UNDERSTANDING BODY TYPES: First Step to a Bigger Goal

Everyone has different fitness goals. Some might want to lose fat, others may be too skinny and want to gain, yet there may be different class which wants that perfect chiseled body. However attaining your dream shape is a bigger picture. It requires hard work and perseverance to achieve that. We start today with the three different basic body types. Each body type is different from other, and requires different kind of nutrition/activity program to achieve results.

The three basic body types are:

1. Ectomorphs
2. Mesomorphs
3. Ectomorphs.

Ectomorphs are the lean, skinny types. They are usually very thin, with fast metabolisms and extremely low body fat.

Mesomorphs are the "genetically gifted." They are lean and muscular. Mesomorphs have the ideal body type as they have the tendency to lose fat and gain muscle easily

Endomorphs are the "fat retainers". Endomorphs usually have high body fat and often face great difficulty in losing it.

Although there are three basic categories, pure body types are very rare. Usually there is a mix of two or even all three types.

Let’s look into some more details:

THE ECTOMORPH

The ectomorph tends to be tall and skinny with small joints and a small waist. Ectomorphs are naturally lean and usually never have trouble with excess body fat during their entire lives. Many ectomorphs can maintain extremely low body fat while doing no cardiovascular exercise whatsoever. Ectomorphs have overly efficient metabolisms. However they usually have a hard time while trying to gain muscle or put on weight.

Ectomorphs usually do not experience much weight fluctuations, even if they do it’s usually in the direction of losing weight. An increase in activity is usually accompanied by rapid lose in weight.

Ectomorphs will usually lose most of the muscle they gained if they quit training or if they allow their calories to drop too low for too long. Without proper ectomorph training and nutrition, they will eventually slide back towards the level of leanness where their body is most comfortable. It takes lifelong commitment for an ectomorph to keep the muscle and body weight up.

Strategy for ectomorphs:

1. Less Activity

Ectomorphs are hyperactive people with fast metabolisms. So the first and most obvious solution is less activity to gain weight. Ectomorphs must slow down and relax more.

2. Avoid overtraining

The ectomorph must get in and out of the gym quickly and allow plenty of recuperation between workouts. Keep cardio vascular exercise to a minimum

As such, cardio should be kept to a minimum and done mainly for health reasons. 15-30 minutes a day, three days a week is usually sufficient.

Keep the calories high and never, ever, ever miss a meal. Diet moderately high in complex carbohydrates is recommended for ectomorphs.

Carbohydrate restriction is an effective fat loss strategy, but since ectomorphs burn up nearly everything they consume, there’s usually no reason to restrict carbohydrates. Fifty or even fifty-five percent of total daily calories should come from carbohydrates in the ectomorph diet with 30% from lean proteins and 15-20% from fats.

Pay attention to food quality. Don’t think that being an ectomorph enables you to get away with anything.

THE MESOMORPH

Mesomorphs are the typical natural-born athletes and bodybuilders. Most of them were lean and muscular before they even started working out.

A bodybuilder like Arnold Schwarzenegger is almost pure mesomorph with low body fat and massive muscles.

Because mesomorphs are so genetically gifted, they often have the tendency to cheat and skip workouts because they can get away with it and still look good. But just imagine what they would look like if they applied themselves 100%. If you recognize that you are genetically gifted in any sense, then make the most of your gifts - train and eat to the best of your ability and you could become one of the best in the world in bodybuilding, fitness

or athletics. Even if you’re not a competitor, why shouldn’t you actualize your full potential and be the best you can possibly be?

Pay attention to food quality

Like the ectomorph, those with mesomorph tendencies quickly discover that they can also “get away with” eating certain foods without ill effects on body composition, so they often do exactly that – eat anything and everything.

THE ENDOMORPH

Most people who are working hard but still struggling to lose body fat are endomorphs. An endomorph is someone with a slow metabolism who is genetically prone to store fat easily. Endomorphs sometimes have varying degrees of carbohydrate sensitivity and insulin resistance, so high carbohydrate diets are usually not effective for body fat control.

Processed and refined carbohydrates that contain white sugar and white flour are especially detrimental and tend to convert to body fat more rapidly in endomorphs. Low to moderate carbohydrate diets with higher protein usually work best for endomorphs.

Endomorphs generally have a very difficult time losing fat with diet alone. Even a nearly perfect diet sometimes won’t work by itself because the endomorph needs the boost in metabolism that exercise provides.

A larger quantity of cardio is almost always necessary for the endomorph to lose body fat.

Strategy for endomorphs:

1. High protein, medium to low carbs

High protein, low to moderate carb diets work best for the endomorph. Muscles are like burning furnaces which burns away fat and proteins are basic building blocks of muscles.

So having control over what they eat is most important for endomorphs as compared to other two body types.

2. Exercise is an absolute MUST

Endomorphs generally have a very difficult time losing fat with diet alone. Even a closeto-perfect diet often doesn’t work by itself because the endomorph needs the boost in metabolism that comes from exercise.

3. Large amounts of cardio

Cardio exercises are most important for endomorphs. Having your heart beat raised over a considerable amount of time, increases blood circulation and thereby boosts metabolism. Doing cardio 4-5 times a week (approx 30mins per session) is generally shown to be effective.

4. Weight Training

While cardio burns more calories for the time your heartbeat is raised, weight training helps in maintaining a higher calorie burning ratio throughout the day.

Weight training exercises that utilize large muscle groups like the back and legs are extremely effective for stimulating the metabolism and for stimulating the hormones that increase fat burning.

If you are an endomorph, you must fight the urge within you to relax and train with high intensity. You have to push yourself constantly. Not only must you train almost every day, you must push yourself to train harder every day and repeatedly beat your own personal best.

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR BODY TYPE

The way you respond to training and nutrition is a good indicator of your body type. If you grow muscle like crazy and the fat melts off with great ease, you have genetic gifts; you have the mesomorph’s muscle-building qualities and the ectomorph’s fat-burning qualities.

How quickly you respond to de-training is also a good indicator of your true body type. What happens when you stop training? Do you hold your muscle gains? Does the body fat stay off? If so, you are genetically gifted. If body fat starts accumulating the second you stop training, you have a higher endomorph component.

Try to progressively increase your training duration and frequency gradually as stamina starts to build up. Human body has this great mechanism of adjusting and slowing down your metabolism rate. So it is necessary to surprise your body by changing the intensity and type of your training program.