Makes the muscles show better. 
Yeah, I think the thread is headed well into the “cutting” phase. 
Lol, all I did is suggest that you take your snark and personal attacks elsewhere. I even ignored your attempt to misquote and strawman me earlier in the thread.
Why are you being so thin skinned?
No, why are YOU being so thin skinned?!?!
We can do this all day… 
We could, but I’m not going to ask you again.
Just as well. You probably should get busy answering post #99.
Don’t feel like it at the moment. Not in the mood to have my posts misconstrued. Must be my “thin skin.”
Fine, I can wait. I really don’t care about your motivations, I’m just trying to understand where the idea came from.
If your concerns are based on some sort of personal experience or acquaintance with someone who had a problem involving pursuit of six pack abs I, for one, would be interested in knowing from a strictly curiosity point of view. If you aren’t comfortable posting in public I’d still be interested in knowing via private message.
Of course, your choice to share or not.
Pursuit of almost anything can be taken to unhealthy extremes.
Ach. Someone has to argue the other side here so I’m going to step up to the plate.
runner pat claims that abs start to show at about 10 to 12% body fat and I’ve read less than 10 to less than 8% stated elsewhere. No idea where people get these numbers but let’s just accept them.
A typical male 40 to 59 with a body fat percentage under 11%, let alone 8% is going to likely have a BMI under 18.5, i.e. seriously and unhealthily underweight. (Full article.) For that age male under 11% is not a healthy fat percentage, let alone the under 8% that a six pack really shows at (allegedly). Sure that does not apply to serious athletes whose significant whole body muscle mass pushes their BMI higher, but we have no reason to believe that this man belongs to that group. He likely has a more typical amount of muscle mass and getting down to that BMI is indeed correlated with adverse health outcomes, worse than even moderate levels of obesity. If he successfully followed the advice of “washboard abs are made in the kitchen” he would diet himself into an unhealthy weight.
Healthiest outcomes are correlated with a BMI somewhere between high normal and low overweight, 23 to 27, the exact point varying depending on the study. In my cited study that correlates with a body fat percentage of something like 18 to 22% for males his age. Get down to 11% and you won’t be in as much of the sweet spot but still in the “healthy range” - and still no six pack. Lose more to get the six pack and you get into the unhealthy range (again excepting those with much muscle mass).
It is a silly goal that if successfully met would likely correlate with poorer health outcomes.
The consensus of this thread is incorrect. It is possible for a man in his forties to have a six pack and be healthy, if he is overall highly muscled, but getting down to that body fat percentage with a typical male’s muscle mass would be getting to an unhealthy low weight, and would be consistent with a body dysmorphic condition.
Is that the diagnosis you would give to every professional athlete over 40, marathon and triathlon runner over 40, and every endurance athlete and long distance hiker over 40? Not a hobby or a career, but a “disorder”?
No but there is this thing called specific reading disorder you may want to check out. 
Read what you quoted for your answer, the part that references for a typical male’s muscle mass and that places the seriously athletic in that other group.
No, those people are not focused on losing fat because they are dissatisfied with how their bodies look. They lose fat as a consequence of an athletic pursuit. Where that becomes obsessional and unhealthy rather than healthy and admirable is a separate discussion and one I am unsure of what my position is.
I’ll be sure and inform my boss, a coworker, and a close friend who respectively became a marathon runner, amateur bodybuilder, and member of a cycling club after 40 that you feel they have a disorder rather than a hobby. I’m sure they’ll appreciate the input of a medical professional who hasn’t actually examined them. Each, by the way, has a full time job unrelated to their athletic hobbies, and two have large families and still manage to find time to look awesome and healthy. At the very least I could tell them they are atypical and in danger of something. Or other.
What posts are you reading and responding to because they sure are not mine. Very strange.
FWIW I have done a marathon and tris up to half ironman. I cycled with a club beginning after 40 (as best I could). I lift some. Never got my body fat that low but that’s neither here or there. I don’t know where exercise crosses over to an unhealthy level and would not define it according to body fat. Probably the line is drawn where an obsession with it significantly interferes with other successful functioning. But I am not sure about that. The literature does attempt to define “exercise addiction” but is a squishy thing.
In any case none of those people (as described by you) became marathoners, triathletes, body builders, cyclists, because they felt a need to remedy the dissatisfaction they felt over a lack of six pack abs, or have had their athletic pursuits interfere with their ability to otherwise function in life. If I was to comment on them, based only on what you have offered, I would say more power to them. Out of curiosity do all of them have six pack abs? I have known many over 40 marathoners and triathletes and cyclists and know few with six pack abs.
From what I can tell under their clothing, two of them do and the amateur bodybuilder definitely does because I’ve seen his pictures on Facebook. Incidentally, I do, too, though I do very little to achieve that and I have a 13 year old and I’m female with a c cup bra. So I have enough body fat to produce the curves necessary to indicate my sex, and still have well defined abs from little more than a habit of tensing my ab muscles to compensate for a lower back injury. Pics, I can provide, but a psych eval, nah. Because there isn’t anything wrong with anyone who achieves physical health at 40 despite your long distance diagnosis.
That has little to do with the definition of your abs. Definition is determined by bodyfat levels (as well as genetics); strengthening the muscles by tensing them will make your abs stronger but unless your bodyfat levels are below a certain level all the tensing in the world won’t make a hill of beans difference.
Okay. I have defined breasts and hips, have carried a child to term, I’m 39 and still have visible ab muscles without belonging to a gym. Not sure what my body fat percentage is as I’m unconcerned, but I’ll be more than happy to post pics tomorrow. Not sure how to promise I don’t have body dystrophic disorder, but pretty sure I can prove it’s possible to have ab definition without giving a shit. So someone with a goal and determination ought to have a shot without a nagging relative and arm chair doctor discouraging him.
What is implied is that trying to get six-pack-abs with calorie restriction alone may not be healthy. I would agree with that. If he doesn’t exercise, then having visible abs would probably be well underweight.
Is it even possible to have a six pack without exercise? I would think the muscles would be too soft and smooth to create any sort of six pack no matter how low fat % was. I’ve seen pictures of anorexic people and they don’t have a six pack even though they have almost no body fat. So if someone wanted to get that look through calorie restriction alone, I would think they are either ignorant or they have a body image issue.
Of course it is. Some people are just naturally lean.
So you disagree with Dr. Seid’s diagnosis of body dysmorphic disorder, too?