How To Find The Right Diet For Different Body Types By Jimmy Smith
When you break it down to basics, the biggest hurdle in peoples muscle building quest is there eating patterns. Now I am not talking about people who just eat junk food all the time. I’m talking about the people who eat well but just can’t take their body to the next level for one reason or another. These people have incorrectly been label as “hardgainers” when the truth of the matter is that they need to focus on hormonally correct eating patterns.
What I mean when I say hormonally correct eating patterns, is eating properly for your body type. There are three body types with individual patterns and characteristics.
The first is known as an ectomorph and is typically classified by being a skinny person their entire life. They have thin limbs with skinny arms and legs, are usually endurance athletes and no matter what they do they are always ripped or consistently skinny. They run into problems later in life and get the often seen “beer gut” in their mid 30’s and 40’s
The second types are referred to as mesomorphs and they are the ones with the athletic bodies, wide shoulders and small waists. They are strong and look like they workout. Hormonally, they have very high amounts of anabolic hormones, which help them add muscle quickly.
Lastly are the endomorphs or the perennially “chubby” people. They tend to be insulin dominant, which is both a good and bad thing since they can get very muscular but very fat. They are always the ones doing cardio as they have the hardest time losing body fat but they also seem like anything that they do in the gym will help them to add muscle. Usually they are the athletes who gain weight after they stop playing sports.
You should begin to see which body type you are. Once you’ve figured this out, you now have to plan your nutrition according to your principles. You see anyone who tells you that the body is “not a textbook” should be the last person that you listen to. It’s also why I don’t agree with a person who says that you have to experiment until you find something that works for you.
Aside from the obvious way of just looking in the mirror, you should also assess your tolerance to carbohydrates and high calorie meal. Take three days a week to keep an eye on the amount of calories that you eat. How do you feel when you eat a lot of carbohydrates like bread and potatoes? How do you feel when you eat a lot of protein in chicken? Do you feel full when you eat healthy amounts of fat?
While this might be true in fact. We know that each body type does better with specific supplements and protein, fat and carbohydrate ratios. I asked Dr.John Berardi about each individual type and here’s what he said before giving me the exact ratios that he uses for each body type.
“Whenever I interact with the new client I try and sort them out into one of the three types because the research is showing that each of those types has a characteristic hormonal profile. So you look at ectomorphs and you typically find they are dominant in thyroid hormones and sympathetic nervous system hormone so the fight or flight hormones. Epinephrine, nor epinephrine some people call it adrenalin nor adrenaline so these hormones are the high calorie expenditure, high fat burning, high energy burning hormones. So we typically find that is why ectomorphs are skinny like that. Because the thyroid and sympathetic nervous system dominant.”
That right there goes to show that the ectomorphs need to consume things slightly differently then the other types. While I wouldn’t go as far as to recommend metabolic typing diets I would say that more information is warranted before we just jump into a diet.
Jimmy Smith is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness , and Best Body magazines.
His "The Muscle Bible" workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines and all over the Internet on t-nation.com and bodybuilding.com and his workouts have help thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and gain muscle. For information on the The Muscle Bible visit www.ineedmuscle.com
