What is the most attractive body fat percentage for men? New research offers an answer

A new cross-cultural study involving participants from China, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom found that men with a body mass index between 23 and 27 were rated as the most physically attractive. While a shoulder-to-waist ratio around 1.57 was associated with the highest attractiveness, increasing this ratio beyond that point did not significantly enhance ratings. More importantly, the study revealed that body fat percentage was a stronger and more consistent predictor of attractiveness than either body mass index or shoulder-to-waist ratio. These findings were published in Personality and Individual Differences.

Adiposity refers to the amount of fat stored in the body and plays a central role in shaping physical appearance. Across many cultures, body fat distribution is closely tied to perceptions of health and fertility. In women, a lower waist-to-hip ratio is often viewed as attractive because it signals reproductive health.

In men, moderate levels of adiposity combined with muscular development may signal strength, vitality, and the capacity to provide resources or protection. Body shape, shaped in part by fat storage and muscle distribution, communicates a range of biological and social cues that influence mate preferences.

From an evolutionary perspective, body composition serves as a visual cue to underlying reproductive fitness and overall health. Adiposity influences hormone levels such as testosterone and estrogen, which affect the development of secondary sexual characteristics. While both extremely low and extremely high body fat levels are often perceived as less attractive, moderate levels of fat tend to be rated more positively. This may reflect an evolved preference for traits that indicate long-term health and resilience without the costs associated with undernourishment or obesity.

Study author Fan Xia and her colleagues wanted to explore the impact of adiposity on male physical attractiveness. They note that previous studies are not very clear about the relationship between body mass index and attractiveness of males. They aimed to build a mathematical model that would predict the body mass index that maximizes fitness and attractiveness.

The study included 283 participants recruited from universities in Beijing (China), Panevėžys (Lithuania), and Aberdeen (U.K.). Both male and female participants rated the attractiveness of male body images. Participants were not asked about their sexual orientation.

The researchers used 15 black-and-white DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) images of male bodies that varied systematically in shoulder-to-waist ratio and body fat percentage. The faces were blurred, and height was not shown to eliminate other potential attractiveness cues. The images, printed on cards, ranged in body fat percentage from 5.9% to 37.2%, and in BMI from 20.1 to 33.7. Participants were asked to sort the cards in order of perceived attractiveness.

The findings indicated that men with body mass index values in the mid-20s were rated as the most attractive, aligning closely with the predictions of the evolutionary model. Across all three countries, male bodies with a BMI between 23 and 27 consistently received the highest attractiveness ratings. This range falls within what is typically classified as normal to slightly overweight, suggesting that moderate body mass—rather than extreme leanness or muscularity—is perceived as most desirable.

However, the most striking result was the importance of body fat percentage. Across all populations, the relationship between attractiveness and adiposity followed a clear pattern: moderate fat levels were associated with the highest attractiveness ratings, while both very low and very high fat levels were rated less favorably.

The most attractive male bodies had approximately 13 to 14 percent body fat, a level that corresponds closely with what is considered metabolically healthy. This pattern held in all three countries, despite cultural and socioeconomic differences between the study populations.

Shoulder-to-waist ratio also had some influence on attractiveness, but its effect was much weaker and less consistent. In China and Lithuania, shoulder-to-waist ratio did not significantly predict attractiveness once body fat percentage was taken into account. In the United Kingdom, both variables were statistically significant, but body fat percentage explained a greater proportion of the variation in ratings.

These findings challenge the assumption that upper-body muscularity or V-shaped torsos are the dominant features driving perceptions of male attractiveness. Instead, they suggest that observers are more attuned to signs of healthy, moderate fat levels.

“Females appear sensitive to adiposity in a manner consistent with evolutionary expectations. In contrast, earlier work shows males judge females who are thinner than the evolutionary optimal as more attractive,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the links between body shape and attractiveness perceptions. However, it should be noted that attractiveness perception in real life depends on a number of different and interacting factors, while participants of this study rated black-and-white pictures that intentionally had any attractiveness cues other than body shape removed from them.

The paper, “The relationship between body fatness and physical attractiveness in males,” was authored by Fan Xia, Justina Sauciuvenaite, Ruth Bissland, Catherine Hambly, Lobke Starr-Vaanholt, Mark D. Faries, Guanlin Wang, and John R. Speakman.