Know your body type

In 1945, Willam Sheldon, an American psychologist outlined that people can be categorized into three body types. Ectomorph indicating thinness, Endomorph indicating fatness and Mesomorph indicating muscularity.

Knowing your body type is the most important thing before you start your fitness journey. Let's break these down:

1) Ectomorph

Ectomorph’s are individuals who are skinny with fast metabolism. They cannot gain weight easily and build muscle easily. They generally have a lower body fat percentage, narrow shoulders, small frame and overall skinny look.

Ectomorph Training

The key to training for an ectomorph is to burn as fewer calories as possible but to focus more “hypertrophy” which is breaking down of muscle fibres to allow them to repair and get bigger. This can be done more effectively with compound lifts. Compound lifts are those which recruit more than one muscle group, like the bench press, chin-ups, pull-ups, squats, and deadlifts.

An ectomorph can train three to four times a week in order to allow enough recovery time for muscle growth. Cardio is optional and should be performed occasionally.

Ectomorph Nutrition

An ectomorph should be in a caloric surplus of about 300 to 500 calories, which means to consume more than your maintenance calories. Staying in a caloric surplus gives an ectomorph the calories it needs to get and stay bigger. A rough macro split for an Ectomorph is 50% carbohydrate, 25% protein and 25% fat.

Ensure that you eliminate simple carbs and consume complex carbs like oats, quinoa, wheat bread and brown rice.

2) Endomorph

Endomorph is the overweight person, someone who has always been overweight, finds it difficult to lose weight and has high body fat. They tend to have poor metabolism and put on weight easily.

Endomorph Training

The key here is to burn as much as calories as possible. An endomorph should train regularly at least five to six times a week. A combination of weight training and cardio training i.e high-intensity interval training is best for an endomorph.

Endomorph Nutrition

Endomorph’s need to focus heavily on their diet. They need to stay on a caloric deficit otherwise losing weight would be difficult. A low carb and moderate protein and fat is ideal for an endomorph. A good macro split would be 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. It's even more imperative for endomorph’s to avoid sugar and junk food. And monitor their carbs.

3) Mesomorph

Mesomorph is a person right in the middle of Ectomorph and Endomorph and is the best body type. They naturally have a muscular physique, wide shoulders and a narrow waist. They can gain weight easily, build muscle easily and lose fat easily.

Mesomorph Training and Nutrition

They can work out four to five times a week. And add a couple of sessions of cardio on weekly basis. Mesomorph can stay in a caloric deficit or surplus depending on their goals and current body structure. A rough macro split would be 45% carbs, 30% protein and 25% fat.

Mixture of any two types

You can easily be a combination of any two types. You could be an Endomorph-Mesomorph, Ectomorph-Mesomorph and vice-versa. But, the intention of this article was to give a brief idea about various body types so that you can target your fitness goals accordingly.

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