Your body type plays a HUGE role in how you maintain, lose or gain weight. Since a lot of people are adding fitness or weight loss into their New Years resolutions I think it is a good time to understand how your body type plays into your plan to meet this goal.

 The THREE body types are Ectomorph, Mesomorph, and Endomorph.

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Ectomorphs are people who tend to be “naturally” skinny or lean. They have a hard time gaining weight due to a fast metabolism. Gaining muscle with be hard but not impossible.

SUMMARY: For you “lucky” people you will need to have a higher calorie intake than most in order to maintain your muscle mass. Cardio should be kept to a minimum if at all. Heavy weight training with longer rest periods in between sets to keep heart rate lower and high intake of clean foods can transition your body into acting like a Mesomorph.

Mesomorphs are considered the “ideal” body type. They have a naturally fit body built for athletics. A Mesomorph can gain and lose fat easier, with the same result gaining and losing fat.

SUMMARY: These folks have little to no problems maintaining their weight. They may gain or lose 5 pounds with relative ease by cutting back on a few sweets. With the ability to gain muscle quickly you want to go with Moderate to Heavy weight training. Cardio should be 2-3 workouts per week to keep body fat low while maintaining muscle mass.  They maybe allow a cheat meal per week due to the higher metabolism and the muscle mass that helps to burn a few extra calories. This does NOT mean junk food; your diet should still be clean 90% of the time to maintain.

Endomorphs tend to be softer and have a slower metabolism. They gain fat easily, tend to be shorter and of a “stocky” build. Gaining muscle is easier but until the body fat is decreases you may not see the definition of the muscle. Adding in muscle will help increase your metabolism and the cardio will help to reduce your fat to muscle ratio.

SUMMARY: Cardio is the name of the game!Cardio should be at a minimum of 1 hour and 4–6 days a week is ideal. Weight training should be at a moderate weight and at a brisk pace. High repetitions and little rest in between sets will keep your heart rate up. Meals should be smaller and more frequent, every 2-3 hours. Do not dramatically cut calories, as this will only slow down your metabolism. Gradually lower your intake of food by 100 calorie intervals per week to see where your threshold is for weight loss.  

So what category do you fall into, or are you a combination of two categories? Knowing how your body reacts to nutrition and exercise may make the process of meeting your goals a little easier. Know that everyone has a different body type and what someone else is eating or doing may not work for you.

While one person may lose weight by decreasing the number of times per week they have pasta, the other (like me) gains weight just by looking at pasta!! I kid, I kid. Well not really!

Hope this helps to get you moving closer to your fitness goals. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email. I always love to talk nutrition and fitness!!