Do You Know Your Body Type?
Knowing your body type can help you decide which is the best way for you to lose weight.
There are three different types of human body in the world and they are known as “somatotypes”. The three different somatotypes are: ectomorphs, endomorphs, and mesomorphs.
Ectomorphs – These people have a short upper torso with long arms and legs. Their shoulders and chest are typically narrow and have a long and thin muscle structure. People with the ecotomorph body type do not store very much fat on their bodies at all. Lucky them!
Mesomorphs – These people have a long torso with large chests and a solid musculature. People with the mesomorph body type can generally build muscle with little difficulty while not adding on very much body fat at all.
Endormorphs – These people typically have a round face sitting atop a short neck astride a torso that fans out to wide hips. Unlike ectomorophs, people with the endormorph body type can easily store quite a lot of fat on the body.
More often than not, a person’s body will be a combination of 2 of these body type, such as an “endo-mesomorph”. This might be a person who gains lots of weight unless they work out steadily and, contrarily, if they ever stop working out, find it easy to put the weight they lost back on again.
One of the primary factors determining a person’s body type is their metabolism. Some people find it easy to burn calories while other people find they have great difficulty burning calories, even if both people have the same diet and lifestyle.
It should be clear from the aforementioned definitions that someone with an endormorphic body type would have much greater difficulty burning up calories, even with lots of exercise, when compared against the other two body types. Likewise a person with an ecotomorphic body type would have great ease burning up calories, and normally without having to exert themselves much to do it.
Many people are at least cursorily aware of the existence of different body types, if not then certainly of the differences in people’s metabolisms, but most people are unaware that their metabolism can change over time as their body changes. This key point can make a crucial difference in whether or not someone loses weight and whether or not they can keep that weight off.
Working out with weights, for example, increases your metabolism. For every pound of muscle that you gain, you burn 50 extra calories each day. By the same token, however, when you lose weight, your metabolism will start to slow down.
It seems counterintuitive, yes. If an ecotomorph has a naturally skinny body and a faster metabolism, then why on earth would the metabolism of an endomorph slow down if he or she got skinny?
Because our bodies function best when we are at the appropriate or “healthy weight” for our particular body type.
Statistics show that losing 10% of your body weight leads to an approximate 15% decrease in your metabolic rate. What this translates to is that the more you lose weight, the harder it gets to lose any more weight.
This explains why many people “hit a wall” (so to speak) in their weight loss program where they get to a certain weight and just can’t seem to lose any more weight beyond it: why some people just can’t shed those “last few pounds”.
And it is why those crash diets with the lofty claims of having you losing oodles of pounds in just a handful of days don’t work for most people who try them. This is also why people who lose weight may initially notice having less energy rather than more.
Your body type and your metabolism are always trying to stay in balance with one another, and a change in one will invariably lead to a change in the other: an opposing changed (or a contrary force) geared to push your body back into the balance.
Losing weight slowly, a pound or two a week (and no more), is the way to lose that weight for good. And as you lose weight, expect your metabolism to slow and respond accordingly.
Losing weight slowly will also help you avoid the “loose skin syndrome” that often occurs when someone crash diets. This extra skin is not only not appealing but is very expensive to have removed (usually $8,000 - 10,000).
So go slow.
