I’m not a big fan of thin or fit guys. I prefer meatier, on the fatty side. Six packs aren’t a turn-off for me, but I don’t seek them out. I see them as a sign that someone cares much more about fitness than I do, which indicates a pretty big lack of commonality. I don’t know many physically fit people who like sedentary fatties like me.
If such a guy expressed interest in me, I’d be suspicious of ulterior motives.
Must join the crowd to say I don’t care for 6-packs. If it’s just slightly defined it looks nice, otherwise it looks like you should eat some pie and stop being so vain.
My SO used to have a 6-pack, but he is waaaay hotter now 
This is true.
Is that completely true? I mean sure a six pack won’t show if there is a normal amount of body fat covering it up, but one of my boys, now 20, is very low body fat, exercises a moderate amount, and has no six pack.
I am guessing that a six pack requires all of: low body fat percentage; a genetic capacity to develop such definition; and some ab fitness be it by ab specific work outs or by the way with other activities.
I like it, but I don’t need it. I like looking at it more than anything.
Hmm, perhaps this son has a higher body fat percentage than you are guessing he has? The only real way to know is to have the body fat measured by an expert. The muscles in the abdomen that get defined by fat loss and get larger by exercise are still there in everyone’s body. Some people simply have less body fat and/or more muscle mass. The role of genetics, in my opinion, would be in giving certain people the capacity to get their body fat to low enough levels to get this definition. Not in a capacity for definiton, at least directly.
It’s always been told to me: six pack means under 10% bodyfat.
Maybe true for my kid but I have also known teen cross country runners who are so thin that some think they are anorectic and yet have no six packs. Sort of like in this photo - very thin and sure you can see the abs, but not what the vanity fitness folk would call a six pack.
I understand the importance of the point as it is usually made: all the crunches in the world won’t give a male a six pack unless he also has an absurdly low body fat percentage.
I acknowledge that an absurdly low body fat percentage is a necessary condition for a six pack. I still speculate that it is not, in and of itself, a sufficient condition.
Like many posters have said, six-pack abs are a result of low body fat. Really low body fat. And body fat levels that low can make your face look like a skull if you don’t have the right facial muscles and bone structure. So take that into consideration in your attempts to achieve a six-pack.
The guy in that photo actually still has a layer of fat over his abdominal muscles. You can faintly see that there’s definition there, but it’s obscured by a little bit of padding. Some people just tend to have more padding there than others, even if they are otherwise extremely thin. He doesn’t have much, but it is clearly there. Somebody who doesn’t tend to carry that layer of fat there might be able to get a six pack with a much higher percentage of body fat.
The guy in the photo is also not flexing or crunching his abs to demonstrate (show off) is undoubted six-pack. While he does carry a layer of fat along his midsection while being nearly bone-thin elsewhere, he still most suredly would have the six pack look if he flexed.
And I don’t think JUST low body fat is needed to get ideal, magazine cover abs. That requires the combination of factors that you mentioned in your previous post, at least in my opinion. But everyone has the same muscles in their bodies. And if you whittle away enough fat, those muscles will be visible for everyone. Now some people have a much easier time whittling away that fat, some don’t even need to whittle away any. And some have more muscle mass than others. And a lucky few have the great combo of having very low body fat and higher-than-average muscle mass (mesomorph bodytype). Those are the people who have the six packs that pop out; pop out because no fat surrounds the more-developed-than average musculature of their abdomens.
Straight guy here. There was a section in my design book on waist-to-hip ratios, and it showed a number of mannequins from the past 50 years. While many features changed, one that remained the same was waist-to-hip ratio, which was what the book was trying to show.
Anyways, if you look at fashion trends such as the Adel Rootstein mannequins, you can see that the 6 pack was popular in the 80s and 90s. However, in the 00s, male fashion physique trended more towards toned stomachs that had definititive ab muscle lines around the abs in that kind of “oval shape” but no six-pack. Now fashion mannequins doesn’t totally reflect women’s preferences, but I still think the trend is significant.
“Getting a six-pack is all about shedding body fat” is mostly true but a simplification nonetheless. It’d be odd if the abs weren’t like all the rest of the skeletal muscles and exhibit substantial individual differences with regards to size, shape and potential for growth / response to training. Is getting shapely, defined biceps or pecs simply the result of diet savvy and energy balance? No, and neither is getting such a rectus abdominis. We don’t “all have nice washboard abs underneath the padding”. A person with little muscle mass in the abs will not get a six-pack to write home about even at below 10 % BF, as** DSeid** suspected.
It’s incredibly hot when the shirt is off. But it’s a rare specimen who can possess a six-pack AND look properly muscled with a shirt on. So I would say, if you don’t have one yet don’t worry about it, but keep working on it because that way maybe you’ll have one just in time for swimsuit season.
If I say I like your six-pack will you hold it against me?
This is the kind of man I’m most attracted to. 
I have almost 20% body fat but I have a sixpack when I flex, and ‘cut’ looking abs when I don’t. I just don’t have much fat on my stomach - it lives elsewhere. I’m pear-shaped. I also have good core strength and fairly good abdominal development despite my low BMI, from the type of exercise I do (yoga and lots of deadlifts with heavy weight). Having visible abdominal muscles is definitely a combination of several factors. A really exaggerated ‘sixpack’ that looks like it’s namesake takes significant bulking/bodybuilding.
I call the look a “turtle stomach” because it reminds me of a tortoise shell. My husband has them. I have to admit, I love his big biceps and turtle stomach, but I’m glad he got rid of the bubble butt that went with doing squats.
As far as OTT, he is naturally lean, plus he plays tennis and runs a few times a week, but doesn’t work his abs excessively. He keeps the look by hanging upright from a bar and lifting his knees to his chest a dozen or so times per morning. That’s it.
Yes indeedy that was a serious man candy shot for the ladies. And yet - for anyone who cares - I thought he was ***much ***too thin in Cowboys and Aliens. Unattractively so.
I also like some meat/fluff on my men as well, and overly fit is just not that appealing.