Body Fat Percentage

Using the above photos and labeled body fat percentages, what do you think is most attractive for men and women? (Yes, men can identify an attractive male body, and women can identify an attractive female body.)

Do you think your own personal preference matches what our culture as a whole thinks is most attractive? Do you think your own personal preference falls within the normal or average?

Do you feel that some bodies are unfairly treated, (positively or negatively)?

Bullgrit

Bullgrit said:

Do you think your own personal preference matches what our culture as a whole thinks is most attractive?

Click to expand...

I think that our media tells us what our culture finds most attractive, and they are factually incorrect in what they tell us.

As in, the media tells us, "Men like X, Y, and Z." Meanwhile, if you ask actual men, you'll be told, "I like X and Y. I also think A is cute, B is great, and I'll take a couple of Qs any day..."

Do you think your own personal preference falls within the normal or average?

Click to expand...

Vaguely worded.

Do I think my own personal preference falls within the normal or average for personal preferences? I don't care.

Do I think my own personal preference falls within the normal or average for body fat percentages? Again, I don't care.

It is good for humans to have a diversity of preferences.

Do you feel that some bodies are unfairly treated, (positively or negatively)?

Click to expand...

Yes, insofar as how in our modern world, outside of a sexual relationship and a small number of professions where physical prowess is a real issue, body type does not really impact much. It does not really matter if my travel agent is a bit heavier than is healthy for him, or if the librarian is skinny - they can both do their jobs just fine.

Unfortunately, our ape-descended brains are wired with circuitry that passes judgement that we have to work to ignore.

Bullgrit said:

Using the above photos and labeled body fat percentages, what do you think is most attractive for men and women?

Click to expand...

I think the 20-21% woman and the 9-10% man are the *most* attractive. But I think a woman is completey acceptably attractive from 14-15% to 25-26%, and a man from 6-7% to 14-15%.

Bullgrit said:

Do you think your own personal preference matches what our culture as a whole thinks is most attractive?

Click to expand...

From what I see in our media (including Internet comments), I think our culture expects a woman to be thinner than my preference.

Bullgrit said:

Do you think your own personal preference falls within the normal or average?

Click to expand...

I think my choice for most attractive woman is within the normal, (or maybe slightly under), the cultural average size for women. My choice for most attractive man is definitely, significantly under the cultural average size for men.

Bullgrit said:

Do you feel that some bodies are unfairly treated, (positively or negatively)?

Click to expand...

Definitely. For instance, the 25-26% woman would be called "fat" in most Internet comments, and that's just bad. And few people realize just how much work the 6-7% and 9-10% man shape requires -- not just dieting to get skinny like people expect of a woman -- yet it seems to be considered the baseline for male sexiness.

That is, it seems that in our culture, in general, a woman just has to be skinny, but a man has to be muscular. Some women can be skinny with no effort, but a man can't be muscular like that without a great deal of work.

Bullgrit

Funny thing...

I've been every BFP on that picture from 7-30% (currently in the 20%s)...and I have NEVER had 6-pack abs. Once I got super chubby, I was never able to rid myself of enough fat in that area to make my abs visible. Even when I got down to 7%, I was still had a gut.

As for the female side of things...well, my personal standards using those pix would be all but the 2 extremes- I like some curves on women, some softness- and my dating rule of thumb is "nobody with an equivalent or worse weight problem than myself, because I don't need negative reinforcement of my bad habits."

Do you feel that some bodies are unfairly treated, (positively or negatively)?

Click to expand...

Without a doubt.

Too many overweight people have felt the sting of uninvited commentary on their weight by those in better condition.

And the other side gets some backlash, too- not in the same amount, but just as nasty. There's a woman right now who is catching flack for posting selfies of her post-pregnancy physique 4 days post delivery. She's in incredible shape- even showing her rock-hard abs again. People are dogging her for presenting an unrealistic image to the public.

My personal take? Screw "unrealistic"- this is REAL. The problem lays within the observers who forget things like:

1) she is a well-known fitness nut & blogger, so she is going to take much more of her day in excise
2) her lifestyle includes habits that likely meant that she didn't pack in much excess pregnancy weight
3) there may be age, genetic or wealth & lifestyle components to the efficiency of her metabolism that others might not have, enabling her to she'd weight more efficiently.

Which means that while SOME can achieve her results, not everyone can, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Dannyalcatraz said:

I've been every BFP on that picture from 7-30% (currently in the 20%s)...and I have NEVER had 6-pack abs.

Click to expand...

6-pack abs requires muscular abs as well as low body fat. For an example, many marathon runners are very skinny (low BFP) but show no 6-pack.

Dannyalcatraz said:

Even when I got down to 7%, I was still had a gut.

Click to expand...

If you show a "gut" at that low a BFP, the "gut" was probably just flaccid muscles. It's like when someone very skinny waves their arm and you can see their triceps wobble -- the muscle is just loose, not taut and tone.

Bullgrit

Nope, it was fat, not flaccid muscles.

Essentially, it was like a Carmel's hump- almost all of my excess fat has hanging right over my belt.

And as for my build, well... at the time, I was 193lbs at 5'7"- which is something like 40lbs over the ideal weight listed and even 23lbs off the chart for "obese" on the on the Height/weight indexes. I was a muscular fireplug of a human. Benched over 300lbs; could do 3x 10 rep sets of 700lbs on the leg press machines; had enough vertical jump to touch the iron (not dunk) on a standard basketall rim. I even retained the flexibility to reach 7 1/2" beyond my toes.*

My jacket size- shoulders, not sleeves- was the same as my 6'3" tall buddy.

IOW, I was a walking poster child for "those charts are just statistical averages" which may have little to do with your personal physique.








* I once demonstrated this by placing the backs of my hands on the ground while standing...then stepping into my open hands with straight legs. I'm too chubby for that now- I can only step on my fingers...

Women: 17-26%.
Men: I don't care.

Society tells me I tend to like chunky girls. I also don't care. Girls gotta have some curve to 'em, IMO - at least for me to dig 'em aesthetically.

[MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION], were you in a sport that required that physical build?

Bullgrit

From a "if you could choose from the picture" perspective, the ones over the 30% mark aren't in my preference zone, and I suspect not in the zone for modern fashion, etc, as we're bombarded by skinny people.

However, in real life, not every girl or guy is that skinny, and you gotta accept what's available. As they say in Hedonism land, 8's end up with 8's and 3's end up with 3's.

Bullgrit said:

[MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION], were you in a sport that required that physical build?

Bullgrit

Click to expand...

Alas, no. Most of it was just a genetic gift, wasted. According to MDs, I have @10% more bone & muscle mass than the typical human male. At my peak of fitness & activity level, even if I had 0% body fat, I would not have been able to reach a weight that would have put me back on the aforementioned height/weight charts.

While I did enjoy participating in soccer, football, and other sports, I largely didn't participate in any organized sports after HS except in intramural or social groups. I took a Weight Training class for my college's common curriculum requirement, which led me to bulk/power up at a frightening rate.

But I found organized sports too disruptive to the rest of my life. Too much of a time commitment, too much travel for me to do the other things I loved.