Post: #1

Interesting read. Granted this is a visual test but is it a society influenced preference or is this really an evolved evaluation of the genetic health men by women.



Guys"”size matters, but not in the way you think. Women are drawn to men with low body fat"”not macho features, such as a manly jaw or six-pack abs, according to a surprising new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Overall, the guys women rated as most attractive had about 12 percent body fat.

Intriguingly, the scientists also found that men's antibodies, not hard bodies toned by long hours at the gym, are what turn fertile women on. From the evolutionary point of view, that makes sense, since a woman would choose a mate with optimal genes and a healthy immune system to father her kids.

But how can women tell at glance which men have these desirable traits? Here's a closer look at the research.


Is There a Link Between Testosterone and Hotness?

Scientists used to think that a macho appearance would be an evolutionary asset for men, based on the "immunocompetence handicap hypothesis." This theory holds that a highly masculine appearance indicates that a man have overcome the "handicap" of contending with the negative effects of having high levels of the male hormone (which makes men more susceptible to infections).

Therefore, proponents of this theory believed that a manly appearance should be highly alluring to women, as an indication of "good genes." In other words, a man needs to be very fit and healthy to overcome the so-called testosterone "handicap."

Yet studies show that women don't consistently prefer the most masculine-looking men, nor are macho looks always linked to better health in men across studies. Body weight, however, is strongly associated with both a robust immune system and good health, with both very overweight and very underweight men at greater risk for medical problems.


Investigating the Secret of Men's Sex Appeal

To find out what makes a man most likely to be a babe magnet, the researchers recruited 69 young white men of varying appearances and weights. All of the men were photographed in what the researchers call "standardized underwear" and their body fat percentage was measured.

Almost two-thirds of the men were of a normal weight, four percent were underweight, and the rest were overweight or obese. The men also underwent blood tests to check their levels of circulating testosterone and antibody levels before and one month after getting a hepatitis B vaccination.

Twenty-nine young heterosexual women who were in the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle (and not taking birth control pills) were asked to rate the sexual attractiveness of each man's face and body. The photos were also rated by a separate panel of 20 heterosexual women on the men's degree of masculinity of the man's appearance. A third group of women evaluated how fat or thin the men's faces were.

The ratings were then compared with the men's testosterone and hepatitis B antibody levels one month after the vaccine to identify men with the healthiest immune system response.

What Really Makes a "Babe Magnet"

Contrary to what the immunocompetence theory would have predicted, the researchers found no correlation between a man's masculinity rating and how sexy women found him. Nor did the macho-looking men have a stronger immune system response to the hepatitis B vaccine. And their levels of testosterone weren't any higher than those of men with a less manly appearance.

Instead, the women swooned over guys with low body fat, with men who had 12 percent body fat being deemed the most attractive. Slimmer men also had a more robust immune system. There was a link between weight and testosterone, with higher levels found in thinner men.

"We found that a man's weight serves as a better indicator of the relationship between immune response and attractiveness than masculinity does," University of Pretoria researcher Vinet Coetzee told LiveScience.com. Coetzee theorizes that women use weight, rather than macho features, to subconsciously make hot-or-not judgments about the men they meet.

This research, Coetzee added, "serves as a stepping stone for future studies that could test this relationship in different populations using alternative measures of immunity."

The researchers also created two intriguing composite photos, one with the combined features of of the eight men with the weakest immune systems and another with the combined features of the eight with the healthiest. Which guy do you think is hottest?

Post: #2

Speechless bc I'm too busy letting all that soak in. LOL

Awesome research and very informative. Reps.

Post: #3

Explains why in college I was pulling mad tail when I got my body fat percentage down to 6%.

Personally, I like being fatter. Now I weigh 180 lbs and am in the 15% body fat range all while lifting weights.

Post: #4

Lol i remember seeing something on manswers. Lets flip it.

"Men experiencing stress not only perceive a heavier female body size as maximally attractive but also more positively perceive heavier female body sizes, and have a wider range of body sizes considered physically attractive."


Tightening one's belt in a recession is usually considered prudent, but women may be advised to do the opposite after a study found that in tough times stressed men turn to larger ladies for comfort.

Men are usually programmed to prefer slimmer and younger-looking women because they appear healthier and more fertile, making them a better bet for bearing offspring.

But stress can cause men to reassess their priorities, with panic making them treasure more homely qualities such as a larger body size which signify access to basic resources like food, scientists said.

Body fat is also linked to age, meaning a larger waistline may signify that a woman is more mature and therefore better equipped to cope with threatening situations, making her a more appealing partner in uncertain times.

The study backs up previous research which has shown that being hungry can cause men to prefer larger women, and that older-looking actresses become more popular during times of recession.

Researchers from Westminster University split 80 volunteers into two groups, with half undertaking a series of stressful activities such as mock job interviews and mental arithmetic tests to make them feel tense.

Both groups were then shown pictures of a range of different female body shapes ranging from emaciated to obese, and asked to rate them in terms of how attractive they were.

The results showed that men in the stressed group rated their "ideal" figure as significantly larger than those in the control group.

While both groups gave broadly similar ratings to slimmer women, the stressed men were also much more likely than men in the control group to find women who were of normal weight or overweight attractive.

Dr Viren Swami and Dr Martin Tovee wrote in the PLoS ONE journal: "While there was no significant difference in the lower end of the range, the [stressed] group appear to have shifted the maximum cut-off for attractive bodies at higher BMIs (body mass indices)."

The pictures were numbered according to their BMI on a scale of one to ten, with one representing emaciated and ten obese.

The largest figure deemed attractive by stressed men was 7.17, which fell in the "overweight" category, while the upper limit of attractiveness for men from the non-stressed group was 6.25, which is classified by the scale as a "normal" weight.

Stressed men rated a figure of 4.44 as the ideal figure while the non-stressed men found women most attractive at a lower level at 3.90.

"The results provide the first experimental evidence that the experience of psychological stress shapes men's judgements of female body size," the researchers wrote.

"Men experiencing stress not only perceive a heavier female body size as maximally attractive but also more positively perceive heavier female body sizes, and have a wider range of body sizes considered physically attractive."



The manswers show said hungry men prefer heavier women.

Post: #5

Wow. Repped. Awesome info

Post: #6

seriously, thank you!

all my life i was told that i was too skinny by people who should have shut up.

am 10% body fat, 37yrs old, and am ripped to be as skinny as i still am.

i like how i look though i may still have confidence issues from that time that i will continue working to overcome.

thanks again!!!