Maybe having 'visible' abs is possible for anyone without any muscle mass, but it's be completely detrimental to your health. I've heard both sides of the equation. Sure, anatomically... everyone has to have abdominal muscles for them to stand upright. However, to be able to visibly see them may not be possible in some people without hitting dangerous levels of body fat.
Yes, the more muscle mass you carry the easier it will be to have 3D abs. A lot of people trying to get lean aren't actually looking to be totally shredded though. I have no idea why anyone would want to just to be lean but have barely any muscle.
I mean yeah the health component, but also people get into this to look better naked....no one's aspiring to be the skinny guy with a 6 pack.
Most educated people would agree that if someone wasn't actively engaging their abdominal muscles for a the majority of their life (a sedentary lifestile), that abs would not be visible without hitting health impairing levels of body fat. Now, when people say 'just get to a low body fat percentage', I don't think they mean low enough that it's detrimental to your health. Everyone has different muscle imbalances, and for some people being low body fat (while being healthy) is not enough for abs to show (assuming you don't have much mass).
Absolutely. Most guys that don't have enough muscle just freak out once they start to see how "small" they're getting in their pursuit of abs.
For those that are looking to look really good with abs, there are some basic strength prerequisites that someone's gonna need before it's at all possible. These numbers aren't solid or fullproof, but 2x bodyweight deadlift, bodyweight bench for 10, and other numbers like that typically cover the muscle part. Strength numbers don't equate to muscle perfectly...but when people have a certain level of strength it usually does keep them away from the point that they'll have to look anorexic to get abs.
And if you're reading this and you think deadlifting 135 pounds is heavy or can't bench press with the 45 pound plates on the bar yet, that should be a primary focus for you. If you're somewhere around this point you can definitely build strength, some muscle and lose fat all at the same time -- if done correctly.
Take me for example, in regards to my story about the first time I joined the gym. I was 6'2, 160 (maybe 155, this was almost a decade ago) lbs post cut with virtually no ab visibility. I had a trainer and we measured my body fat as well, I was in the 8-9% range. I had no visible definition at that body fat percentage. The problem was, I never engaged my abs so they weren't prominent, and, like most people, the majority of my fat (at least the last bit) would be the stomach. Could I have gotten to a low enough body fat to see them? Maybe, but it would have been extremely detrimental to my health. These days, at around 195, with 11-15% body fat... my abs are all clearly visible. That's due to mass, even with fat over it they are muscular enough that they are visible.
So, while technically just getting to low enough body fat -might- work, we also might be talking about sub 7% which is detrimental to overall health (long term) and is never something you should be doing.
What did you use to measure body fat? You can ignore this question if it was a handheld device your trainer gave you. Or anything the gym had. Like, if it anything other than a very very expensive piece of equipment in the 1000s of dollar range than you were not 9% body fat without pretty visible abs
An example is here:
We need to lose this broscience ideology that everyone has abs. Yes, everyone does... but even at low body fat percentages not -everyone- can see them. I'm sure there's research on this if you look deep enough. I've had multiple people tell me the same thing. I was pretty much the same as the latter at 8-9% body fat, so I wouldn't rule it out to being a false picture either.
The idea that people can have too little muscle to make their abs all that visible at low body fat percentages is somewhat true. At that point, forget the abs, you should be building strength for many reasons.
So yes, while technically everyone may have abs if they lost all their body fat, it's a really misleading statement. People aren't trying to get to 2% body fat to see their abs. Having visible abs at a healthy body fat percentage isn't something everyone could immediately have. Which, when someone asks "How can I get a 6 pack?", I assume they mean without having to cut to detrimental levels of body fat to have a six pack. Even that itself is debateable, I'm fairly confident there's people with 6% body fat that don't have visible ab definition. There's definitely anorexic people I've seen that have no ab definition, and I wouldn't say it's because their body fat levels are too high.
This is very poor information. Anyone can have abs if it's approached the right way. Some may not want to do what's necessary and some may realize how pointless it is to get totally shredded. But anyone can have a visible 6 pack if it's done right