Is there any hope of seeing my six pack? Here are the stats. 3 years ago at age 42, this 6’4” couch potato weighed 245. Aerobic walking , chinning-bar and a powerblock set got me down weight wise to 190.
Joined a gym last December and have been working with a trainer weekly since. Body fat was 22%, weight 205 when I joined.
Currently caliper and resistance scale has me flirting with an 11% bf at 215lbs. How lean do you need to get to see the abs?
Less than 10mm abdominal skinfold measurement to start seeing them.
The actual percentage doesn’t need to be a certain number, but your abdominal skinfold needs to be 13mm or below IMO. If you carry a lot of lean mass, you can get away with a higher skinfold and still look lean. If you are fairly small, that skinfold needs to definitely be in single digits.
Gotta disagree here, guys. I have an ab skinfold of about 18 right at the moment, and I’ve got a pretty good four-pack going.
I think it’s all individual - in my own case, I carry a lot of fat right at and below the navel (thus accounting for the skinfold) and have disproportionately large love handles, but very little fat on the top four abs. I have to get down to at least 10% to start seeing the lower abs show through, but I can go as high as 16% (which is as high as I’ve ever been) and still see the top four fairly well.
To answer the original question, I think that you’re just going to have to keep whittling away and see what happens. You might even be like Boyer Coe, who, despite extremely low levels of BF never did get his abs to pop out until he had an obscuring layer of fascia removed. Then again, one more percentage point might do it.
Anyway, excellent progress so far! Keep it up!
I am a little guy, 165ish, 5’10". Bodyfat is 10ish% based on calipers. No sign of abs at all, except when I squeeze 'em like crazy. So basically I concur with the above. My abdominal skinfold is 13-14mm. It clearly needs to drop to near 10mm. I’ll probably need 8% total to see my abs due to relatively large carrying of flab in the midsection.
Thanks for the response guys. Skin fold is currently around 13 mm using those “free” califpers from netrition. I keep up the cardio and out of the icecream palor. I’ll change my picture in the yahoo group if they ever emerge.
I’m with chardawg on this one. I can see my top 4 abs as high as 14-15%, but to see the seperation in my lower abs I have to get to 8% or lower. I guess it is all individual. I also carry a lot of fat aroud my waist and my lower back area.
Am I wrong in thinking that at 11% BF you are in a good position to begin a “bulking phase”? Which I betcha that once (and I’m going by the pic I see in the Yahoo T-Mag site), you pick up your back musculature, this issue here will be a thing of the past. Cuz you would have significantly increased LBM, thereby making a future cutting phase a cinch.
Oh my god, I just realized that what I had posted previously could be misconstrued as a “slam” - and it’s not! I think you’ve done fine - and thank you for posting your pic - but I was just thinking out loud. Really - was not trying to be overly critical in any way! Patricia 
Char, man, I have the same exact issue with retaining fat below the naval and have the love handle dillema (family thing). Even when I get low enough to see the abs well I still have the handles. Any way to shave 'em down without actually hacking 'em off? Lata.
MBE: “Not wanting to handle the handles since 1766.”
-Eric
I disagree with most of you guys. I don’t know, maybe it’s because i’m 17, but here it goes. I think i’m around 12% bf, and weight 180 lb, and am 6’0. You can really see my 6 pack. It’s not genetic. my dad is fat, his dad…etc. I was fat too…about a year ago, i took 3 months, and after every workout, did abs. i did crazy shit, that might have even hurt me, but it didn’t. i guess i’m lucky. well, after 3 months of doing 2X50 incline crunches, 2X50 leg lifts, etc, up to 400 reps (after every workout), i was in pretty good shape. So, i don’t think you have to be very skinny to see the 6 pack, as long as you get enought muscle over there to show over your ‘fat’.
Patricia: Aloha and thanks for the suggestion, no offense was taken. You have cut to the heart of my question, I do want to start a bulking phase. My desire however was to see a sixpack (for once in my life) before heading up the weight ladder. I have added 30+ lbs LBM over the past couple years, so as an interim treat I wanted to see some cuts. I’ve enjoyed your posts to the forum, thanks for the interest.
Aloha! I know what you mean. But even during a bulking phase there still is a chance of sporting a sixpack. For instance, even when I’m in a bulking phase (like now), I have to make sure I can still eyeball my abs. Or else my precontest preps are HELL. I think you should go ahead and begin a bulking phase - you’re ready for it, why not? Try it for 6-weeks, just eat clean, and see where that takes you.
Also, for the record: I agree with char. Even when my BF is at 12%, my abs start dissapearing. And I know some women who can still see abs at 14%. All individual.
Good luck, hawaiimammoth!
I agree with Patricia but a note on the BF% is that it’s really different for men and women. So her 12% should be like your 9% or lower. That’s just a rough estimate.
No, alas, I haven’t found any really good way of dealing wit de handles. I’m seriously thinking about having them lipo’d sometime soon.
But there’s an upside, y’know. I personally feel that the extra lower-torso fat has put me over the top in more than one ass-posing contest. Without that little bit extra it’s just impossible to achieve a “90+” gluteal curve, and, as you yourself know all too well, that’s where it’s at.
cd - Singin’ the same ol’ kick-ass song, since the year 2000.
I fail to understand the disagreeing. I am certain that at 10% I have invisible abs. Obviously, I must carry my fat mostly in the midsection because I have been calipered by a pro and myself + girlfriend (she does the ones I can’t reach) and both concur. When I’m at 10%, my abdominal skinfold is 13-14mm and I can see no abs. It sucks, but I’ll make 8% someday.
I’ve noticed it depends on how your ab musculature is naturally layed out, and how you store your fat. I’ve seen guys with skinfolds of 8 mm or less with little ab musculature showing and I’ve seen guys with skinfolds of 20 or more who still have bulging, visible abs. Just go by what the mirror shows you.