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Article Series: Weight Loss & Dieting
How Do I Really Lose Weight?
3
Body Types, Metabolism & Losing Weight
There
are three different types of human bodies 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
sticking out from it. 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.
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.
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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