Achieving your desired physique, whether it involves shedding excess weight or sculpting muscle definition, hinges on a commitment to a balanced diet and consistent exercise. However, the effectiveness of specific diet and workout regimens can vary significantly depending on individual body types. Individuals with a higher proportion of body fat and limited muscle definition may possess what is known as an endomorph body type.
Body types were first classified in the 1940s by American scientist, physician, and psychologist William Sheldon. His research defined body type based on skeletal frame and body composition. In this framework, there are three main body types: mesomorph, ectomorph, and endomorph.
Some people with endomorphic bodies struggle with weight loss. However, the key is understanding how your body type differs from other types and knowing what to eat and what not to eat.
Understanding Body Types: Endomorph, Ectomorph, and Mesomorph
William Sheldon concluded that, based on our skeletal frame and body composition, we each have an inherited body type, or somatotype, that determines whether we’re leaner, heavier, or somewhere in between. Because of this inherited body type, reaching weight loss and fitness goals often requires an individualized program.
Ectomorphs: These individuals tend to be tall and lanky, with long limbs and a naturally high metabolism. They also have smaller joints, a smaller body size, and a narrower frame.
Read also: Female Body Type Diet Guide
Mesomorphs: Naturally muscular and strong, mesomorphs possess an inverted triangle (male) or hourglass (female) shape. This body type is characterized by a naturally lean and muscular build, with lower body fat and a faster metabolism. The mesomorph body type often responds well to strength training and balanced diets, which helps improve muscle tone and overall fitness. Men with this somatotype typically exhibit broad shoulders and a narrow waist. The ability to develop muscle easily is what makes the mesomorph body type naturally prone to a low body fat percentage. They can typically gain muscle and lose weight easily.
Endomorphs: Endomorphs are said to have a higher percentage of body fat and muscle mass, although their muscles may not be visible due to the extra weight that they carry. They’re often heavier and rounder but do not necessarily have obesity. Because of their physical makeup, people with endomorphic bodies are more sensitive to calorie consumption than people with other body types. People with an endomorph body type tend to have a slow metabolism, making it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it.
There are also combinations of these types, since most people find that they don’t fit neatly into one category. Ecto-mesomorphs are lean and muscular. Meso-endomorphs are strong but tend to have larger, bulkier muscles as opposed to lean, defined muscles.
The Endomorph Body Type: Challenges and Characteristics
Those with endomorph body types often find it difficult to lose weight, as their bodies are more biologically prone to holding on to excess fat,” says Lauren Chaunt, certified nutrition specialist.
Endomorphs may have to carefully watch their food intake to ensure they don’t consume more calories than they burn. Other characteristics include a larger frame and difficulty in losing weight. Overall, endomorphs tend to have a slower metabolism, but this isn’t always the case. Since endomorphs generally don’t burn calories as fast as ectomorphs and mesomorphs, excess calories are more likely to convert to fat.
Read also: Endomorph Diet Guide
Since excess body fat triggers the release of the hormone estrogen, endomorphs find it difficult to gain muscle mass as well. Increased estrogen production decreases the production of hormones that promote muscle development, like testosterone.
According to Sheldon, endomorphs also have personality traits that can make following exercise and diet plans more challenging. They tend to gravitate toward slower, more sedentary lifestyles and find comfort in food and relaxation. This isn’t to say that all people with endomorphic body types are, or will be, unhealthy or overweight; they’re just more likely to have trouble maintaining a healthy lifestyle and weight.
Nutritional Strategies for Endomorph Females
Endomorphs should aim to consume a diet rich in nutrient dense foods, including those comprised of lean quality protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats,” explains Chaunt. Endomorphs don’t have to - and shouldn’t - avoid carbohydrates completely. Carbs are one of three macronutrients (plus fat and protein) found in food.
Endomorphs are more likely to hold onto body fat, and diet and nutrition play an influential role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle for this and every body type. While body-type diets aren’t as researched as other diets, the idea behind them is generally accepted.
Macronutrient Balance:
According to the American Council on Exercise, you should follow this formula when planning your daily meals:
Read also: Endomorph Body Type Guide
- 30 percent carbohydrates
- 35 percent protein
- 35 percent fat
The balance of macronutrients you consume ultimately depends on your individual health and wellness goals, along with the recommendations from your doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist. Macronutrients are the nutrients in food that your body needs to keep functioning at peak performance. They include carbs, fats, and protein.
Carbohydrates:
Carbs are an excellent source of energy. Removing carbs from your diet can trigger side effects, including fatigue. If too extreme, a low carb diet can also lead to gastrointestinal problems. The trick is choosing the right kind of carbs. Focus on complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, including starchy vegetables like potatoes and tubers, legumes, whole grains, and fruits. It’s also best to limit your intake of simple carbohydrates. These foods are high in sugar and calories, which can cause fat storage. Simple carbohydrates include white bread, white rice, pasta, cakes, and cookies. Fruit is a healthy addition to any diet program. If you’re carb-sensitive, eat fruit in moderation.
Sugar, starch, and fiber are all examples of carbohydrates, and it’s primarily sugar that gives carbs a bad rap. When you eat excess sugar, it gets harder for the cells in your body to use that sugar for energy, leading to weight gain, increased insulin, and insulin resistance, which can cause inflammation in your arteries.
Endomorphs should limit their consumption of refined carbohydrates, processed foods, and high amounts of added sugars and trans fats.
Fats:
Although endomorphs are often predisposed to having more body fat, eating healthy fats won’t make you fatter, contrary to popular belief. Healthy fats, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, can help lower your LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol levels, helping prevent heart disease and promote brain health.
Examples of healthy fats include:
- macadamia nuts
- olive oil
- beef
- egg yolks
- fatty fish
- walnuts
- cheese
- avocado
- nuts
- seeds
- coconut oil
Protein:
Protein is an important part of any diet, especially for those looking to support muscle growth (which supports metabolism). Portion control is also important when reducing body fat as an endomorph. This helps you avoid excess calorie consumption. Eating 200 to 500 fewer calories than you normally consume will also help you reach your weight loss goal.
Fruits and vegetables should play a prominent role in any diet, and especially in endomorph diets. Nuts and seeds make great additions to salads, soups, trail mixes, and they're great snacks.
Additional Tips:
- Prioritize whole, minimally processed foods.
- Keep as close to your daily calorie and macronutrient breakdown as you can.
- Ensure you eat breakfast.
- Drink 200-300ml of water upon waking.
- Ideally eat 2-3 hours before training.
- Try to avoid fat 90 minutes before and after training.
- After training consume a post workout shake.
- Spread your meals throughout the day. (Ideally 5 meals). Your post exercise shake is classed as a meal.
- Eat lean meats, healthy fats and low GL carbohydrates. Eat only 1-2 pieces of fruit per day due to the sugar content.
- Aim to eat a minimum of 6 vegetable a day. This will help to get the fibre you need.
- Vary the type and colour of fruit and veg you eat.
- Aim to eat 2-3 hours before sleep.
- On a non-training day reduce your carbohydrate intake by 10%. This will reduce your total calorie intake.
Sticking to the above points may be difficult, remember these are just guidelines.
Exercise Strategies for Endomorph Females
According to proponents of the diet, because endomorphs have a harder time losing body fat, dieting alone may not be enough to lose weight. It’s also important to incorporate physical activity into your daily routine. This is a common recommendation for anyone looking to improve their overall health.
The best workout plan for endomorph female at home or gym is the one you can stick with consistently and enjoy. If you’re starting your fitness journey, a mix of strength training, cardio, and mobility work is your best bet.
There are many ways for the mesomorph body type to burn fat and keep muscle. To improve body composition this way, it involves consistent cardio sessions. Cardio, calorie intake, and protein consumption ensure mesomorphs avoid excess fat gain.
- Building muscle helps increase your basal metabolic rate (BMR)-how many calories your body burns at rest.
Cardio:
Brisk walking, cycling, or swimming improves heart health and burns calories (6). A combination of steady-state cardio (consistent intensity) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a great choice (6).
Cardiovascular workouts can help endomorphs burn more calories, improve their metabolism, and promote cardiovascular health. Beginners can start by performing 30 minutes of moderate interval training 2-3 days/week. An example would be using a cardio machine to perform 2-3 minutes of work at a lower intensity and 1 minute at a medium-high intensity. For intermediate to advanced exercisers, perform 20 minutes of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) 2-3 days/week.
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT): In HIIT, a person will alternate between periods of very high intensity exercise and low intensity exercise or rest. Those with endomorphic bodies can try doing HIIT sessions two or three times per week for a maximum of 30 minutes per session.
- Steady-state training (SST): These are longer sessions of consistent moderate to low intensity exercise. Good SST exercises include walking, jogging, and swimming. People with an endomorph body type can try doing 30-60-minute SST sessions two to three times per week.
- Increase your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) by taking regular breaks to get up and move during work, parking farther away so you must walk, carrying in grocery bags one at a time, etc.
- Training each week should incorporate at least three low-intensity steady-state cardio sessions. These cardio training sessions should last for at least 30 minutes and no more than 45 minutes.
You can lower the number of cardio sessions per week to make sure they lose weight efficiently. Your goal should be for clients to lose body fat and preserve or build muscle. Too much cardio can lead to overtraining or muscle atrophy.
While walking may not be considered high intensity, it is effective in helping exercisers burn more calories per week when done consistently, at least 30 minutes per day on most days.
Strength Training:
Strength training involves using weights that challenge you to lift closer to your maximum capacity. For example, lifts like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are excellent for developing total-body strength. Remember to use progressive overload for continued progress. Moderate weights are your best bet if you’re working toward a more defined or sculpted physique. Lighter weights and higher repetitions (usually 12-20+ per set) are ideal for improving muscular endurance (10). However, lifting light doesn’t mean going easy. You should still challenge yourself by using a weight that feels tough by the end of the set.
A mesomorph has a naturally strong body, which requires lifting heavy weight with minimal rest. Completing five weight training workouts each week while targeting each muscle group is sufficient for an effective workout routine. This is enough training for optimal muscle growth, weight gain, and muscle repair. The weights or load used during each workout should remain moderate to heavy. Clients should aim for 8-12 reps of at least four exercises per muscle group. Rest includes approximately 60-90 seconds in between each set.
- Strength Training: Building muscle boosts your metabolism and helps you lose fat (5).
- Focus on compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, and push-ups to target multiple muscle groups.
For endomorphs looking to improve their body composition, resistance training can help with overall calorie burn, improve metabolic efficiency, and help to sustain muscle mass during weight loss. Incorporating compound exercises (like squats, bench press, and deadlifts) can help you get more bang for your buck by burning more calories per exercise than single-joint exercises (like biceps curls, triceps presses, etc.).
Nutrient Timing
Whatever your goal, nutrient timing can be the difference between success and failure. It’s often the most overlooked aspect of many training regimes, when it could be argued it should be the most important.
When you eat and what you eat will affect your body in lots of ways, from manipulating hormones, replenishing macronutrient stores (carbs, fat, protein), preventing muscle loss, reducing muscle damage or boosting your immune system to help you get the best and quickest results. What, when and how much you eat varies a great deal depending on your goal, gender, weight, height and body type. Nutrient timing is not exclusive to the hours around your training session, but from the hour before training and the hours after and up until your next training session. At different times during the day your body requires, and is more receptive to certain nutrients than at other times. If you eat the wrong food at the right time, or the right food at the wrong time then you will miss the opportunity to maximize your results.
Nutrient Timing Phase One
There are 3 nutrient timing phases. The first is the energy phase where you fuel your body before and during the training session. When you exercise your body will release stored sugar (glycogen) and cleave amino acids from muscle. Even if you are training early it’s important to try to eat something light before exercise. It has been shown that training while in a fasted state increases cortisol levels, which suppresses the immune system and breaks down muscle tissue. Eating something small and easily digestible will reduce cortisol levels and give you energy to train harder, yielding better results. A simple rule is that it should be soft to touch, as this means your digestive system can break it down comfortably preventing indigestion. Avoid fatty foods as they are slow to digest and can make you feel sluggish and cause cramping. Avoid carbohydrates with a high GL (glycemic load) prior to training as these will give you a sugar rush, and inevitably an energy crash in the middle of a workout. Lastly don’t eat too big a meal pre training as it may cause nausea or vomiting. Research has shown that consuming carbohydrates with protein prior to training, helps spare muscle glycogen, reduce the catabolic (cutting) effects that cortisol has on muscle, decreases muscle damage, and helps ready muscles for a quicker recovery post exercise. During your training session we advise taking BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids) with 300-350 ml of water to be used for energy rather than breaking down muscle. BCAAs increase nutrient availability for working muscles, limit immune suppression, help reduce glycogen loss and the inevitable resulting muscle breakdown.
When training your cortisol level will rise and the longer and/or harder you train the higher it will rise. Amongst its many impacts on the body, cortisol’s main role is to generate fuel to working muscles. It does this by breaking down stored carbohydrate, fat and protein. Usually the body uses these fuels in this order to produce the energy needed to workout. However, when you place your body under stress, as you do during high intensity training, the release of cortisol causes the priority of the macronutrient breakdown to change from carbohydrate, fat then protein into carbohydrate, protein and lastly fat. This causes an increase in plasma amino acids, specifically glutamine and branched chain amino acids. These amino acids have been obtained from muscle to provide extra fuel for the body, as high intensity activities deplete carbohydrate stores, and fat cannot be broken down fast enough at high intensities. So we know that the harder and/or longer we train, the higher the cortisol level and, subsequently, the more muscle is broken down. Therefore the correct nutrient timing is critical to prevent this. The foremost reason for cortisol increase after high intensity exercise is hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), so consuming the correct nutrients, depending on your goal and body type, before, during and after training will help reduce cortisol, and its more negative effects.
Nutrient Timing Phase Two
The next phase is called the anabolic (building) phase, which is the 15 minutes directly after training. In this phase we recommend that you consume high GL carbohydrates, protein, vitamin C and glutamine. It is essential to get the correct nutrients in this window. Miss it and you will have wasted the opportunity to make the most of the hard work you did during your training session. This phase initiates repair to damaged muscle and replenishes muscle glycogen stores. Muscle damage is essential for your body to adapt and change, but we need the correct nutrition in place to help speed up the recovery, ready for the next session.
In this post exercise period muscle cells become particularly sensitive to the hormone insulin, and this is when you need to shift your body from a catabolic (breaking down) state to an anabolic (building) one. Insulin is a hormone that has a bad name due to its link with fat storage. It is true that too many of the wrong type of carbohydrates at the wrong time will increase insulin and cause fat storage, but used correctly insulin is essential for maximising results during this window. Insulin is very sensitive to carbohydrate post exercise. It is crucial to take advantage of this sensitivity, as within an hour of exercise the benefits will drop by 50 percent. Post training your body will be in a catabolic state and this time of heightened insulin sensitivity the correct type and amount of carbohydrate will replenish glycogen stores rather than increase fat storage. This quick uptake of carbohydrate and essential amino acids will also initiate protein synthesis, muscle repair and help bring down cortisol levels. The rise in insulin will increase blood flow to the muscles, aiding the removal of carbon dioxide, lactic acid, and helps to bring oxygen and essential nutrients to the muscle. It may seem a little confusing at this point. How can high insulin cause fat storage and replenish glycogen stores? When you are sedentary your fat cells are more sensitive to the effects of insulin, meaning when you eat carbohydrates whilst sitting at work, for example, the high insulin will cause the circulating blood sugar (carbohydrate) to be taken up by the fat cells, and convert it to fat (lipogenisis) and store it. However after exercise it is the muscle cells that become more sensitive to the influence of insulin, having a glycogen replenishing effect.
This increase in insulin will also increase amino acid uptake into the muscle, driving protein synthesis. After exercise there is protein synthesis (building), but there is greater protein catabolism (breakdown), leaving the body in a protein negative state (nitrogen deficit). This is why is it essential at this stage to introduce the correct nutrients at this insulin sensitive point will switch the balance to protein synthesis (positive nitrogen balance). Therefore we suggest a protein shake containing your recommended grams of protein and carbohydrates. Whey is generally considered the best one, although some people prefer the vegan or vegetarian alternatives. It’s a good idea to buy a high protein low carbohydrate mix and add your own carbohydrate in the form of dextrose or maltodextrose so you can measure your own specific quantities.
We recommend taking 1000mg of Vitamin C in this period to boost the immune system, which is suppressed during exercise. Vitamin C will help speed up the recovery of damaged muscles and reduce the hormone cortisol, preventing any further muscle breakdown. We also recommend taking 10g of Glutamine in this window. It is used by the muscles during exercise and therefore needs to be replaced and like Vitamin C it is also needed to fuel the immune cells.
Nutrient Timing Phase Three
The third and final phase is the growth, repair and recovery phase. This is the 24 hours post training. It is in this phase that the majority of strength, muscle gains and adaptations occur. It’s essential in the next 24-hours to keep giving the body the nutrients it needs. Spread your carbohydrate, protein and fat evenly throughout this 24-hour period. The goal in this phase is to balance blood sugar.
The amount of carbohydrates your body requires on non-training days will inevitably be less than on training days. However, the 24 hours after exercise is when your body is actually repairing, building and adapting, so it is better to wait until after this window before reducing your carbohydrates. It’s only 24 hours after your last workout that your carbs intake will need to be reduced, and for any subsequent, consecutive non-training days.
Additional Considerations
- Create a Calorie Deficit: Endomorph body type weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you consume. Use a sustainable approach by reducing portion sizes and adding daily physical activity.
- Focus on Protein and Fiber: High-protein meals support muscle retention and keep you fuller longer. Include protein, carbs, and fats in every meal. Hydration and mindful eating also play key roles.
- Proper sleep is also crucial.
- Weight loss is rarely linear. That’s normal.