.
Women: 1 to 2 years
From this starting point your journey to visible abs is likely to be close to 1 to 2 years. Men may be able to shave a few months off and achieve this in 10 months, but 8 to 12 months is a reasonable time frame to set your sights on if you have around 30 percent body fat.
Women naturally carry around more body fat than men because of normal hormone production and an energy "reservoir" to feed a child during pregnancy. This means that women generally have to work harder and lose more weight to develop a set of abs.
Good news, guys! Over 75% of women prefer FLAB to abs: Sex therapist Tracey Cox explains why women DON'T want chiselled perfection in their bed. Three in four British women would choose a man with love handles over one sporting a six-pack.
It's Harder for Women to Lose Weight — Really
This means your body uses fewer calories (units of energy) to fuel normal body functions like breathing, thinking, and circulating your blood. The leftover calories are stored as fat. Plus, female body composition usually exceeds males'.
Even though it may be more challenging for some women to achieve the look of six-pack abs, says Personal Trainer Adnan Munye, everyone has abs—it just depends on how much body fat is covering them. Since men tend to have lower body fat than women, he notes, it can be easier to see their abs in the first place.
Experts say that while it's a challenge for both men and women to get six-pack abs, it's "difficult particularly for women," says De Leon. "Due to the larger muscle mass of men and their higher levels of testosterone, it is easier for them to have sculpted abs."
4-pack abs are when you have 4 distinct, visible, defined muscles in your stomach area. In most cases, these are the 4 upper abs, which flatten into a toned abdomen lower down as they taper into a V-shape down to the groin area. What is this? Usually, the visible abdominals are the two blocks above your navel.
And chasing a six-pack for aesthetic reasons can actually be unhealthy. “Six-packs are proof that you have a very low body fat percentage, but that may mean you're sacrificing nutrition and not getting the most out of your training sessions,” Scharff adds.
I think it's super attractive when a girl has strong enough abs and is lean enough to see the divide beween her obliques and her middle abdominal muscles.
Yes, you can develop strong abs under fat. The rectus abdominis is the section of the core that forms the traditional “6-pack” look, and even if these muscles are strong, they can still be hidden underneath a layer of subcutaneous fat.
No matter who you are, the appearance of your abs is largely based on your genetics. “How visible they are, how they're shaped, whether they're aligned or crooked—it boils down to your DNA,” says Mike Israetel, Ph. D., sports physiologist and co-founder of Renaissance Periodization.
Males. Males generally have more muscle mass than females. As a result, it is easier for them to build more visible abs.
For example, for skinny guys, if you're cautious and do lean bulking, and you add in a variety of ab exercises, it's possible to build up your ab size incredibly quickly without covering them up with tons of fat. You could have abs in a matter of months.
Many people do not realize that only 2 percent of the world's population can claim to have six pack abs. With our current diets and food choices, obesity is on the rise and getting a lean, mean set of abs seems to be becoming more elusive.
Sure, women love a guy with a chiseled six-pack. But that's not the only body part they check out at the beach (or in bed). And while each woman has a different favorite muscle, these eight (in no particular order) are at the top of every female's "what I notice" list.
Some teens, even after puberty, don't have the body composition for building a six-pack. For example, you may have inherited thick skin that hides your stomach muscles no matter how hard you try to build them up, but don't take this to mean that you're weak or that you should give up on working out your stomach.
“Gaining muscle is slightly misunderstood when it comes to strength training in men and women. Women can gain muscles just as easily as men. The only difference is the size of the muscle as these gains are based on one's overall skeletal structure, size and testosterone levels,” explains Khemani.
Gender differences in food intake and selection first appear in adolescence. Men consume more calories than women, and the sexes have different eating styles, which indicate that women have been socialized to eat in a more feminine manner.
Women tend to prefer men with fit, athletic bodies.
They prefer men who are in much better shape than average but not as lean and strong as most men wish to be.
Lifting weights builds lean muscle mass, which can help accentuate your curves. You can also focus on hip thrusts, squats, lunges, and deadlifts to help build your glutes. How do I gain weight? Eat carb-dense foods, like bread, and protein-rich food, like turkey.
It was only during the early 19th century that lean and muscular physiques began to be highly coveted. In the space of a few decades, plump bodies came to be seen as slovenly, while lean, athletic or muscular builds were associated with success, self-discipline and even piety.