How Can You Tell If Someone Has ‘Fake’ Abs?

Let’s get one thing straight. When someone goes in for abdominal etching—the procedure that uses liposuction to suck fat out of the stomach and carve out defined, Baywatch-esque abdominal muscles—those abs are not fake. “‘Fake abs’ is really not fair,” said Dr. Joshua Korman, a Silicon Valley-based plastic surgeon who regularly performs ab etching. “The whole idea is to have them show better. They are not fake; they are real. But they can be helped along.”

Abdominal etching isn’t new, but after Drake posted a new mirror selfie on Instagram showing off a chiseled stomach (and a massive collection of top-shelf liquor), the procedure has entered the conversation.

So how do you spot an ab etching in the wild? I sought the expert opinions of people who see this kind of thing every day for some much-needed perspective.

Dr. Daniel Markmann—a plastic surgeon in Ellicott City, Maryland said that it can be “tough to tell” if they’re enhanced or not when the patient already had some nice ab definition. Similarly, guys who were already working out like crazy but were struggling to see the results will look a bit more natural when their abs get carved out.

But when someone with a protruding gut thinks they can have a doctor wave a magic wand and give them the washboard of their dreams, that’s when things get a little visually inconsistent. “When people have that beer belly, it’s not like you can just do this operation and get the abs,” Korman cautioned. “That’s a misconception.” The ideal patient, according to Markmann, is already fit with a BMI under 30 and tight skin.

As Korman explained, the very well-defined and noticeable vertical line you can sometimes spot going through a person’s abs is called the linea alba, or what is essentially the border between the left and right rectus abdominals. Like abs themselves, the linea alba is naturally occurring phenomenon in all humans, and it becomes more pronounced the more the fat around the stomach is removed. Of course, if one undergoes an ab etching surgery—which can take multiple hours and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $13,000—that line can seem like it came out of nowhere. “The objective when you do this surgery is to suction down the midline, so you define it more,” Korman said.