The Ideal Male Body Type According to Women (Survey Results)
I surveyed 423 women, asking them to rate different body proportions and levels of muscularity and leanness in men. To do that, I traced my body and then adjusted the proportions, leanness, and muscle sizes. I tried to answer questions like:
- What’s the most attractive amount of muscle for a man to build?
- Do women prefer more muscular upper bodies or lower bodies?
- What proportions do women find most attractive?
- What’s the most attractive body fat percentage?
- Which muscles do women find most attractive?
- Does neck size affect our appearance?
- What’s the most attractive overall body type?
Here are the survey results.
Caveats
With a survey like this, women are looking at my illustrations of male bodies, and they’re telling me which physique they find most attractive. But what if women are telling us one thing and doing another? Or what if my illustrations aren’t realistic enough?
So, I made a video going over a few strange studies, delving into the pros and cons (and controversies) of all the different ways of trying to figure out which male bodies women actually find most attractive. You don’t have to watch it, but it pairs well with this article.
Now, for the survey results.
The Survey
I surveyed over a thousand people, asking which physiques they preferred. In this article, I’m focusing on which bodies the 423 straight women rated most attractive.
The bodies weren’t labelled or ordered. For example, I asked, “Which degree of muscularity do you find most attractive?” and showed them this spread:
76% of the women were American, and 82% were between the ages of 18 and 39. Note that we specialize in helping people get bigger, stronger, leaner, healthier, and better looking. Most of the women I surveyed are on our women’s newsletter, and they’re generally in good shape, exercise regularly, and eat well. This doesn’t line up perfectly with the general population. It could be, for instance, that because the average woman is heavier, she prefers heavier men.
Another limitation is that when men gauge their muscularity, they pose and flex, making themselves look as lean and muscular as possible. Presumably, women aren’t judging men in their most muscular poses; they’re judging them based on their appearance in everyday situations. Guys who look “too” muscular when pumped up posing with their shirts off might look ideal in a t-shirt. Guys with chiselled abs in the bathroom mirror might have a flat stomach at the beach. Still, we can get an idea of what kind of look women find most attractive.
We didn’t ask women to select all attractive bodies; we asked them to select the body they found most attractive. For all we know, women might have found all the options attractive to varying degrees.
These are illustrations, not photographs. I’ve run other surveys using photos, and those surveys yielded the same results, but still, it’s a limitation.
To test the accuracy of these illustrations, I had my wife guess which degree of muscularity lined up with mine. She said that I looked most like “Body 4.” She was right. I drew the fourth body by tracing my own body.
Let’s get into the results.
The Most Attractive Degree of Muscularity
When we asked women which degree of muscularity they were most attracted to, there was a fairly even split between the “athletic” and “strong” body types. 51% of women voted for the athletic build, and 43% voted for the strong build. (Note that I didn’t label the bodies in the survey. Women chose “body 1.” I’m labelling them now when talking about the results.)
There were no votes for the skinny body type, and only 6% of women voted for the strongest body type. This aligns with our previous survey and attractiveness research overall (study). However, there’s one notable exception.
In this study by Dr. Sell et al., there was a linear relationship between strength and attractiveness. The stronger a man was, the more muscular he looked and the more attractive he was. According to Dr. Sell’s results, we’d expect the most muscular man to be the most attractive.
To get to the bottom of the disparity, I spoke with Dr. Sell. After emailing back and forth with him a few times, I think there are a few possible reasons our survey shows a preference for athletic physiques over extremely muscular ones:
- Women seem to assume very muscular men are vain. But if the man isn’t vain, that assumption would disappear upon getting to know him, removing the disadvantage. Plus, when looking at shirtless dudes posing in trunks, they may appear especially vain, exacerbating the stigma.
- The dominant evolutionary explanation for why women prefer stronger men is that stronger men tend to be more formidable—better at fighting and protecting resources. But if we look at top mixed martial artists, they aren’t anywhere near as muscular as top bodybuilders.
- Dr. Sell’s study was done on college students. It’s unlikely that any of the guys in the sample had outlier muscle-building genetics, making them substantially less muscular than top fitness influencers. Plus, college men haven’t had enough time to reach their genetic muscular potential. It could be that the most muscular men in the stuy weren’t that muscular.
- Some men can reach degrees of muscularity that didn’t exist until recently. Until the 1940s, even world-class bodybuilders paled in comparison to modern natural bodybuilders, let alone the guys on SARMs, steroids, or TRT. There’s no evolved preference for bodies that didn’t exist in the past.
Finally, there’s another reason men might be surprised that women aren’t picking the more muscular physiques: men prefer more muscular physiques than women. When we surveyed men on which body types they preferred, they preferred the more muscular “strong” body. This, too, aligns with the results of our previous survey and with attractiveness research overall.
If you want more specifics, I made a calculator that tells you your ideal body weight and muscle measurements based on your height and bone structure.
The Most Attractive Degree of Leanness
When we asked women what body fat percentage they found most attractive, 58% chose the body with a flat stomach, and 39% chose the body with abs. The average man is overweight, but only 3% of women chose that body fat percentage. 0% chose the obese body. What’s interesting is that when we surveyed men about female bodies, a small percentage of guys preferred women with higher body-fat percentages. The obese woman got 20 votes (out of 1,072).
Some guys with good leanness genetics can maintain their general health and mood while having year-round abs (8–10% body fat). Mind you, that’s rare. Women preferred men closer to 13% body fat, which tends to be healthier and more sustainable for most guys. This aligns with our previous survey results and the overall body of research (study).
Men had a strong preference for having a lower body-fat percentage, with 74% of men saying they preferred the body with abs. So, once again, men want a more extreme physique than women prefer.
If you’re curious about your body fat percentage, you can estimate it using a measuring tape and this calculator. (It’s more accurate than the BIA bathroom scales most people use.)
The Most Attractive Male Body Proportions
Do Women Prefer Men With Bigger Upper or Lower Bodies?
The next thing I wanted to look at was upper-body vs lower-body proportions. Men commonly prioritize their chests, shoulders, arms, and upper backs over their legs. They want proportionally bigger upper bodies. Is that what women find most attractive?
A slight majority of women prefer a balanced, athletic body. Some women prefer when extra attention is given to either the lower or upper body. Nothing crazy here, but perhaps it hints that putting extra work into our upper bodies is at least somewhat misguided. (More on this in a second.)
The next spread showed a side angle comparing upper-body muscles against butt size. Most women rated the physique with the strongest butt as the most attractive.
Which Muscles Do Women Find Most Attractive?
Here’s where things get interesting. So far, the survey results suggest women prefer a balanced approach to building muscle. Women aren’t choosing bodies that have any special emphasis on the mirror muscles: the chest, arms, shoulders, and abs.
When we asked women which muscles men should emphasize, they chose arms, chest, shoulders, and abs, in that order. They chose the muscles men are notorious for prioritizing in the gym. Perhaps women do indeed prefer those muscles.
The thing is, women prefer a lesser degree of muscularity than men. When women think of “big” arms, they’re thinking of the 14-inch arms Cristiano Ronaldo has. When the average man thinks of big arms, he’s thinking of the 15-inch arms Brad Pitt had in Fight Club. And the average recreational bodybuilder is thinking of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 19-inch arms. Everyone agrees that muscular arms look great. They merely disagree about how big those muscular arms should be.
Are Women Attracted to Men With V-Taper Physiques?
Next, I wanted to test the idea that a V-taper is the most attractive male body shape. In attractiveness research, some studies compare men’s shoulder-to-waist ratios, whereas others compare men’s chest-to-waist ratios. But which matters more? The size of our shoulders or the size of our chests?
Two-thirds of women chose the men with bigger chests over the men with bigger shoulders, even though having bigger shoulders has a larger impact on the v-taper of our silhouettes. Women are quite consistent with this preference, too. In other survey questions, they said the chest was one of the best muscles to prioritize (after arms). They listed push-ups as the best exercise for improving our physiques. And they chose the illustration of the man with the bigger chest.
Our v-taper seems to be a minor factor compared to overall muscularity. That makes sense. After all, our v-taper is merely a loose proxy for our muscularity (shoulders) relative to our leanness (waist). I wrote a full article on that here.
The Ideal Neck Size
I couldn’t find any research on how neck size impacts attractiveness, nor about how big our necks need to be to look good. I even asked Dr. Sell about it, but he had no idea. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to conduct this survey.
I have a naturally thin neck, and I’ve recently added a couple of inches to it. I feel like it’s improved my appearance, but my wife doesn’t seem to care. I was curious.
The survey results surprised me. Most attractiveness research shows more formidable men being rated as more attractive. A thicker neck is an important part of formidability, so I felt the athletic neck would be rated as the most attractive. And it was. It was rated as most attractive by 53% of women. But it was a very small majority. It didn’t win by nearly as much as I expected it to. 42% of women preferred men with thinner necks!
Does Jawline Matter?
I didn’t test this. I should have. It could be that bulking up your jaw muscles improves your jawline, improving your overall appearance. I’m not sure. So, I’ve started trying to bulk up my jaw. I’m only a month in, so I’m not sure if it’s working yet, but it seems promising. I’ll keep you updated.
Are Women Attracted to Men Who Take Steroids?
When we surveyed our male audience, 9% said they were considering taking steroids to help them build muscle. When looking at the most popular fitness and bodybuilding influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, many are taking performance-enhancing drugs, ranging from steroids to TRT to SARMs.
79% of women said they wouldn’t date a man who took steroids. 21% said they might consider dating a guy who used steroids, but it was a major red flag. Out of the 423 women we surveyed, only two said it was attractive for a guy to stake steroids. That’s less than 0.5% of respondents. Overall, over 99.5% of women have at least a moderate preference against men who use steroids.
When we asked men what they thought of steroids, 72% said they preferred how natural lifters looked. (There’s a false assumption here. Steroids make achieving any degree of muscularity and leanness easier. Not all steroid users are bigger, leaner, or stronger than natural lifters.)
Furthermore, the physiques women rated as most attractive are naturally achievable, even for men with poor genetics. Even the bodies preferred by men are naturally achievable by most guys.
Is it Better to Be Skinny or Skinny-Fat?
The last thing I wanted to test was whether skinny or skinny-fat guys were more attractive. I wanted to test this because many of our clients worry that if they bulk aggressively, they’ll gain too much fat and wind up looking worse than when they started.
It turns out the vast majority of women preferred the skinny-fat body to the skinny body. Men had the same preference. So even if a bulk goes disastrously off the rails, resulting in almost pure fat gain, it can still improve our appearance, both in the eyes of men and women.
On the other hand, if you’re worried about gaining fat, you can follow a good bulking program, eat a good bulking diet, and do a lean bulk, gaining weight more slowly. If you can do that, you can minimize fat gain, often to the point where it isn’t even noticeable.
Conclusion
Women tend to prefer men with fit, athletic bodies. They prefer men who are in much better shape than average but not as lean and strong as most men wish to be. Certainly not as muscular as most bodybuilders. Think of the bodies of soccer players, rugby players, and mixed martial artists.
Men, on the other hand, prefer leaner and more muscular physiques. Most men liked the look of defined abs. They also prefer a degree of muscularity at the upper limit of what’s realistically achievable as a natural lifter.
Overall, the most attractive male body type is one that’s strong, athletic, and healthy. Even better if that body also has nice arms and a muscular chest.
Alright, that’s it for now. If you want more muscle-building information, we have a free muscle-building newsletter. If you want a full workout and diet program, including a 5-month customizable full-body workout routine, a diet guide, a recipe book, and online coaching, check out our Bony to Beastly Program. Or, if you want a customizable intermediate muscle-building program, check out our Outlift Program.
Shane Duquette is the founder of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, each with millions of readers. He's a Certified Conditioning Coach (CCC), has gained 70 pounds, and has over a decade of experience helping more than 15,000 people build muscle. He also has a degree in fine arts, but those are inversely correlated with muscle growth.
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Hey! Love the article. Well written and informative. Thanks for that read!
My pleasure, Tim! Thank you 😀
I wish this study could have ended with the participants getting scolded for their ableism and bigotry.
I don’t understand your comment. Can you elaborate?
That’s a stretch. As a PT I’ve worked with many men with disabilities who have achieved their goals. Whether that’s losing weight, feeling better in their bodies, gaining muscles, improving movement etc. Everyone has a base, everyone can work towards improving – whatever that looks like to them. There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel/be more attractive to potential partners. That’s a biological fact we can’t get around. I’ve seen men confined to wheelchairs build muscle and train in jujitsu – I think a lot of woman are most attracted to the fact that a man is willing to work to take care of himself.
Oh – and aligning woman liking certain qualities to bigotry — I mean come on…
I think you’re right, yeah. Anyone can work on becoming better. That pursuit of betterness can be incredibly attractive.
Everyone benefits from strength, fitness, eating well, and living a healthy lifestyle, even if we can’t do everything perfectly.
Why? What bigotry message are you seeing here?
Exceptional article. Thank you for the results (and analysis) of the survey!
Thank you, Neil! 😀
One thought about the “THE MOST ATTRACTIVE DEGREE OF MUSCULARITY” and why women don’t prefer maximum muscle. I think women unconsciously associate large muscles with other high-testosterone traits, like agression. My wife HATES the look of bodybuilders, but one of the things my wife said first attracted her to me was my “kind face”. I would guess evolutionarily, women are attracted to men who men who can protect them, but too much aggression also makes for wife-beaters. Some women probably are more toward the I’m-attracted-to-power-that-might-kill-me and some are closer to he-looks-safe-to-me.
Hey Phil, yes! My guess is that you’ve got it right. It seems the middle-ground is ideal on average, but, as you said, different women favour different degrees of masculinity, muscularity, leanness, and formidability.
Or the idea of a big man lying on top will squish us.
I call lies! Women love being squished. It’s the number one move that makes my gf smile. I’ve also heard women after breakups claim that one of the things they missed the most was their man laying on top of them. Not sure why.. but I love squishing my girl so don’t take this away from me lol
my ex loved this too
sometimes she would just ask me to lie on top of her just for the heck of it
This was great! Will you do surveys for women-attractiveness too? straight and gay? That would be so cool (and needed)!
Hey Shauqse, thank you so much!
We’re thinking of doing one for women, yeah. I’ve already got the illustrations done 🙂
Thank-you so much for all the hard work in conducting and analysing the study. Your dedication and passion really shines through!
In terms of informing your programs, the above information seems like it would be invaluable. Are you looking to inform future programs/adjust current ones based on this information?
Keep up the amazing work!
My pleasure Alan, thank you! And yes, totally! We want to learn what our audience is aiming for so we can better align our programming with their goals (the male responses). And if a client’s goal is to build an attractive physique, have the knowledge to help them build it (the female responses).
Another thing we might want to do is slim down my illustrations a bit. Our avatar/mascot illustration is more muscular than what guys want.
Hey Shane this was a great article and it’s really cool that you are probably the first person to look at the attractiveness of different neck sizes with a fairly large sample size!
I have a question though regarding what the weight/dimensions mean to be in the Athletic or Strong category? For example is someone at 6 foot, athletic or strong at like 175Ibs given they are lean? Or is a given neck size athletic if it doesn’t look too skinny?
I think you have touched on this stuff in the past with your older articles but would you draw similar comparisons/conclusions here?
Thank you, AB!
You’re right, yeah. We cover the most attractive/aesthetic body weight in our aesthetics article. It seems that women prefer a BMI of 24.5, so for someone who’s 6 foot, his most attractive weight is 180 pounds with a flat stomach. Men would think he looks better at 190 pounds with abs, so maybe an extra 15–20 pounds of muscle.
For neck size, I think the idea is to build a neck that’s strong but not musclebound. For that same 6-foot guy, I’d guess a neck circumference of 15–16 inches at the narrowest point would be great.
Thanks I appreciate the feedback, and it’s cool to see you are still updating past articles with new info!
What’s the lesson here?
Build the maximum amount of muscle you can NATURALLY while staying within 10-15% body fat range.
I think that’s about right, yeah. I don’t know if we need to STAY under 15% body fat, though. Remember that skinny-fat guys were rated as more attractive than skinny guys. If someone pops up to 20% body fat while bulking, they might look better than the guy who’s struggling to bulk up because he’s not gaining enough weight.
So if someone were looking for advice about how to improve their appearance, I’d recommend getting to the right BMI first. If someone is overweight, get rid of the extra fat first, getting down to a healthy weight. More people know that intuitively. But if someone is skinny, get up to a healthy weight first, even if that means going over 15% body fat. The goal isn’t to gain fat, just to put more emphasis on gaining weight and muscle. From there, yeah, work on getting to 15% body fat or lower.
I say this because it’s super common for skinny guys to hamstring themselves by focusing on staying quite lean. It usually works a lot better if people relax about it a little bit, putting more emphasis on gaining size and strength first. I’ve been over 15% body fat a couple of times. I never worried too much about it. I think that attitude is one of the main factors that helped me gain 55 pounds in just a couple of years. It’s something you’ll hear from almost every naturally skinny guy who succeeds at gaining a large amount of muscle.
According to the research, 24.5 BMI tends to be the most attractive to women correct?
Yep, exactly 🙂
What are your thoughts on the idea of your height in cm – 100 = your ideal weight in kg?
It seems to be a decent and simple estimate for the common man trying to determine a good “attractive” weight to hover around. For example, I’m 173 cm tall. 73kg happens to be a BMI of 24.4. Just .1 off from the ideal attractive BMI of 24.5.
Obviously this is just an estimate as some people will be naturally have slimmer or larger builds than others.
Yep, that’s fine! That puts my ideal weight at 88kg. Works out for me, too. That’s a good weight for me.
And then, as you say, it’s just a loose rule of thumb. You could be a few kilos above or below and that would be fine, too.
Wrong. The lesson is who cares what women want? They’re attracted to personality over physicality anyways, so get as big as you want.
Looks definitely matter in dating brother.
This is a really interesting article!!
A weird question: how big are those butts? It’s hard to tell, they seem pretty subtly different. Do you have a guess at what range of hip/waist/thigh measurements are represented there? I guess the main takeaway though, regardless, is that women often prefer *some* amount of butt muscle?
Thanks, AF! Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s less about your hip measurements, especially since so much of that measurement is determined by your bone structure. It’s more about building a strong butt. Think about getting strong at squats and deadlift variations. That should give you a great pair of glutes. You’ll also build great legs and a strong back that way. Your physique will look sturdier and more athletic.
Thank you so much for this! I am new to bodybuilding. I know I should learn the basics, but I want to ask a question. What tasks would you assign to look fit and naturally lean and strong.
Hey man, my pleasure!
First, start with resistance training. Most people prefer lifting weights, but you can even start with body weight. Make sure you’re pushing yourself, bringing your muscles to the cusp of failure. You can train 3 times per week, leaving a day or rest between each workout day. Train every muscle every workout. And every workout, try to do more than last time. Try to add a bit of weight or get an extra rep.
Once you’ve started working out, start eating more food. You need to eat enough food to gain weight. Weigh yourself every week. If you’re gaining less than 0.5–1 pound, eat even more food next week. If you’re gaining more than that, eat a bit less. Keep weighing yourself and adjusting your intake week by week.
You can also try to improve your sleep. Make sure you have enough time in bed. Go to bed early. And other types of physical activity are great, too. For instance, on your rest days, you can go for walks.
That will help you build muscle. If you want to focus on losing fat, do the exact same thing except eat less food to lose weight instead of eating more food to gain weight.
Nicely done. As an evolutionary anthropologist I looked into this for many years and wrote articles for cosmetic surgery magazine and others. For a long time I was pushing the shoulder to waist ratio (which I still think makes sense from the v-taper and having a bigger upper body point of view) but your finding of the greater appeal of the bigger chest compared to shoulders was very interesting. It also make sense (probably more sense) from the point of view of upper body strength and being more formidable in hunting and fighting (or at least appearing so).
Great article
Thank you so much, Sean! I’ve been thinking about the shoulder-to-waist vs chest thing for a little while now. I wonder if it’s a Goodhart’s law sort of issue, where having broad shoulders is typically a good indicator of greater upper-body strength, and having a narrow waist is typically a good indicator of being healthfully lean, making it an attractive ratio. But then once we start optimizing for that specific metric, it stops working as well.
So, for example, if someone had a strong upper body but didn’t train their side delts, they might be much bigger and stronger than the guy who ONLY trained his shoulders. He better embodies that trait that the ratio is supposed to indicate.
Same with waist size. Someone can minimize core growth by only training with exercise machines and never training their abs, obliques, or spinal erectors. Their core could be a few inches smaller. But it isn’t smaller because of less fat, it’s smaller because of less muscle. It’s not representing what the ratio is supposed to represent.
I think that might be why we could get a muscular guy with narrower shoulders and a blockier waist looking more attractive than an out-of-shape guy with wider shoulders and a thinner waist.
Mind you, we aren’t just shaped by muscle. Some guys have structurally broader shoulders and narrower waists. That could represent an attractive degree of masculinity. We can’t control that, though. All we can control is our muscularity, proportions, and body fat. And I think it might be wiser to aim for a strong, lean, muscular upper body, including a strong core, rather than striving for a certain ratio.
What do you think?
Great work!
There’s obviously a lot of ways to contextualise the data, but you’ve done a good job. Two questions:
1) Are the pictures the one used in the survey? They might be a little too similar to accurately assess the differences.
2) I think the butt thing is the one that seems most off. The picture of the gradually increasing buttocks was preferred in a “dose-response” type of way and in that picture there was no mistaken what was being enhanced, yet women had butt second last when they had to name body parts. Do you think there’s a bias there in regards to what someone would assume they want, and what they might find attractive more instinctively? It seems to me that almost everyone appreciate a nice backside.
Hey Thomas, great points!
1) Yes, I used these illustrations for the survey. I drew them to be more realistic on purpose. If I exaggerated them, We’d get people who looked much too skinny or much too big. The difference between each of the main illustrations is supposed to be around twenty pounds. I’ve seen thousands of guys gain twenty pounds. I tried to make it as realistic as I could.
2) When I conducted the survey, the order of the illustrations was randomized. It wasn’t a gradient from smallest to biggest. The order of the questions was randomized, too.
I think women do prefer men with athletic butts. I just don’t think it’s a huge priority. If you wanted to min-max your attractiveness, and if you could only train three muscles, you’d probably do best by picking your chest, shoulders, and arms. But if you can train more than three muscles, absolutely include your butt. Include your other muscles, too.
If we look at how the results of the survey line up with what we see in real life, I think it makes sense. Look at what people post online. Guys show off their upper bodies. Women tend to show their glutes. I think there’s intuitive wisdom there. If we look at the guys who are famous for being attractive (Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Goslin, Brad Pitt, Harry Styles, and so on), I don’t think any of them have particularly huge butts. Or look at movies made and marketed to women. No huge butts, no huge emphasis on butts. Or take a look at romance novels. The covers tend to be of guys showing their chests, shoulders, and arms. Here’s an example.
My glutes are perhaps my most developed muscles. I wish they were a higher priority. They don’t seem to be, though. Where the glutes really shine is for general strength and athleticism. They help us squat, deadlift, and sprint. They also seem to help protect our lower backs. And their growth potential is HUGE, allowing us to add a ton of healthy muscle mass to our frames. Definitely worth developing. You could make a similar argument for quads.
Thanks for the well thought-out reply!
I’m sure I am biased, because as someone who also has well developed glutes, I’ve found that partners have consistently appreciated them. However, that is likely a “selection” bias, so to say. I agree with you that chest, arms and shoulders are probably the biggest bang for your buck if you want to increase your attractiveness to most people, which is in line with your findings. Well, that and having a well proportioned and athletic build with a low-medium range bodyfat.
One thing though, it would be interesting to hear your comments on is this study: Men’s Bodily Attractiveness: Muscles as Fitness Indicators https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474704919852918
In line with your results, they found that, as a group, upper body muscles were more important for attractiveness. Also, that men tended to prefer larger muscles compared to women. However, in contrast to your results, the women ranked obliques, abs and, coincidently, glutes as the most attractive muscles (granted obliques, abs, arms, shoulders, chest and glutes were close). Any thoughts on that? I’m thinking cohort (Spanish) and sample (recruited from soccer radio station) might have something to do with it, as well as perhaps differences in methodology (although they, similarly, used drawings which are shown in the supplementary material). Still, it’s noteworthy.
Btw, as someone who has a science background, using data to suss out attractiveness is a lot of fun, so thanks again for the great work! Hopefully there is more to come (perhaps including some waist-to-shoulder/chest/hip ratios?)
I find this stuff interesting, too 🙂
I think what you’re noticing is that bigger muscles look cool. If you have a big muscle, whatever it is, people will tell you it looks cool. Let’s say that quads are only the tenth most attractive muscle, right? If someone had a proportional physique, they might not get many compliments on their quads. But if they’ve got quads like Tom Platz, they’d get hundreds of compliments on their quads every day because they’re far more developed than anyone else in the world. That’s true even if their quads are much “too” big. It’s remarkable, so people remark on it.
You’re right that people who love soccer might prefer soccer physiques, which tend to have smaller upper bodies and more muscular lower bodies. I’m not sure that’s what’s going on here, though.
The study you linked used a single sketch of a guy, had arrows pointing to his different muscles, and asked people what size they preferred that muscle. The sketch was considered the most muscular rating. So what the participants were doing was saying whether they liked the muscles at that size or whether they would prefer the muscles to be smaller. If you look at the size of the various muscles, you’ll notice that some of them are much more developed than others. For example, his arms look enormous. Maybe eighteen or nineteen inches in circumference. That’s much larger than is naturally achievable by most men. If women prefer large-but-natural arms, they might say they prefer smaller arms than that. Compare that to his quads, which are fairly average in size, or his glutes, which are quite small.
When women said they preferred highly muscular glutes, they were saying they wouldn’t want a guy’s glutes to be any smaller than the small glutes shown in the picture. It doesn’t tell us how they value glute size compared to the size of other muscles, and I suspect they rank lower. It also doesn’t tell us whether they’d prefer even bigger glutes, which I suspect might be the case. This guy’s glutes aren’t much bigger than his biceps.
I think the study is making a bit of mistake when trying to determine the usefulness of the various muscles, too. Biceps can be useful when fighting, sure, but the authors are assuming they’re more useful than our core muscles. A lot of our punching, grappling, and weapon-swinging strength comes from the core. If the hypothesis is that formidable men are more attractive to women and more idealised by other men, you’d expect a strong core to be highly prized.
And again, just to be totally clear, I think that for natural lifters, having bigger muscles tends to be good. If those are “low-priority” muscles, no matter. It’s still good. Bigger calves, still good. It’s just that it might not have as much impact on your attractiveness as building a bigger chest or bigger shoulders.
What do you think?
Skinny guys with fat wallets win in the end.
Sort of a duck physique, I suppose, with skinny legs and protruding rear.
Hello,
What year were these results collected in and was the sample entirely American?
Hey Jan,
The results were collected in 2021. We surveyed readers of our blogs. A little over half of them are American, but it also includes people from Canada, the UK, Australia, India, Latin America, and so on.
You knuckleheads dont realize that surveys are always very wrong, especially those taken by women. It’s a game of lies to them. Having said that, anybody praising this thing is likely fat and not sure what a bicycle is. I’ve been six foot and a buck 40 my whole life or under. I get looked at by very hot girls, very fat girls, very stupid girls, very christian girls, etc etc etc and I’m a damn freak-in-the-face in Wisconsin who has no money, no values, no friends, and shuns society in general. I wear a damn black monosuit liner instead of clothes, then just shorts and nothing else. I’m brown-haired, black hairs everywhere else, big nose, long face, tight lips, sunken cheeks, flat stomach, not ugly…..but if you’re reading this…..dood, pay no never mind to it, it is rubbish. You do what you wish with your body, your body is yours. Women like reputation. If you’re a mean bitch that say “ef all”, shake em down or up, they really like that, and like you for having fame or infamy, and known for new things. Reputation. Life is a dream after all. NOTE: You are not authorized to edit, delete, or change this content herein per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights following the millions who sacrificed all for freedoms in World War II. Doing so will illicit a response.
Being free to express ourselves doesn’t mean we’re free from being judged. If I understand it correctly, this blog is our platform, and so what we’re supposed to do is make sure that all of the content published on it is up to our standards. If someone posts insults and curses, that brings down the overall quality of our blog.
I personally don’t like the idea of censorship, so my tendency is to leave all comments up, even when they’re critical. But your comment is somewhat misanthropic, and I don’t think Google will want to direct people to content like that. I’ll leave it here for now in case you want to respond, but I’ll probably get rid of it later. If you want to write another comment, this time getting your message across more civilly, I’ll gladly leave it up, however critical it is.
#2 and #4 over the other two choices any day…survey is BS
The survey acknowledges that some portion of the population has different preferences. That’s reflected when we say things like 80% voted for this and 20% voted for that. If you’re in the 20%, that doesn’t invalidate the survey, it just shows that your opinion is a minority one.
On the other hand, the survey is far from infallible. I hope it didn’t come across as if we thought this was the truth of truths. It’s just some information to consider.
Funny thing is, most women also prefer the thin, cute males. Women are nurtured to be “the prize” and so many may claim otherwise. Toxic masculinity is also to blame. Probably only to blame. Overall, thin, healthy looking body types are also very attractive to both men and women. Probably even most attractive. It just looks “cute”.
To the guy who says his wife hates buff dudes: Let’s be honest about most women’s self esteems.
It’s a fact that when a woman thinks she can’t get a guy, or she isn’t good enough for a real man, or she is insecure that he will pump and dump her, she tends to rationalize that men who are in shape are unattractive and go for a less attractive man. This way, her ego is spared. She thinks she has power. The TRULY confident woman will go for the buff bad boy. Ladies: it’s not a crime to be good to yourself. It’s 2023.
@Weddy, Buff dudes are barely 2-3% of the male population and they rarely ever have a stable relationship at all, and they also almost never get married, so that is definitely not the “in-shape” standard, vast majority of girls are slim, and vast majority of boys are slim, so each one is attracted to the default, , having a slim, fit body is good (and the default worldwide) but being gorilla-like with big muscles is largely unnatractive and makes someone look like an animal in real life, as these bodies are unnatural and later become messy with hanging tissue when you stop excercicing daily
its just that americans in particular have obesity problems due to their terrible hygiene and diet so they need a lot more excercice than the average male around the world
Nah. You are wrong about the hanging tissue. My husband use to be a bodybuilder (huge oversized arms and chest muscles) and he still has muscle mass just more of a normal/athletic size. Maybe some oversized veins but has no hanging tissue. He is banging.
This is a really bizarre article, it seems like something out of the 80s in a particular village or something, the overwhelming majority of men around the world have slim body types, it is barely 3 to 4% that has this gorilla-like gym bodies, not only that but bodybuilders in fact very rarely manage to get married or have stable relationships at all, and being fat in inherently unnatural and unhealthy no matter how someone sees it, which is also bizarre because this article tried to favor fat over skinny, its like the writer looked at common sense, and then wrote everything that goes against common sense on purpose, and it is strange considering americans have the most obesity problems in the world
They’re reporting the results of a survey given to those using the B2B program. The results largely line up with survey’s done elsewhere. This isn’t opinion, it’s just data on the average preferences. We can all give guesses as to why, but you can’t argue with the data.
This confirms my suspicions that women do not like slimmer guys. My IBD prevents me from gaining size no matter how much I eat or how much effort I put in the gym—and yes I’ve worked with personal trainers. I’ve been on so many Tinder dates where my date sized me up in-person and immediately lost interest. I’m Darwin’ed out of the dating pool.
I come from a long line of skinny people, all of whom got married and had kids while being skinny. Most of the skinny guys joining our community are in their twenties, thirties, and forties. Most of them are already happily married. I had similar dating success before and after bulking up. Building muscle definitely made dating easier, and my wife commented on it when we first met, but it was a relatively minor factor. I think we would have hit it off either way.
Being underweight and out of shape is less physically attractive than being in good shape. But if you look at the survey results, you’ll see that slim guys do just fine, as long as they’re fit—as long as they’re in good shape. They do about as well as guys who look like fitness models. It’s only when you’re underweight or overweight that it becomes a negative.
Your body is just one aspect of your entire person. Your success doesn’t hinge on any one thing. Getting in better shape can help, but so can many things.
Now, obviously, that doesn’t help. You’re not having success right now. Whether that’s because of your slimness or not, either way, it’s not working.
I’m not sure if this helps, but I think there are three sides to it:
1. You only have to find one person, ever. If you have 1,000 bad dating experiences and 1 date that leads to a lasting marriage, you’re set for life.
2. Dating is like any other skill. It takes practice. Maybe you need 100 bad dates before you get good enough at dating to have a good one. Just like it might take 100 push-up workouts before you’re able to do a truly great push-up.
3. You can work on many different aspects of yourself, developing the areas you’re most interested in developing, or patching the areas that most need patching. There’s so much room for improvement. You aren’t trapped as the man you are right now.
As for building muscle and getting in shape, personal trainers aren’t always the best at dealing with skinny guys. That’s somewhat outside of their area of expertise, anyway. Their job is to teach you how to lift weights and guide you through your workouts. To build muscle, you also need to eat a good bulking diet and gain weight steadily on the scale. IBD definitely makes that more difficult.
IBD doesn’t make bulking impossible. It’s pretty common for skinny guys to have digestive issues. We’ve got a ton of members with IBD. It’s one of the more common root causes of skinniness. These guys succeed at bulking up. They just need to be much more mindful about the foods they eat. They need to get their extra calories from foods that don’t trigger issues. It’s definitely hard. But possible!
And, again, getting into better shape is just one of many ways you can improve. But it does help, and it’s good for your health and confidence and mood. I recommend it. But you can have a great lifelong marriage even if you’re quadriplegic. You certainly don’t need to be in good shape. You’d just need to make up for it by being awesome in another way.
Geez, man. Talk about going above and beyond, Shane. Always love your perspective and positivity. My marriage of 22 years started when I was very skinny and your advice rings true for me.
I can’t currently subscribe, but with a B2B foundation, I’m holding steady at 20 lbs over my base weight. Thank you! Please, keep up both the fitness/diet and the solid mentoring!
Thank you so much, man! Congratulations on 22 years of happy marriage and 20 pounds of gains! That’s amazing!
Thanks for your work studying sexual preferences and body shapes. It is really valuable for many people’s distorted self image and idea of standards they think they’re supposed to achieve to relax. Especially things like Body Dysmorphic Disorder is fuelled by sexual anxiety. In that regard, your research indicates that health and natural, reasonable diligence and work ethic are rewarded in terms of attraction.
People suffering with outlandish body ideals overlook the fact that there’s been mutual evolution and selection between the sexes going on for millennia, and real ideals aren’t too crazy because of co-evolution of traits. For example, the ideal penis size according to met-analysis of data on women’s choices shows that the length preferred by western women is only mildly above average.
The same seems to go for traits like height: the ideal is only one or two inches above average. Like one study that shows the average ideal height for men in isolation of other factors seems to be 5’11, varying relative to the women’s height, while the average self-reported height is 5’10 in the UK.
My pleasure, Tobias! Glad you liked it.
Should have done the neck torso up with the good chest. Show what a pencil neck really looks like.
I have another simple theory for why men prefer a stronger look than women. It’s hard to put on muscle and drop fat. We often fall short of our goals. If we aim for the muscular physique or lower body fat and fall a little short, we end in the most attractive zone for women. It’s best to have slightly ambitious goals.
Take away modern pictures and mirrors and we probably couldn’t tell our exact appearance very well anyway. And we probably couldn’t manage to be as precise on getting the look we wanted with nutrition, calorie counting, and modern exercise regimens. So we are made to aim a little high with our goals and fall a little short.
That’s a cool theory. Could also be that instead of ambition being finely tuned to what’s optimal, some of us simply have a limitless abundance of it. Doesn’t matter how much money we make, how strong we are, or how famous we get, we always want forever more.
Athletic bodies are best.
Sad to see the skinny at 0%, it’s my favourite body type by far. Men, you should just be yourself and someone will like it.
Hey Lily, thank you for the comment!
What do you prefer about the skinny body type?
Do you think men should continue being themselves if they’re lazy, mean, or unhealthy?
Do you not thing woman might being lying to not appear shallow? No way Cristiano Ronaldo’s body is more attractive than David Laid’s.
I just made a video about that. Check this out.
I had to laugh looking at the difference between the “strong” and “very strong” physiques and the minute difference between them but the huge difference in votes.
The “strong” body type had something like 43% of the votes while the “very strong” had 6%.
In real life, a woman would have no way of judging if the physique could be classified as one or the other (at least not till it was time to tango, and even then)
One thing is pretty clear though. anything too fat or too skinny is a no.
Ive only had anything but compliments on my body. Since the age of 16 when i actually started to put on some muscle. Many of the women i have been with told me straight up that i was the best looking man they had had slept with (a lot of sluts). I dont want this to sound like vanity or bragadiccio but i have to mention it in the context of this article since men and women both want partners that are as physically attractive as possible. (all alse being the same)
I think a lot of the preference is really perception. How a man presents himself. If he walks into a cafe topless in the middle of the day with the most ideal body that a woman could dream of but acts like a douche, he wont have much luck.
Contrast with the same man at the beach playing volleyball with his friends. Especially if his friends arent up to his level he will have no problem.
A lot of women make inferences about a mans personality from their physique as well. This is valid in some cases but can also skew the results. A man who weighs over 180 pounds with abs is rare. They will frequently assume steroids or vanity or one dimensionality, like too much time in the gym.
Another thing i noticed is the woman who are most attracted to me are the ones who are the most attractive themselves.
Women dont want to feel ugly or fat around their man. They also dont want to feel like they are moving down a level to find a partner, so they look for men that are equal to them in attractiveness.
would go a long way to explaining why 5s date 5s and why 9s date other 9s.
Fat girls always hate me.