What makes abs look different?

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Replies

  • metalloz
    metalloz Posts: 77 Member
    I'm hoping to look similar to number 1 but im pear shaped so its a bit of a struggle.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Besides what has been said, the person must need adequate lean muscle mass in order to allow the muscles to show. So it may require to be more in the middle to higher end of the acceptable weight range.
  • crazy4lulu
    crazy4lulu Posts: 822 Member
    the kichen makes all the difference... and i dont mean working them out in there. i mean what you eat makes the difference!!!
  • abrahamsitososa
    abrahamsitososa Posts: 716 Member
    The woman in the middle has a very vidible 6pack but if you look at the bottom it looks like it's popping out too much. Possible inflammation of some ogans imo.
  • DollyPocket
    DollyPocket Posts: 33 Member
    How do you lower your body fat???
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    How do you lower your body fat???
    Ideally a moderate deficit and weight training to preserve your lean body mass.
  • DollyPocket
    DollyPocket Posts: 33 Member
    Thank you but how do you work out your deficit? sorry I'm new to all this :)
  • elsinora
    elsinora Posts: 398 Member
    I was gonna say, the length of your torso definitely plays into it. I have to say, like with me, I don't have a super low body fat percentage but my middle line in my abs is not really visible, but you can see my obliques a lot more... and I have a pretty long torso (I'm 5'8"). And I do lifting and ab work and no cardio and I'm eating at maintenance. Sooooo basically what I'm saying is I think some is genetic.

    resize2_zpsf20af029.jpg

    You are my inspiration!
  • kr1stadee
    kr1stadee Posts: 1,774 Member
    all of a sudden i want some waffles

    I literally laughed out loud at this!


    I have zero to add at the moment, I don't know where my abs are yet.. lol
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
    Thanks for all the responses! This is something I've always been curious about. I'm somewhere between a pear and an hourglass shape, so I don't think getting abs will be that easy for me, but I'll keep trying! I eat a calorie deficit, lift weights and do some cardio.
  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
    Age has a lot to do with how cut you can become as well. Younger people store their fat just under the skin, but as we age our fat will marble in with the muscle and away from the skin creating more muscle definition. My guess is the woman in the first photo is in her late teens or early 20's and the other two photos are of women who are over 30.
  • Ely82010
    Ely82010 Posts: 1,998 Member
    The second one looks freaking nasty on a female. She's either on steroids or a ton of bodybuilding supplements. The first woman looks a lot healthier.


    Rubish! She is an Olympic swimmer, with a great physic and a grueling training routine. Obviously her years of training, swimming and most likely special diet, has produce those abs. Yes, low body fat, good genetics and excellent conditioning.

    Dara Grace Torres is an American former competition swimmer and world record-holder who is a twelve-time Olympic medalist. Wikipedia
    Born: April 15, 1967 (age 46), Beverly Hills
    Height: 6' 0" (1.82 m)
    Weight: 149.9 lbs (68 kg)
    Spouse: Itzhak Shasha (m. 2003–2004)
    Children: Tessa Grace
    Parents: Edward Torres, Marylu Kauder

    Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competition swimmer and world record-holder who is a twelve-time Olympic medalist. Torres is the first and only swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008), and, at age 41, is the oldest swimmer ever to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley relay, and 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medals in all three events.[2]

    Torres has won twelve Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze), one of three women with the most Olympic women's swimming medals. She won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics when, at age 33, she was the oldest member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Swim Team. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.[3]

    On August 1, 2007, at age 40 (just 15 months after giving birth to her first child), she won gold in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, her fourteenth national championship. On August 4, she broke her own American record in the 50-meter freestyle, 26 years after she first set the American record at just 15 years old.
  • Elle408
    Elle408 Posts: 500 Member
    Thanks for all the responses! This is something I've always been curious about. I'm somewhere between a pear and an hourglass shape, so I don't think getting abs will be that easy for me, but I'll keep trying! I eat a calorie deficit, lift weights and do some cardio.

    I would say that I'm a pear/hourglass and I didn't find it too difficult getting abs. So I do think genetics is the major factor! I'm 5ft6.5 and have a relatively long torso and I wasn't even attempting abs when they happened. Granted, more like pictures 1 and 3, but I wouldn't want picture 2's abs anyway. I wasn't eating a lot of sugar, which I've read helps, and doing more core work as opposed to ab specific (though did do a couple of minutes of crunches each workout).

    Also, someone said you wouldn't get abs unless your bodyfat was 10%, that is simply NOT true! Firstly, women shouldn't get below 14%, as that would be dangerous, and those in the 14-20% bracket are athletes who know what they're doing. The average fit woman should be aiming for 20-24%. At the top of my fitness my BF% was about 17-19% and my abs looked fine!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Thank you but how do you work out your deficit? sorry I'm new to all this :)

    Set your account to 1 lb per week and eat back 50% of your exercise calories or pm me and i can run some numbers and set you up.
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
    Our genetics dictate our ultimate potential, but there's one thing that applies to everybody: With hard work and dedication, you're capable of looking the best YOU can possibly be. Don't compare yourself to others - compare yourself to YOU and take pride in every little improvement.

    In those pics, part of it is a difference in bodyfat; part of it is most likely a difference in the workout routines they've done to get where they are - and probably the biggest part is genetics.

    get out of my brain!:flowerforyou:
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
    The second one looks freaking nasty on a female. She's either on steroids or a ton of bodybuilding supplements. The first woman looks a lot healthier.

    This is an ignorant statement. Please don't body shame here.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    Our genetics dictate our ultimate potential, but there's one thing that applies to everybody: With hard work and dedication, you're capable of looking the best YOU can possibly be. Don't compare yourself to others - compare yourself to YOU and take pride in every little improvement.

    In those pics, part of it is a difference in bodyfat; part of it is most likely a difference in the workout routines they've done to get where they are - and probably the biggest part is genetics.

    get out of my brain!:flowerforyou:
    Great minds.... :drinker:
  • DollyPocket
    DollyPocket Posts: 33 Member
    Thank you but how do you work out your deficit? sorry I'm new to all this :)

    Set your account to 1 lb per week and eat back 50% of your exercise calories or pm me and i can run some numbers and set you up.

    will do thank you :)
  • brevislux
    brevislux Posts: 1,093 Member
    Genetics
    Body fat percentage
    Size of the abs...
  • diodelcibo
    diodelcibo Posts: 2,564 Member
    Body fat, muscle density and size, genetics , water/salt
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
    I have seen many photos of ladies with great abs, but as long as I remember, they didn't have a curvy figure with a small waist and wider hips like me. I would love to see a picture that proves me wrong.
    Jaime Koeppe got relatively lean in some shoots and is 35-24-40.

    1zl6p21.jpg

    There's a 13 inch difference between my waist and my *kitten* and I'm nothing compared to the girl above but my stomach's flat and I wouldn't complain about it. I've been gaining weight over Christmas and I can still pick out the line that goes down my stomach through the belly button.
  • AnaSorotova
    AnaSorotova Posts: 1
    Bettie Page.
  • abrahamsitososa
    abrahamsitososa Posts: 716 Member
    Genetics.
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    I've only seen it shown with male body builders and athletes, but if we can presume it's the same in women then 'how many' abs you have is genetic. Some people only have a 4 pack (this means when lean enough and developed enough to show what they've got). Some have a 6 and some an 8. They say there are 5 packs, but I never can spot them myself.

    For me, I don't know what my lower abs do (look like 1 or 2, I mean). But my obliques show at a pretty high BF, and next come my top 2 abs. I think I have 4 up there above my navel, or either I have those deep oblique attachments causing what I see. The line down the middle is not strong on mine, oddly (since I carry relatively little fat up top). I don't know how lean I'll get, so I don't know exactly what I've got, lol.

    Back in the day when I was a silly young teen, I thought the two lines down my middle meant I had a wide fat roll down my belly! So many of the models back then (all of them?) had that flat, flat look and here I was with two obvious solid lines that I couldn't figure out. Sad! I'm so glad we see more pictures of women with big abs nowadays. There really are all kinds of bellies.
  • cwsreddy
    cwsreddy Posts: 998 Member
    Sharpies work really well for definition.

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