The body fat percentage needed to see your pack of abdominal muscles falls somewhere around 14 to 20% for women and 6 to 13% for men. However, the ideal body fat percentage for abs can look slightly different per person, depending on how you carry weight, where you typically store fat, and your fitness routine.
At 20 per cent body fat, you're only seeing abs when twisting and in top-down light, but you're at a healthy point, and almost definitely have decent muscle building underneath your fat. A rough realisation is that some amount of fat will always be between your muscles and the world.
The key is consistency. It may take months or even years to uncover your abs, but if you stick to being smart in the kitchen, you'll eventually see results. The only way to strip the fat from your abs is by slowly and gradually burning it off from your entire body through cardio, nutrition, and resistance training.
If you regularly perform abs workouts and back that up by eating a healthy diet, your upper abs will quickly start to emerge. Unfortunately the rest of your abs won't simply follow. The upper abs are the first to show and the easiest to work, because most of the best-known abs exercises target them specifically.
A good rule of thumb (and a safe one) is to aim to lose 1 to 2 percent of body fat per month. So, unveiling your abs can take anywhere from 3 months to 2 years.
“Genetically, some people may have more pronounced grooves than others, but you'll notice in the photos of these models, who are very lean, they don't actually have very developed abs,” says Orbeck. “They just have the groove, which means they are leaner than they are stronger in their core.”
Your Abdominal Muscles Aren't Thick Enough
If you have a trim waist and minimal body fat and you still can't see your abs, then you need to work on getting the Rectus Abdominis (your 6 pack muscle) thicker. You will never be able to see your abs if the muscle bellies there are weak and small.
The body fat percentage needed to see your pack of abdominal muscles falls somewhere around 14 to 20% for women and 6 to 13% for men. However, the ideal body fat percentage for abs can look slightly different per person, depending on how you carry weight, where you typically store fat, and your fitness routine.
For men, your abs will typically start to become visible at around 15%. But at 12% is when you start to really see some good definition with your six-pack. And at 10%, your six-pack is clearly visible and well defined. For women, I wouldn't recommend a “clearly visible six-pack” as being the goal.
Can you have strong abs under fat? Yes, you can develop strong abs under fat. The rectus abdominis is the section of the core that forms the traditional “6-pack” look, and even if these muscles are strong, they can still be hidden underneath a layer of subcutaneous fat.
15-17% body fat: At this level muscles are still visible. Abs, legs, and arms have definition. There is some separation between muscles there is also some vascularity. Women don't have as much curvature in hips and buttocks because of the low body fat level.
The primary obstacle to unveiling abdominal definition is, unsurprisingly, fat. “If you have fat covering your abs, you're not going to see a six-pack, and as a result, it's a not a realistic goal for most people,” says Kathleen Trotter, personal trainer and author of Finding Your Fit.
But what many people fail to realize is that the abs are just like any other muscle. If you choose the right abs exercises and get stronger with them over time, the abs will grow. And this will then, inevitably, improve the overall look and visibility of your six-pack.
So why does everyone not just have one ab on each side? Unfortunately for some, the answer lies in genetics. Everybody has two rectus abdominis muscles, but not everyone has the same number of bands of connective tissue.
Can Everyone Get an Ab Crack? No, not everyone can get an ab crack. This is just one of those areas in which our genetics decide our fate. Some people can do ab workouts religiously and never develop an ab crack, while others can have an ab crack without working out.
Everyone has abdominal muscles, known as abs. These muscles may not be visible because of the fat around them. Some fat, called subcutaneous fat, is close to the skin's surface, but fat also exists deep within the abdominal cavity. This is called visceral fat.
If you do have defined ab muscles, they might look different than someone else's because of your specific tendons. With longer tendons comes more space between the abdominals; with shorter tendons comes less space between them, Tamir says.
If your jeans loosen up around the waist, this could indicate you're losing fat in your abdominal area. This is a good thing, as higher amounts of abdominal fat have been correlated with higher disease risk. Their results suggest that exercise does help reduce both abdominal fat and waist circumference.
Assuming you're cutting calories and lifting weights three to four days per week (three is the minimum amount that most trainers say you need to see progress), you only need about three cardio days per week to see your abs.
One reason belly fat is so hard to lose is that it's considered an “active fat.” Unlike some fatty tissue that simply sits “dormant,” belly fat releases hormones that can have an impact on your health — and your ability to lose weight, especially in the waist and abdomen areas.