Survey Results: The Most Attractive Female Body Composition (Muscle, Fat & Proportions)
We’ve been getting asked to do research on female attractiveness for over ten years now, and now we have the results. We surveyed 1,072 men, asking them to rate varying amounts of muscle and body fat on women, as well as which proportions they preferred and what muscles they found most attractive in females. We also surveyed 394 women, asking them how much muscle they wanted to build, their ideal body-fat percentage, and what muscles they wanted to emphasize in their training.
Unlike male bodies, where men and women preferred different physiques, men and women tended to agree on which female bodies were the most attractive. All the groups we surveyed voted for the same degrees of muscularity and leanness and preferred the same proportions in females. There was also a wide range of female bodies considered attractive, with most body types preferred by at least a small percentage of people.
In this article, we answer a few questions:
- How muscular is the most attractive female body?
- What’s the most attractive female body-fat percentage?
- What size of a woman do men find most attractive—in terms of muscles and proportions?
- Do men prefer thicker thighs in women?
- Do men prefer bigger butts in women?
- Do men prefer thinner or thicker women?
- How do men feel about women getting cosmetic surgery?
Introduction: The Female Attractiveness Survey
Shane illustrated a variety of female bodies. We used those illustrations to survey 1,072 men, asking them which of those female bodies they found most attractive. Then we surveyed our female newsletter, asking them what their dream bodies were. Finally, we surveyed women who are attracted to women, seeing what bodies other women find most attractive. Life decided to go easy on us, and the women attracted to women tended to prefer the same bodies that women wanted to build.
We focused on asking questions about things that can be influenced by diet and exercise, such as body fat, muscle mass, and muscle proportions. We were less interested in body-fat distribution, muscle insertions, and bone structure (such as hip, waist, and shoulder width).
This survey is the fourth we’ve done. In the first and second surveys, we asked women which male bodies they found most attractive. In the third survey, we asked men attracted to men which male bodies they preferred. As we collected answers from women, we had several of them asking us to do a survey about women’s bodies, too. These are the results of that survey.
The idea is to arm our clients with practical information they can use in the gym. Women who want to build an attractive physique can see what men prefer. And as strength coaches, we can use your answers to make muscle-building programs that align better with your goals.
When running the survey, the bodies weren’t labelled or ordered. We tried our best not to ask leading questions or bias the answers. For example, we asked, “Which body do you find most attractive?” and then showed them this spread:
Note that we specialize in helping people build muscle. Many men and women who filled out the survey are interested in fitness and nutrition. The vast majority of them are between the ages of 18 and 39. This doesn’t line up perfectly with the general population. It could be, for instance, that because the average man is overweight, he prefers women with a lower or higher body-fat percentage.
We asked a few different questions. First, we asked men to choose which bodies they found most attractive. Then we asked them to select all of the bodies they found attractive. In some cases, that produced interesting results. For example, many men preferred the female body with giant glutes—this was the most attractive physique. And yet, the balanced physique was rated as attractive by a greater percentage of men—this was the physique that was attractive to most people.
The Most Attractive Female Body
How Muscular Should a Woman Be?
The first question looked at how muscle mass influenced attractiveness. When we conducted the survey, these bodies weren’t labelled or ordered. But to make the results easier to talk about, I’ve labelled them as thin, athletic, strong, and very strong.
Most men and women rated the “strong” female body as the most attractive, and most women listed it as their goal body. The “athletic” body came in a close second, scooping up almost all of the remaining votes. We also asked men to select all the bodies they found attractive, at which point the “athletic” body pulled slightly ahead. It’s the body that’s attractive to the widest variety of people.
As we mentioned above, though, there was a wider spread of preferences here than with our other surveys. When we surveyed women about which male bodies they found attractive, some male bodies got 0 votes. But with women’s bodies, even the least popular option had 62 men saying they found it the most attractive.
We asked the same question again, this time showing a side illustration of different levels of muscle mass on women. Again, the “athletic” and “strong” bodies were rated as the most attractive by men and as ideal by women. In this case, though, the athletic body pulled slightly ahead of the strong body. (Except for women attracted to women. Most of them voted for the strong body.) Again, though, it was a close race. The takeaway, it seems, is that anywhere in the athletic—strong range of muscle mass is similarly attractive.
Then we asked men how strong they wanted their female significant other to be. The most popular answer was “stronger than average.” And when we asked women how strong they wanted to be, they, too, wanted to be stronger than average. (Note that the order of the questions was randomized, so some people were asked this question before being shown any photos.)
The good news is that an athletic “stronger than average” degree of muscularity is realistic and healthy for most women. Even naturally thin women should be able to gain that amount of muscle and strength. Neither men nor women chose the most muscular physique, and thankfully so, because few women could naturally achieve that degree of muscularity!
What Female Body-Fat Percentage Is Most Attractive?
Next, we showed a variety of different body-fat percentages, asking people which degree of leanness they preferred in women. The leanest option had chiselled abs and clear muscle definition, which is unrealistic for most women to maintain and can sometimes result in problems such as amenorrhea. The second option was at the lower end of the healthy range, showing a fit and athletic physique. The third option was at the higher end of the healthy range, on the verge of being overweight. The final option was overweight.
We expected the athletic body to be rated as the most attractive and preferred female body, and it was. It won by a landslide. But to our surprise, the “lean” female body outperformed the “average” body by a small amount. We didn’t expect that. It’s always hard to say, and genetics certainly play a large role here, but the average body probably represents better health than the leanest one.
The good news is that the most attractive female body fat is realistic for most women. It’s not so lean as to be unhealthy or unrealistic to maintain, especially for naturally thinner women. I suspect the “athletic” female body is roughly 25% body fat, give or take 5%.
The other good news is that even the least popular option got twenty votes, meaning that some men found it the most attractive body type for them.
What Female Muscle Proportions Are Most Attractive?
After that, we determined what muscle proportions men found most attractive in women and what muscles women were most eager to build. The first question was a simple side-by-side showing a woman with a larger upper body and comparing her against a woman with a larger lower body:
These bodies are the two top-rated physiques (“athletic” and “strong”), with their upper and lower bodies switched. The female body with the more muscular upper body won, and I think I know why: it looks more balanced. The woman on the left may struggle with full-body lifts, such as squats and deadlifts, due to a lack of upper-body strength. Perhaps she’d also struggle with lifting things in her day-to-day life. The woman on the right might be unable to leg press or hip thrust as much, but her upper body strength doesn’t look like a limiting factor. As a result, the woman with a stronger upper body looks stronger overall.
Next, we showed a spread of women with varying proportions, this time from a side view. The “balanced” physique was attractive to the widest variety of men, but the physique with a proportionally bigger butt was ranked the most attractive. The physique with the bigger butt was also ranked as the goal physique by most women. So it seems there’s some truth to the idea that it’s attractive for women to build a proportionally bigger butt, but only if you also have a powerful upper body.
We didn’t just rely on the illustrations, though. We also asked a few questions. (The order of the questions was randomized, so some participants were asked the questions before being shown the illustrations.)
Should Women Emphasize Certain Muscles?
First, we asked if women should be equally strong everywhere or if they should emphasize specific muscles.
- 55% of men said that women should be equally strong everywhere.
- 58% of women said they wanted to emphasize some muscles.
What Muscles Should Be Emphasized On A Woman?
Then we asked if a woman has to emphasize something, what muscle should she focus on?
- 57% of men said women should focus on their glutes.
- 51% of women said they wanted to focus on their glutes.
When we asked men which exercise women should focus on, the vast majority said either squats, hip thrusts, or deadlifts, all of which are great for building a bigger butt. Squats and deadlifts have the benefit of being great for developing overall strength. Hip thrusts have the benefit of isolating the glutes quite well, giving them even greater emphasis.
Women mainly wanted to focus on hip thrusts and glute bridges. Squats and deadlifts were less popular; the other compound lifts were even less so.
So, overall, if you’re a female who wants to build a maximally attractive physique, you’d aim to be strong everywhere, with a bit of extra emphasis on your butt. To do this, you’d follow a balanced size (hypertrophy) workout program that includes both squats and deadlifts (along with chin-ups, push-ups, rows, and so on). Then, at the end of your workouts, if you wanted, you could add in some extra glute bridges or hip thrusts to give your butt even more emphasis.
Thin Versus Skinny-Fat—Which Is The More Attractive Female Body?
Next, we took an illustration of a “thin” female body and compared it against the image of a “skinny-fat” female body. The idea was to keep the muscle mass roughly the same but increase the body fat percentage to increase the BMI to a healthy weight. The skinny-fat body was rated more attractive by men and more desirable by women:
As with all these questions, we’re trying to find a practical path forward for our naturally thin readers. It seems that for underweight women, bringing their BMI up into the healthy range is the best first step, even if that means doing that through increasing bodyfat. Obviously, the goal is to gain mostly muscle, but even if you mess it up and wind up gaining mostly fat, it can still have a positive impact on your appearance.
This is great news because it takes away some of the anxiety surrounding bulking. It’s unlikely that a naturally thin woman could ever build so much muscle as to become “bulky,” and gaining some fat doesn’t tend to harm appearance but improves it (provided they stay within the healthy body fat range.)
Do Men Prefer Women Who Get Cosmetic Surgery?
Cassandra has many friends getting cosmetic surgery (such as breast implants and nose jobs) or treatments (such as Botox). She’s sometimes wondered whether she “should” be getting work done. For instance, pregnancy and breastfeeding can change the appearance of breasts. “Should” she be getting breast implants to “fix” them? If everyone else is doing it, it can create societal pressure.
Men feel a similar pressure to be lean and muscular, and 9% of our male readers said they were considering steroids. They worried they wouldn’t be able to build an attractive body without them. But when we asked women what they thought, 99.5% of women said they preferred men who didn’t take steroids. 80% of women said they wouldn’t even consider dating a guy who took steroids. Plus, women rated the more natural male bodies as being more attractive.
With cosmetic surgery, the treatments are legal, and the impact on general health isn’t as straightforward as the downsides of taking steroids (or TRT or SARMs). As with everything, we aren’t trying to say what people “should” do. But when it feels like there’s societal pressure to get cosmetic surgery, we believe it can help to at least know what that societal pressure is.
In this case, 88% of men said they’d prefer if their female significant other didn’t get breast implants. 93% of men said they’d prefer if their female significant other didn’t get any other cosmetic treatments. However, most men also said that whatever a woman chooses, it won’t be a dealbreaker. (This is in contrast to 80% of women saying they’d never date a guy who took steroids.)
When we asked our female readers what they thought, 15% had gotten breast implants, and 19% were considering getting breast implants. With cosmetic surgery/treatments overall, when combined, most women have had work done or are considering it.
Is Cellulite Unattractive To Men?
Another common concern we hear from our female clients and readers is cellulite. Some women already have cellulite and want to get rid of it. Others are worried that if they try to gain weight, they might develop visible cellulite. And when we surveyed women, 68% said they didn’t want any visible cellulite.
When we asked men what they thought about cellulite on women, 56% said they didn’t care, didn’t notice, or found cellulite attractive. That’s not an overwhelming majority, but it does show that most men don’t mind if women have cellulite. It comes down purely to their own personal preference.
Summary: The Most Attractive Female Body
These results are interesting to me because it seems that both men and women prefer the same female bodies. That wasn’t true when we did a survey about the most attractive men’s bodies. In that survey, on all questions, men wanted to be quite a bit leaner and more muscular than women preferred. But when looking at women’s bodies, it seems that both men and women prefer female bodies that look fit, healthy, and athletic.
The other interesting thing is that even though most men prefer women who look strong and healthy, on every single question we asked, there were at least a few men who preferred every body type, including the underweight and overweight female bodies. So no matter what a female’s body composition looks like now, some men will find that body the most attractive.
The Most Attractive Female Body
- Most Attractive Muscle Mass For Females: Strong & Athletic
- Most Attractive Female Body Proportions: Strong across the entire body with extra butt size
- Most Attractive Female Body Fat Percentage: 25% bodyfat (with a bit of wiggle room)
If you’re a woman looking for specific goals, think of a body-fat percentage in the 25% zone (give or take 5%) that feels comfortable and healthy to maintain. (If you feel permanently hungry and fantasize about food, that can be a sign that you aren’t eating enough.) Think of lifting weights, growing gradually stronger, and not being afraid to gain weight/muscle. For most women who aren’t taking performance-enhancing drugs, it’s impossible to become “too” strong, so don’t be afraid to see what you’re truly capable of. As for proportions, think of doing all the compound lifts with equal fervour—variations of chin-ups, push-ups, deadlifts, and squats. If you want more, consider adding some extra isolation work for your glutes, such as doing some glute bridges or hip thrusts for butt size.
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Shane Duquette is the co-founder of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, and has a degree in design from York University in Toronto, Canada. He's gained sixty pounds at 11% body fat and has over ten years of experience helping over 10,000 skinny people build muscle, get stronger, and gain weight.
Cassandra González Duquette is a certified nutritionist (CNP) who studied at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition in Toronto, Canada. She's personally gained 22 pounds, going from 97 up to 119 pounds.
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amazing
Or , let’s be honest, you couldn’t get through it because you are very triggered??? This article was very informative and well explained. If you see a problem with it it’s only because you unfortunately don’t fall in the category of what is considered attractive to both men and women.
I don’t really see what is so amazing about this article… It reinforces the idea that women need to be fitter for the appeal of society. I found this article by searching what body fat percentages look like, because I was curious what my body looks like from another’s perception as I cannot truly know what I look like from just a mirror. And to see that 1. “plus size” images shown here are probably a size 14 to 18 and there is so much more than that. And 2. to make the claim that only 6% of people find someone size 14 to 18 attractive… where did that number come from? 1,000 random men and less than 400 women who most likely already follow you and are in shape? Doesn’t seem like a very good survey diversity.
Overall, I couldn’t get through this. It was just so aimed at pleasing men and others in society that it never felt like you were encouraging me to improve for myself. I would reconsider your perspective on a few things as these views can be very harmful.
Hey Alice, thank you for the thoughtful comment. I appreciate it.
This idea that we shouldn’t try to please the opposite sex has never really resonated with me. I don’t live in this world alone. I care deeply about how I’m perceived by and affect other people. As a single guy, I really wanted to meet a great woman and get married. Because of that, I cared what women thought about me. As a married man, I want to be good, look good, and do good for my wife. That isn’t JUST a physical thing. But being fit is still a factor, however small.
I think this way of thinking is pretty common. We get a lot of attractiveness questions from our male audience on our men’s site, Bony to Beastly. They want to know how to build a body that women (or men) will find attractive. So we look at the research, we run surveys, and we write articles, such as the male equivalent of this article. Whenever we do that, we get requests from women to do the same thing for our female audience. They’re curious, too.
I agree with you. It doesn’t seem right for me to comment on what women ought to do. But at the same time, if both men and women want this, I feel like we should make it for everyone. By that same token, we had a lot of requests from gay guys asking for an article. So we made it, even though I’m straight. Is that the wrong way to think about it?
Yes, the results of the survey came from a thousand men who are part of our newsletter. They aren’t all in shape. Many of them are beginners who haven’t stepped into a gym, started eating a better diet, or begun improving their lifestyles yet. Others have been living a healthy lifestyle for over 30 years. It’s a mix. The main unifying factor is that we’re a community for skinny people, so almost everyone who answered the survey identifies as being naturally skinny. I think that’s the main bias playing into the results.
Overall, our content isn’t aimed at pleasing men. However, this article is specifically about how to look more attractive to the opposite sex. That’s the entire purpose of the article. Mind you, what you choose to do with that information is totally up to you. You can ignore it completely if you want. I’m not trying to say you OUGHT to look more attractive. It’s the same with our article for men. I’m not trying to say men SHOULD try to look more attractive. It’s just information.
I don’t find it very motivating to improve for myself. If I can’t tie it into something more than myself, it seems kind of pointless. I don’t want to live in this world alone or do things that only affect me. But different people are motivated by different things. If you want to work out for yourself, I think that can be great, too 🙂
Attraction is rooted in subconscious thoughts. That’s why men also find women in childbearing years attractive, because they have the best option of reproducing. A healthy athletic body is subconsciously more attractive for survival. Some people prefer a lot of meat and it looks like some people prefer skinny. Don’t worry, you don’t Have to fit societal preferences
I really thought Alice was off base and too harsh when I initially read her comment. After thinking more and seeing the Author’s response to Alice I got a great feeling of wholesomeness and I truly hope Alice was able to see the response also.
I read the article and found only one result, stronger upper body preferable on woman by both sexes vs lower body strength. Even that was such a slight margin that I just have a hard time finding any points of it that resulted in triggering Alice’s comment. I feel it was unjustly harsh and I’m my opinion I thought the Author as non biased and respectful as one could possibly be given he was stating facts and findings!
I see Alice’s point about possible biases but the authors response again so politely acknowledged them and how they were nonissues to the overall point of his study.
May we all be happy with the beauty we have naturally and the work we put in to maintain it! Like the author stated every single option received votes and every type of body has a person who prefers it over all others. Be kind to yourself!
Thank you so much for the comment, Kelly! This assuaged some of my fears that I’d overstepped. I really appreciate it.
Hi,
I would love to know about women age 45 and over. I’m guessing the look will be the same as this, however our hormones change and our workouts wnd diets have to be tweaked around this time. So, my real question would moreso be what do men age 45 and over mostly prefer and what main tweaks to diet and exercise are good starters?
I liked this article. I was a touch surprised that mostly athletic to strong is preferred. Skinny has been the mass media ideal up until aprox 10 years ago, so I’d have guessed slim to athletic pre reading the article.
How can you even carry out such a survey when you’re using cartoon drawings of people? Most of the drawings looked very similar to each other. It was hard to tell the difference between some of them and what they were trying to show. I don’t trust any of this information. It would be very difficult to get an accurate result. If you used REAL human bodies, then this survey would have made more sense than using cartoon drawings that looked alike or you couldn’t tell any differences from. For example, with the “stronger legs” verses the “stronger upper body” cartoon- You made the stronger legs cartoon look like she had ab definition as if showing that SHE had your body strength. Makes it confusing for those actually taking the survey and trying to go by the drawings. Makes for a completely inaccurate result. Those two drawings doesn’t make any sense! If the woman on the left was meant to have a stronger LOWER body, verses the woman on the right with the stronger UPPER body, why would the stronger lower body drawing have ab definition? It should be the other way around! The stronger upper body cartoon, should have had the ab definition. I don’t understand this survey with inaccurate drawings of the female body. Like I said, some looked very similar. You cannot go by a cartoon drawing of a body and tell what it is trying to show. I would like to see this entire survey done over, but with accurate bodies of real people. It would have made more sense. I can’t believe any of the results when people are choosing from poor cartoon drawings of bodies. I’m sure people who were taking the survey went by key words instead of the drawings. I’m sure they felt what I’m describing right now…Please redo this whole “experiment” to get results using real bodies and then it would be an interesting article to take into consideration. I can see reasons why you would choose to use cartoon bodies over real examples that I’m not going to go into detail about, but real examples would give better results in my opinion.
It’s pretty common in attractiveness research to use cartoon or computer-generated images. That way you can change just the aspects you’re trying to compare, and you take out all of the confounding factors. If you’re asking about muscle mass, you don’t need to worry about differing body fat, bone structure, muscle shapes, skin, etc.
I’ve spoken with an attractiveness researcher and asked about my drawings. He said they were realistic enough to work.
We’ve run surveys using real bodies in the past, and the complaint was the opposite: there were too many confounding factors. What’s interesting, though, is that the results were EXACTLY the same. People chose the exact same bodies.
I can absolutely do this survey over again using real photographs, though. That’s a good idea 🙂
I didn’t label the illustrations in the survey. That way people wouldn’t pick based on the label. The attractiveness researcher I spoke with also recommended randomizing their order. He said sometimes people pick the one in the middle, thinking it’s moderate, or one of the extremes on either side, thinking it must be the best. When you randomize the order, you solve that problem, so I did.
Then maybe at least try for “good” drawings… I had to read the text to even know what was being depicted. All this survey says is “people prefer cartoon characters with thigh gaps.”
I thought it was better to make subtler variations. I didn’t want the results skewed by over-exaggeration. I did the survey to try to get at an idea, not at specifics. I wanted to know whether guys preferred slimmer, more athletic, curvier, or stronger body types. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s far from perfect or conclusive.
Hip-to-Waist ratio is a large factor in determining attractiveness – it’s like the equivalent of the Shoulder-to-Waist ratio on men.
Are these ratios consistent in the pictures? Because if they vary, it’d influence the results.
You won’t find body positivity on a site created by people who want to please everyone else; that much is obvious.
All I have to say to you people is, no matter what you’re doing, and who you’re doing it for, please be careful. A year ago I read articles which said I, a naturally thin woman, had a high waist to hip ratio, so I started walking, planking and cutting back on salt and sugar, just to later find out I weighed 92 pounds and was underweight according to the bmi.
Love to all and take care.
I think it depends on how you define body positivity. To me, that means feeling confident and optimistic that I can grow and improve, gain muscle and strength, and be fit and healthy.
I think wanting to please other people is a normal human desire.
I’m not sure where you got the advice to walk, plank, and cut back on salt and sugar because you have a high waist-to-hip ratio. That isn’t what we recommend. If someone is thin, that’s totally cool. If they want help building muscle and strength, we help them do that.
So the mens article has actual pictures of men, and the woman’s articles has 3rd rate drawings?
I’m sorry you don’t like my drawings, but there’s no mismatch in style or effort here. The male equivalent of this article is this one, also using my own drawings.
Where did you see actual pictures of men? Ask I saw for both surveys were poorly drawn cartoons for each that looked pretty much the same/without much difference. You can’t tell anything from those drawings! If you want accurate results, I feel like examples of REAL human bodies should be used.
No, the advice on changing my waist to hip ratio was my own idea out of desperation because of an upsetting WHO article about waist hip ratio which didn’t clarify where you stand when you’re thin and just have small hips
The only reason I commented here is because your body positivity, Mr. Duquette, is entirely based upon striving to be good enough. I am here to tell you that with that sort of mindset, for some people there never will be a “ good enough “. Some people, through no fault of their own, can never reach the same goals you’ve already achieved. I’m not saying Bony to Bombshell is a bad program, I’m saying what you consider positive is like a death sentence to other people. Idiotic snobbery, pre-programmed into the average, mundane human mind about what a man or woman should look like isn’t just evolutionary psychology, it’s evolutionary eugenics convincing us to hate the “ weak and un-useful “.
The point of my comment? Just be careful : some of us will never fit anyone’s standards no matter how hard we try.
It’s insane how offended women get over factors that are largely within their control. Everyone has the ability to lose or gain weight, add muscle, and look great. Oh and stop lying to yourselves, you care about how you look to other people 😉
Ignorant comment. And this is coming from someone who is 105 lbs btw. I’m not over weight or anything, but your comment is so judgemental. You don’t know the conditions that some may have keeping them from losing weight. There are certain conditions, diseases, illness, slow metabolism issues… If it was so easy, why do some struggle so bad with it? Plus it is NOT easy for women to gain muscle like you’re making it out to be. You don’t see others struggles. Ignorant and judgemental comment. I can guarantee your body isnt perfect, yet your ego is pretty high.
I call bullshit on the numbers you’ve got here. I don’t know where you got them from but I can assure you it’s wrong. FAR more than 6% of men find plus sized girls attractive. Most other data I’ve seen cites 30%+ and from personal experience I’ve had the same results asking guys I know.
It casts a bad light on the product when you can immediately point out a lie on the website.
The numbers are from a survey we ran. It’s fine for you to disagree with the results. Maybe your group of friends skews one way. Maybe our survey skews another way. We’re just sharing the results of the survey.
We didn’t lie.
Come on, be real. Barely anyone finds overweight and obese men and women more attractive than their athletic counterpart. Can you tell me honestly that you find overweight, unathletic men attractive? What about your friends? Why do the most popular pornographic categories feature non plus size women? Just pause for a moment and really think about it. Instead of looking at what your personal anecdotes may claim or what sounds virtuous to say, you can see what men and women like by looking at which content is made popular by them. On TikTok and YouTube shorts all of the popular male centered content with women dancing/being provocative showcase thinner, athletic women with big butts. Women make videos too of men they like that are athletic with abs, like those Kpop videos that are incredibly popular. When a male pop star flashes his abs, their millions of fans love it. Top onlyfans creators are shapely with big butts and are athletic to average in body type. Even on twitch all of the egirls who make the most money like Amouranth are fit, shapely, and show it off to their male viewers. It’s clear what the majority of people actually find attractive.
Can’t we all be honest without pretense? I like men with more athletic body types, and I know my male counterpart prefers women with more athletic body types. It’s just the way it is.
Also if you think 43% of men find women with big arms attractive you must be doing your polling at a gym. The average guy find that about as attractive as an old tree stump with a knot hole in it. I’d be seriously amazed if that number was higher than 5%.
I don’t know what to tell you, man. If you think arms that are big from fat look better than arms that are big from muscle, that’s totally fine. The results of this survey suggest that’s a minority opinion, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad opinion by any means.
I forgot to add, that you’re claiming that your survey was also done using healthy, fit people. That’s also an inaccurate way to conduct a survey. Of course the athletic body will win lol you have fit people taking the survey. Imagine if you used REAL bodies instead of cartoons and people taking the survey that have all types of bodies. The results would drastically different
Yes, that’s true. These results might not generalize outside of our communities. But I made these articles for our communities.
I tried to be clear about that limitation. I hope it wasn’t confusing.
Honestly, I don’t understand all the negative comments here. It was stated clearly that the results are for a specific community and that they cannot necessarily be generalized out of that. It was pretty interesting to see what this specific community thought. I also don’t think at any point this was demeaning towards women or anything about appeasing the opposite sex, it was a survey based on what type you think is attractive, aimed at both men and women attracted to women. Sure, people do like plus size bodies, but there was no hate against them nor anything negative about them. This is a fitness website so encouraging people to do exactly that is not negative. Similarly, I only see people complaining about plus size results being skewed and it being represented negatively, when it wasn’t even least popular in all surveys. Just like plus size individuals can have metabolism disorders etc. that make it hard to lose weight think individuals can also have such disorders that make it hard to gain weight or muscle. I don’t believe there was anything negative here, it is literally just posting results of what one such study aimed at a certain audience produced, no more no less.
Thank you for this survey, it was interesting to see the results.
Thank you so much, A! 🙂
Great content, thank you for taking so much time and effort to produce these! It is ironic (though not unexpected due to human ignorance and stubbornness) that those whose perspectives could benefit the most from the results are those most inclined to reject them. It is inane and asinine to comment that “surely these results are incorrect” or “you are lying” or “~1,000 results are too few” (really?!) or “Zyzz #1 blah blah blah” or even “the poll participants are not representative of the overall population.” Yes, there are limitations to this study just like literally every study ever conducted, but the information can still be useful. Do you want to become generally more attractive? Then work toward those #1 spots. Do you like where you are but are offended that only 6% of men find your body type attractive? Sorry, people have very limited control over what we find attractive and appealing, so trying to force most men to be attracted to an excessively fat or skinny woman is like trying to turn a straight man gay, or vice versa. It ain’t happening. If these studies are ever replicated, I would echo one of the requests in the comments of the “male body” article to please distinguish survey participants by age group. If certain of us guys are only interested in the opinions of the sub-30 age group but most of the survey participants are 30+, that could make a significant difference. Thanks again, I loved these articles!
I find it kind of crazy how women are naturally so much more defensive than men regarding body image. Even though the author of this article stressed the importance of health, people still came for them. Is it that wrong to say that being healthy is better? The statement that it’s easier for “already” healthy and fit people to say that it’s better to be this way should have the exact opposite effect. It’s not them not knowing what their knowing talking about, it’s the point that they already went through their journey and now can back up what is said in the article.
Thank, Maria! To be fair, we’ve done a number of these surveys, and when we cover results about men, some of them don’t like the articles, either. I can see why. We don’t advertise these articles, though. The only people who find them are the ones who search for them. I personally think it’s good to have this information available for the people who want it, but opinions are split on that.