No I’ve never been willing to get lean enough to see my abs. I’ve been close a few times but it’s not sustainable for me.

Anonymous wrote:I do core work to ride aggressive bikes and to support my running. If that means I have a six pack in the right lighting I really don’t care.

Exactly. This thread is so sad.

I do core work to ride aggressive bikes and to support my running. If that means I have a six pack in the right lighting I really don’t care.

I noticed working abs and core makes lifting weights a lot more “pleasurable”.

Example, when i started lifting weights and was doing something like dumbbell bench presses, I would have to drop the weights off to the slide as I laid flat. That stress my shoulders and arms.

Now, I can sit back up and not have to drop the weights. Makes the whole process of lifting easier and less stressful.

Build UP your abs to make them visible and not be very low bodyfat.

Most people overtrain their abs. Overtraining abs works, but only if you get to a very low bodyfat to show them.

Sometimes fat people can show their abs through the flab, because their bodyweight makes them build muscle just getting out of a chair.

Fat people are often amazingly strong due to carrying all that extra weight around and some have some impressively large bulging abs under the flab.

Anonymous wrote:Meh. I know someone with visible abs, and she is so skinny that it’s not even attractive.

Are you male or female?

Meh. I know someone with visible abs, and she is so skinny that it’s not even attractive.

Anonymous wrote:As swimsuit season is here I have the flat toned stomach with visible obliques.

But to get the actual abs visible in a resting state probably will take another 2-3% drop in body fat.

I kind have a weird look with sides being defined and lower back but not the middle stomach unless I am flexing or do not eat for 2 days.

I think a couple of weeks of really cutting back on calories may do it - but for those that have the visible abs is it something you sustain or just go hardcore on diet before a vacation or event then they go away?

For those genetic lottery people I get it just happens for some people- but most of us aren’t you!

Abs are muscles. You have to bulk them up while cutting bodyfat.
Called a clean bulk, but it's slow, takes months.

Going from 30% body fat to 25% takes effort.
Going from 25% to 24 to 23 to 22 to 21 (which is the range most women have visible abs) is exponentially harder for each percentage drop.

Your body actually fights you to keep higher fat stores for your own health/reproductive system.

If it is worth it depends on your goal and maybe you get lucky and you are one point away from seeing them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fat, and I have visible abs. I do work out but I'm a prlrofessional eater (chef). It's just genetics.

Those are not abs, dear.

Ha ha yes they are. Kind of like this: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoellis_/video/7160254994606755078

They're just under a fat layer but they're still visible. It's genes and physical labor, and OP sounds disordered.

Anonymous wrote:I'm fat, and I have visible abs. I do work out but I'm a prlrofessional eater (chef). It's just genetics.

Those are not abs, dear.

It was not worth it for me. Constantly hungry at that level of leanness and my face was looking old and gaunt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visibility/flex of muscles at rest is about neurological tone. You can't change that.

What does that mean? Most people with visible abs have their muscles at some state of flex even when they are not consciously doing it?

Wouldn’t that like mess up your body over time if they cannot get to a resting mode?

I assume it would be all their muscles, not just their abs.

Yes, all muscles. Tone is "the level of tension in muscles that are relaxed." On the extremes you have hypertonic (spastic muscles that are in a constant state of extreme spasm and contraction, like in cerebral palsy) and on the other end you have hypotonic (floppy baby syndrome). There is a full range in between. People who look "cut" are on the hypertonic end, people who look soft no matter how thin and fit and strong, or how much they lift or work out, are on the hypotonic end. If you intentionally flex your bicep and can hold it as long as you want, you are on the hypertonic end; if it just disappears on its own rather quickly, you are on the hypontic end. Tone is set by the speed at which messages run through your nervous system from the brain to the muscle and back.

https://surestep.net/blog/hypotonia-with-a-rubber-band/

This is an article about kids, but tone lasts your lifetime.

https://surestep.net/blog/hypertonia-vs-hypotonia/