Visible abs. Healthy/Unhealthy

[alittleprivacy]

I was linked earlier to this trainer's video about the dangers for women in pursuing abs. Overall it seems like good general advice but as someone with clearly visible abs, it's got me questioning myself. I never initially pursued abs, they just started to show by themselves in about 6 months after I started skating. I have a strong core from skating and in lockdown I started doing gymnastics and inversion yoga, which has really built it up. But I would be an absolute liar if I said I didn't really like them because my stomach used to be a complete mess of saggy skin, stretch-marks and scarring, etc. Now even though some of the saggy skin and scars are still there, I don't really care.

But this video is freaking me out slightly, is it unhealthy that my abs have become so visible. They aren't super-instagram abs, but if I hadn't sustained pregnancy damage or had a c-section, they probably would look better. So is it a sign that I'm at an unhealthy level of body fat. My BMI is 21-22, (it goes up ahead of my period) but I am quite muscular for a woman. My waist height ratio is .41 which is lower end of the healthy range. I still get periods though I am actually expecting those to start to tail away in the nearish future due to my age (42), so can't always use them as a gauge of my health. I eat mindfully and have 3 meals a day and numerous snacks of fruit. I eat lots of healthy fats and protein and while I'm mindful about carbohydrates, I eat at least 2 portions of bread/potatoes/rice a day along with lots of fruit and veg. You can 'pinch more than an inch' on just about every part of my body and while I obviously don't look like I'm 20 anymore, my cheeks are still fairly rounded.

The thing, that 3 years ago I had a BMI of 30 and until I weighed myself thought I was just a bit overweight. So I know that it's pretty easy to normalise what we've grown accustomed to and fool ourselves into thinking that an unhealthy body is pretty much fine. But other than my abs being visible, I really don't think my body fat percentage is particularly low. So am I fooling myself or is it possible that my abs are visible because I gain muscle really easily?

www.instagram.com/p/CMvNzMQF8VZ/

You're massively overthinking. You can see my abs if I haven't just eaten a huge meal, and I certainly haven't got very low body fat.

Sounds sensible OP.
It won't suit all people to persue visible abs as we carry fat in different ways. Some people will naturally show them more easily than others.

You can always see my abs no matter how much I work out or don’t 🤷‍♀️ What sort of skating do you do if you don’t mind me asking?

I think it depends on your body shape

So a classic apple might have to get unhealthily skinny to see their abs

Whereas I am a classic pear - it doesn't take too much to see my abs but my bmi is 23 and my bum and thighs still have lots of chunk left - I'm certainly not wasting away

So if you feel strong and happy, don't worry!

OP if you feel good keep doing what you're doing.
It sounds like you have a low range healthy body fat percentage (BMI is pants) and exercise regularly. Your muscles will be well defined and not hidden under layers of fat

@LadyCatStark

You can always see my abs no matter how much I work out or don’t 🤷‍♀️ What sort of skating do you do if you don’t mind me asking?

Pre-covid, (and hopefully again soon) lots of roller-rink skating and dance with a little bit of artistic, which is figure skating on rollerskates. I also inline skate long distance outdoors. I'm training to get my marathon speed safely under 2 hours. And I do some aggressive skating in skate parks, which is why I started doing some gymnastics in lockdown. Because park skating and some parts of dance skating, incorporate handstands, headstands, cartwheels and splits.

I think that one of the reasons the video freaked me out a bit is that it's very sensible in general. Women do need higher levels of body fat than men and it is dangerous to go too low. One of the reasons I started doing strength training in addition to skating is because my mum has osteoporosis and I'm keen to keep my bones strong. So I'd hate to bring on the very thing I'm working to avoid by going too low. And my hobby is an extreme sport, so I really do need good, strong bones. That said my body shape is one where I had visible ribs and collar bone and a defined waist, even at a BMI of 30 and I put on muscle extremely easily. So I guess it's possible I'm just one of those people who can have defined abs without it being a risk. I've decided to get a private dexa scan once everything opens up more. Both for my bones and my body fat.

You sound absorbed with your body, food monitoring and exercising, eg multiple marathons, way more than just regularly exercising and maintaining your preferred BMI etc.

Also, for most women, periods don’t tail off/ stop until way, way later than early to mid 40s!

@Dozer

You sound absorbed with your body, food monitoring and exercising, eg multiple marathons, way more than just regularly exercising and maintaining your preferred BMI etc.

I don't know how the fuck you got that conclusion tbh. I don't food monitor at all. I have nothing more than the vaguest idea about what calories are in things as I don't monitor them ever. I know that as a v small woman, I can't eat as much as a lot of my peers. I put on weight in the first place by eating the same meals as my now ex husband who is 14" taller than me. It crept on, little bit by little bit over the years to the point where I was just about obese by the end of my 30. When I realised how overweight I'd become I lost weight by a mix of realising I'd become addicted to processed sugar and that as a smaller person, I didn't need as much food. 90% of the time I eat completely intuitively and I only don't when I know I'm about to need more food over the course of an activity than I feel like before it. I described how I eat in this post, to point out that I don't obsess about food at all.

As for my sports, I have athletic goals. When I started skating, I learned that I could actually do so, so many of the things that I'd always fantasised about. I have no particular obsession with my body apart from wanting to keep it healthy. I am somewhat obsessed with becoming as good as I can at a sport I absolutely love and always loved before I knew I was naturally pretty good at.