Alana:
Bulky top row = 1st one I'm not sure, 2nd = Hilary Swank 3rd = Tina Turner
Bottom row = Jessica Biel & Linda Hamilton

Not Bulky = Jessica Alba & idk???
bottom row = looks like Gabby from Desperate Housewives in the 1st two pics...not sure who the last person is.

The first one of the bulky is also Hillary Swank. The last one of the non-bulky is one of those kittycat dolls I believe.

I know my boobs will pretty much disappear. :(

Put me in the Linda Hamilton (T2) column. She was so tough and sexy in that movie!

But since we have to also deal with reality, I pretty much like the body I have. Only I'd like the one I had at age 15, please. Thank you.

hmm.. I didn't think Jessica Biel as bulky either; I wouldn't mind having her body.


I think realistically for my body type it's hard to put on that type of muscle, so I would just like be toned and not flabby. I don't think I'm built to ever have a nice round booty like J-Lo either.

I like Cindy Crawford's body back in her supermodel days... thin but not a waif..that's kinda my goal now; if I happen to put on some visible muscle I'll be fine with that though.

I don't think Jessica Biel is bulky at all. She is equal part curvey and lean. I love her body.

http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:...biel-gq-04.jpg

http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:...biel-gq-12.jpg

http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:...0.432x298.jpeg

If I could change everything I would go from my ddd's to a c cup and the perfect body type to me would be angelina jolie.

Lots of folks mention Angelina Jolie as their "ideal". Have you seen her up close? She's waifishly thin, like you could knock her over with your pinky and play her spine like a xylophone with huge veins running down her arms and hands. I think she probably has to beef up for some of her roles but she's a very slight woman.

I do not like a female body to be overly muscular. It looks good on a model in a well staged photo, but IRL, it looks unfeminine and exaggerated.

I`d love a body ike Dita von Teese`s. It`s curvy and soft, with boobs and a bum, and yet, she`s tiny!

I like my body type too so I would just want it with less fat! I love Scarlett Johannsen's body too so I vote for soft and curvy. I find it more feminine than muscles showing everywhere. I would like just enough muscle for my arms and legs not to jiggle but not so much that you see the definition lines.

Thanks for the celebrity guides SamanthaJubilee and LandonsBaby!

I'm another who likes Scarlett Johannsen, at least what I've seen, if that's representative (I don't keep up with celebs too well).

I want to be toned, but when I say that I really mean ... not flabby. I don't actually want a particularly athletic-looking body. I recall that I was proud of my supposed 2 pack/4 pack/whatever in college, but I'll feel most like me at "thin, soft and feminine." I do want to be "fit" ... but you know, looks-wise, I want to be what I consider most attractive.

In men, I find attractive most body types except for particularly thin (so, the opposite). Average, fit or fat = all fine by me in men.

I love Leana Headey from Sarah Connor's Chronicles, but she's thinner than I'll ever be, ha. I think part of it is her attitude (in that character). Tough chick. I'm such a softie, I admire that in other women.

I will admit I don't really know what women mean by "fit".

It would be "Beyounce"

Arghhh!!! One of my personal pet peeves is that alot of the photos linked to are of Oxygen-type fitness models. Which is really a distortion of what a woman should look like! You don't see abs unless your body fat is 10% or less. At 10% or less body fat, you lose alot of breast tissue. So these women get implants to get that "ideal" body. These are comic book women -- women drawn to an ideal by men and marketed to and overwhelmingly pre-pubescent, adolescent, and young male market...
Surely we can do better than THAT as ideal?! How about normal weight with the functional ability to haul yourself around, walk for a couple of hours, lift some things, and enough body fat to sustain your life!!

Check the thumbnails -- I can't see much difference in body types...so sad...

OK, rant over...

Kira

Comicbooks--yes, I thought I'd seen that shape somewhere before!

I cannot look at another woman and say "I want a body like hers." --My body will be it's own shape. Will I want to see well-defined muscle? Well, I don't know. Depends how much work it will take and how much time I have. It's not that important to me at all.

No, I'm excited and curious to see what my new fit and slender self will look like in about a year--warts, loose skin, wrinkles and all.

Sorry, I have to chime in. I am one of those women with abs.

Yes, I started out on 3 fat chicks with a gut and eating Wendys burgers 3x per day. Going from that to an Oxygen body CAN happen. No, it isn't easy, and no, you don't need 10% bf (10%bf for a female is the lowest that even fitness models compete at - I know of one girl who got down to 8%). I have abs and I am at 18% bf.

Yes, I may work out 1-2 hours per day running at 9.0mph on a treadmill doing sprints or deadlifting my bodyweight, but it took 3-4 years to get there. No implants, lol. It isn't unrealistic, but it is a major lifestyle change and one that most people do not have the dedication for. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with simply walking around the block for exercise, it is a matter of personal choice.

But it isn't unrealistic! I know many women with this lifestyle, mainly because we gravitate towards each other. My significant other is the same. Check out bodybuilding.com and you will find hundreds of women in the women's section who look like Oxygen models.

:) i like long and lean, soft look.
I personally don't like muscular look.
As the article say, it's a personal choice and work hard for it........
(and i need to work hard for it, as i'm not doing that right now >"<)

I think the problem is we are still trying to look like models. We've just gone from emulating the fashion models to emulating the fitness models. But both are unrealistic as a general ideal body type that the female population at large judges themselves against.

I do have well defined muscles in my arms. It wasn't by choice really, as my weight dropped my definition just started to appear. I actually kind of like it and even do push ups and workout with handweights on 30 DS. I much prefer looking defined to what I used to look like. I do get the question a lot though..
"are you an athlete?"

Actually, for women it's usually more like 15% and some can even be a little higher (and some do have to be a little lower). I've never seen women on Oxygen Magazine that look like the super ripped one you posted. That women does have extremely low bf. If women wants to have 15% body fat, what is wrong with that? It's their preference and it is attainable. It's difficult but it's not completely out of the real of possibilities. It just takes a lot of time, hard work and dedication. If someone is willing to put in the work, then have at it!

And if a women does want the "oxygen model" look that doesn't mean she doesn't take her own body type into consideration. If you have wide hips...you'll still have them. If you have small boobs..well, say goodbye. If you have very large shoulders..they may look a little masculine. If you go look at female fitness competitors you see they vary wildly in body types. They all look different.

and now I see Sacha chimed in already. Thanks Sacha! :D

my ideal body is my own, with a flat stomach and hips, that dont (in a sense) appear to be hanging (muffin top). And be cellulite free

I know I am not headed for the model zone, heh heh (well, maybe if there is some scientific revolution that allows for major overhauls in many areas...)

exactly, maybe we shouldn't feel like we have to look like a model.

Mine. My body is unique. It was created just for me - no one else.

It isn't perfect (don't get me started on saggy-baggy after losing almost 100 lbs.). But, it is a perfect fit - FOR ME!

And, actually - even the saggy-baggy is good. Because it is an excellent reminder of where I have been. The journey I have traveled - and is an wonderful reminder of WHY I changed my lifestyle and why maintenance is so important :)

There seems to be a little anti-buff-women sentiment here, as well as in the video in the link. (Am I reading into it?) ...The more I do resistance, and the lower my body fat gets, the more you can see my muscles. And I am delighted! The last time I lost weight, I got down to the low 130s, through cardio and calorie restriction only--and I gained it back, and then some. When I started my weight-loss/fitness journey last spring, if you had asked me what I wanted to look like, I would have said how I looked then, the last time I lost weight. But that was a random goal--because it was the lowst I could remember weighing post-university, and it was the last time I truly felt hot (because a guy I was dating at the time saw me in a special outfit and said, "You look hot" :D ). Now, I weight about 15 pounds less, and I bet my body fat percentage is significantly lower.

As a consequence of doing resistance and lowering my body fat, my muscles show. I have had muscular legs for a few years now (even when they were hidden under fat) because of cycling to work, but now my arms show muscle too. I scratched my arm the other day, and I felt something funny, and I went, "What the heck is that?!?" It was my tricep--my arm was flexed and my tricep was pumped out--and I couldn't have been happier with myself. That little pumped muscle represented a lot of hard work, and I am proud of it. My shoulders also are noticably defined now, and my biceps too--and a year ago I would have never imagined it could be my body that looked strong.

One of the things I liked when I first started cycling to work was that it made me feel strong. I had never really known my body in that way before, and it may be something unique to the experience of women in this day and age--men are taught to be strong, and in almost every century before this one (and maybe the one before it), women would have spent much of their lives using their bodies for things that required strength--working in the fields, hauling loads of wet laundry, etc. For me, my relationship with my body before cycling was limited: my body was for enjoying (enjoying food, or enjoying pleasure) but it was not strong.

The article that was linked ended with, "Decide what body you want, and train for it." I am deciding what training I want, and love the body that I am getting.

I personally think muscles on a woman look great! I think it takes a ton of work to get them, and I admire the dedication.

I love the body of Kate Winslet. Curvy, soft, feminine. If I couldn't have that I would want to be lean and buff with lots of muscle definition, but that sounds like lots of work...

Thanks Sacha, LangdonsBaby and NakedMango for speaking up regarding the Oxygen models. Yes, SOME of them have breast implants but not all of them do. And they definitely have more than 10% BF.

Kiramira, you don't have to be a fitness magazine model to look like that. Look at all the people who became Body For Life followers. Here is a link for you so that you can see it for yourself: http://bodyforlife.com/ - just look at the slide show at the top of the page, and if interested, there are links to other rounds of challengers.
NONE of these people are models. They went from obese to super fit by eating clean and doing exercise. Now these are people who deserve a standing ovation. And they all look absolutely fabulous.

My ideal aesthetic is lean and pretty smooth. But I actually have a more muscular build, so I embrace that. Besides, as I get older, I'm more into what I can do with my body than exactly how it looks. :)

It isn't an issue of being "anti-buff", guys. It is an issue of making a goal of something most people are unable to attain and which in this case is clearly in line with the fantasy comic-book industry and which is unhealthy! If you have been seeing Tosca Reno's show, it becomes pretty clear that the bodies photographed in the Oxygen-like magazines are at the peak of their physique usually after at least 12 weeks of egg white and chicken/low to no carb diets followed by dangerous levels of dehydration to get that "shredded look". The photos are taken, the models come off their diets and the abs and ripped look disappears. But the plastic bosoms stay. And then we see the air-brushed cover of the magazine and think "I SHOULD look like that!!!". And then we place value-judgments on our food (is my diet CLEAN? or DIRTY? and ALL that this implies follows), hit the gym, maybe see a hint of abs, and wonder why we just can't look like Barbarella with implants on 'roids. After all, this is what they look like on the cover of my fitness magazine...

My point is this: we can all be fit. We can all eat healthily, we can all live a life, we can all aspire to be as fit as we can be. But to suggest that you can see abs under an off-season 15%+ bodyfat in the manner that the airbrushed models display is plain old wrong.

Here is a link to an article from MsFit, written my Kim Sessions (bodybuilder, in the fitness industry since 1988) that explains WHY one can't look like a fitness model all the time:

http://forums.isteroids.com/womens-a...model-yet.html

The salient point includes:

The Truth
The finely-tuned physiques you see displayed in the fitness magazines are ladies in “peak” condition. Peaking is a temporary condition in which the body fat is reduced to very low levels, often times dangerous levels, so the muscle detail is predominantly visible. Most ladies in peaked condition are anywhere from 8-10% body fat, sometimes lower. The peaking process involves specific training and dieting methods, and is usually done for physique shows and photo shoots. In addition, a peaked physique is a severely dehydrated physique, posing health risks.

Classification Female Male
Competition Condition 6-12% 3-7%
Athletic 12-18% 8-13%
Normal 19-24% 14-14%
Borderline 25-31% 18-25%
Overweight 32% + 26% +

This conditioned look is not something that is usually preserved year around. Granted, many ladies will have a good athletic and lean look all year, but it is difficult and unwise to keep such a low degree of body fat year around.

Fitness competitors put a LOT of work into their physiques. They train all year for muscle size and density, and then diet for months on end to lower their body fat and to get cut. It’s difficult to keep such a low body fat and muscle detail all the time. It's really not a glamorous lifestyle, unless you like continual detailed diet and training. I've competed for 7 years, and it is an exhausting chore to get cut, much less stay that way year around. Low body fat wears on you, puts a strain on your immune system, and leads to metabolic downgrade.

This IS the reality of the fitness industry -- just watch what Ms Reno is going through -- her hubby Robert Kennedy said on last week's show that he STRIPS HER DOWN and PHOTOGRAPHS her every single day to show her where her flaws are and where she has to improve to be competitive. Every. Single. Day. Then, when she is in peak condition, after the diet, she does a whole bunch of photo shoots and the photos are released over a long period of time. The photos are published in magazines, and we all think this is how she looks all the time. And we strive to emulate it! Crazy!!! Our ideal is to be unhealthy?? I can do THAT at 244lbs..

So, IF this is your goal, more power to you. But I find it sad that this "ideal" is such an extreme and is unattainable by the average person with kids and a job outside of the fitness industry, and is idolized (dictated?) by those who can only draw their fantasies (and we strive to fulfil it!). And that most, if not all, of these ladies who work so HARD in the industry and put their health at risk do so in order to look like cartoon characters.

And it is no different than working hard to attain the other extreme--wanting to look like a runway model whose BMI is 16. What have we ALL said about the "herion chic" Calvin Klein models of the 90s? And what would we say to someone on this forum who says "I am working hard to look JUST like Calista Flockhart when she was at her tiniest"? Or "I really admire the way the model below looks. She is working in Paris on the runways! I'm going to diet and exercise and get there too..."?

So to me, the pursuit of the fitness model extreme is no different. Both are unhealthy extremes that are held up by their industries as an ideal that women should pursue.

JMHO

Kira

I just want a flat stomach. Like Gwen Stefani. Not hard, but soft and flat....

Can I ask if you have ever been in a fitness competition or do you know friends that enter fitness competitions? Do you eat very healthy and lift heavy weights (ie. with an Olympic bar) 4-5x per week?

I suspect the answer is no because the things you are saying are not the reality of the fitness lifestyle.

I know of many women with well-defined abs at 15+% bodyfat and trust me, they all have jobs and kids too. Myself included. You can quote whatever random things you want to support your argument, but you forgot all the parts where women do this because they ENJOY fitness and eating very healthy.

I don't have an issue with people living a healthy lifestyle. I believe I made that point, but I will say it again:

My point is this: we can all be fit. We can all eat healthily, we can all live a life, we can all aspire to be as fit as we can be.

I think we are comparing apples and oranges. At 15% body fat, you are at an athletic body fat percentage, not at a competition body fat level. Which is great. Your healthy body fat and lifestyle is working for you. You are clearly a proponent of a healthy lifestyle. As am I.

What I AM saying is that to idealize a body type which exists for only a matter of moments is just, well, plain old wrong. And sad. IMHO. And that the physical appearance of the fitness industry model in the magazines is cartoonish and not obtainable without becoming unhealthy (I'll take Ms Session's word for it. And Tosca Reno's, too). And usually through surgery. That's all. And we would say the same thing about those striving for the ideal at the other end of the spectrum.

Kira

ps -- YES, one of my best friends was the winner of our provincial Ms Fitness/Figure competitions a few years ago. She said when she looked her BEST, she was actually at her WEAKEST because of her egg white/chicken breast diet and severe dehydration...but the mags still took lots of photos for their future publication because they knew and she knew that the way she looked would last all of a few days...

My body fat is somewhere around 18% right now, when I took the pictures that are in the link off my signature it was at 20% I believe. I'm healthy, I eat mostly healthy but nowhere near clean, I currently have muscle definition in my arms and legs and can see ab definition. And could see it at 20%. No, they aren't the tight six pack abs of some of these women pictured, but I can definitely see the definition without the 10% body fat. Yes, I lost all of my last several pounds of weight in my boobs and bought myself new ones, but I wasn't lifting weights at the time like a crazy person or aspiring to a fitness model body. I was just losing the last few pounds. I didn't add in the strength training until after I reached goal and had already lost the boobies - at greater than 20% body fat, probably closer to 23% and they were already gone. I'll never target 10% body fat, but will continue to work on my abs and maintain my current level of muscle tone. I enjoy the fitness and the healthy eating.

I know people who compete in fitness competitions and they don't live the starved, unhealthy lifestyle that you are describing Kira. And, I don't know that most women in this thread, or the ones that post in our weight and resistance training forum, are aspiring to be the super cut, over the top fitness model look like you are using in your examples. You use a lot of absolutes in your posts in trying to hammer home your point. Well, yours isn't the only valid point of view. Sacha, Tomato, NakedMango & LandonsBaby aren't espousing a dangerous, unhealthy lifestyle. Your posts read to me like one can't work towards a fit, muscular appearing body without aspiring to the unhealthy lifestyle you describe. That is patently untrue and unfair to say to women who are reading this post and considering weight lifting. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the women pictured in this thread aren't at 10% body fat, either.