As an endomorph, your struggles to achieve weight loss goals seem to be endless. With a naturally heavy body and a wide bone structure, exercise is not enough to get you where you want to be. In addition to shedding your blood, sweat, and tears in the gym, what you need to do is to adopt a suitable diet with all the necessary endomorph macros in the right proportions.
Your body type plays a big role in how easily you can gain and lose weight. This is very important for endomorphs who typically struggle with fat loss. It also impacts what type of foods and how much of them best fuel your body and trigger weight loss.
Tracking your macros may turn out to be a bit overwhelming at first. How many calories should you eat? Which macronutrient ratio best suits you? Finding answers takes time and tweaking, but here is a simple way to get you started.
Three Body Types
The term ‘phenotype’ can be defined as the physical or biochemical features of an organism that are observable and are controlled by both genetics as well as the environmental influences.
There are three types of phenotypes:
- Ectomorphs
People with this phenotype are naturally skinny. With a narrow bone structure, they often find it difficult to gain weight. Ectomorphs have a light build with smaller joints and lean muscle. They have a fast metabolism that helps them get away with almost anything they eat.
- Mesomorphs
A mesomorph body is characterized by a large bone structure, high muscle mass, and a naturally athletic physique. This body type is considered the best for bodybuilding. It is quite easy for mesomorphs to gain and lose weight. They are naturally strong and a high tendency to gain muscle.
Mesomorphs have a moderate carbohydrate tolerance and metabolism speed.
- Endomorphs
If you are naturally thick and broad, you are most likely an endomorph. Endomorphs have a soft and round body with poorly-defined muscles. They are naturally predisposed to gaining more weight and are always struggling with low carbohydrate tolerance.
The details of endomorph body type are mentioned below in detail.
The Endomorph Body
As an endomorph, you have a solid and a generally soft body. Your metabolism is a consequence of activity levels and body composition and is typically quite slow. This makes it more difficult for you to lose weight and a lot easier to gain fat.
Endomorphs usually have a shorter build with thick legs and arms. They have strong muscles, especially on the upper legs. As compared to muscle mass, endomorphs have a much higher percentage of body fat. They are rounder and heavier, but not always obese.
From a metabolic perspective, endomorphs tend to suffer from a certain degree of insulin sensitivity. They also respond poorly to carbohydrates. Consuming high-carb foods is not favorable for them as these foods are quickly converted into sugar in the bloodstream and are more likely to be stored as fat than be used to derive energy.
This is one of the reasons why endomorphs have a high fat percentage. This also makes them more prone to various diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems.
Other characteristics of an endomorph body type include:
- Short limbs
- Sluggish sympathetic nervous system
- A tendency to gain weight easily
- A tendency to store more fat, particularly in the waist and belly areas
Because endomorphs are much more sensitive to calorie consumption than the other two body types, they need to be extra careful about their diet. It is also important to ensure that their diet contains all the endomorph macros in the right proportions.
Endomorph Macros (Carbs, Protein, Fat)
Following the diet fit for your body type requires a lot of struggle. You have to ensure how many calories a day you must consume and what macronutrient proportion you should be following.
Detailed below are explanations for each of the diet macros and ideal ratios for endomorph macros.
- Proteins
Proteins generally require a lot more time and effort to get digested than carbs or fats. Some evidence suggests that your body has to work as much as 30% more to digest proteins as compared to other macronutrients.
This means that if you eat 100 calories worth of protein, your body can only access to 70. Proteins help build lean muscle which is metabolically active and makes weight loss a lot easier. Use this to your advantage and try covering 35% of your daily caloric intake with proteins.
- Fats
This may sound counterintuitive but eating healthy fats will help with fat loss. Adding fat to your everyday meals with also help control acidity and keep you healthier. As an endomorph, up to 40% of your calories must come from healthy fats.
- Carbohydrates
As an endomorph, carbohydrates are your frenemy. The reason being your troubled relationship with insulin. Insulin is a hormone that controls glucose absorption from the blood. Both protein and fat have a minimal effect on insulin. Carbohydrates, however, profoundly affect this hormone.
An endomorph’s body is not efficient enough to control insulin for lowering blood sugar. So, it is beneficial to keep the carbohydrate intake low to avoid any disturbances in your blood insulin levels. Approximately 25 to 30 percent of your daily calorie intake must come from carbohydrates.
Best Protein Sources for Endomorphs
Proteins are an important part of your diet. They are important building blocks of muscles, organs, hormones, skin, and pretty much everything that matters in a human body. So it is important to keep your protein intake high.
Consider adding the following high-quality proteins in your diet:
- Eggs
- Almonds
- Chicken breasts
- Cottage cheese
- Greek yogurt
- Milk
- Lean beef
- Tuna
- Soybeans
- All types of fish
- Pumpkin seeds
- Shrimp
Best Carbohydrate Sources for Endomorphs
Endomorphs typically respond better to a low carb diet. However, this does not mean that you should entirely exclude carbohydrates from your meals. All you need to do is to be careful about not eating starchy or sugary carbs and focus on healthy carbohydrates instead.
The following types of foods can be used by endomorphs to maintain their daily carb intake:
- Oatmeal
- Yams
- Brown rice
- Quinoa
- Sweet potatoes
- Asparagus
- Bell peppers
- Lentils and beans
- Couscous
- Pumpkin
- Beetroots
- Oranges
- Buckwheat
- Bananas
- Butternut squash
Most of the carbohydrates you consume must come from high-quality sources that take time to digest because of a high fiber content. Avoid eating refined grains like white bread, pasta, and white rice.
Best Fat Sources for Endomorphs
Healthy fats are an important part of an endomorph diet. It is also important to eat the right type of fats to maintain body weight and achieve your fitness goals more easily. About 1/3 of your fat must come from mono-saturated fats such as nuts, avocado, nut butter, and olive oil. The other 1/3 must come from polyunsaturated fats like flax seeds, fish, nuts, and fish oil. Finally, the last 1/3 must come from saturated fats like meats, eggs, butter, coconut oil, and other types of animal fats.
Instead of getting too caught up in the percentages, try focusing on including more mono- and polyunsaturated fats in your daily diet.
The top foods to obtain healthy fats are mentioned below:
- Flax seeds
- Almonds
- Salmon
- Hemp seed oil
- Peanuts
- Pecans
- Dark chocolate
- Eggs
- Avocado
- Olive oil
- Nut butter
- Tofu
- Coconut oil
- Fatty fish like sardines
- Grass-fed beef
One note of caution. Be sure to keep track of the amount of nuts you are eating. Nuts contain a lot of fat and you can easily eat too much fat by chugging handfuls of nuts. It may seem extreme but if you are going to eat nuts, you need to count or weigh them to keep track of how much fat you are consuming.
Top 5 Weight Loss Tips for Endomorph
In addition to eating all endomorph macros in the right proportions, follow the tips mentioned below to achieve your fitness goals.
- Drink 64 Ounces of Water Daily
Studies indicate that drinking water can enhance your metabolism and rev up your fat burning rate. [1] [2] Endomorphs generally tend to retain more water, so drinking more water can also help them flush out excess water from the body.
Aim at drinking 1-2 liters or 64 ounces of water every day.
- Eat Healthy Travel Snacks
Snacking on foods that are high in fat and proteins with a minimum amount of carbs is the best way for an endomorph to sustain energy. Try keeping nuts and seeds, such as hazelnuts, cashews, and almonds with you all the time as healthy travel snacks.
- Eat More Fiber
Studies have shown that soluble fiber can exert strong effects on your metabolism and health. It promotes fullness and slows down the emptying of your stomach to reduce your appetite and control weight gain. [3] So include barley, quinoa, and wheat bran cereal in your diet to get more fiber.
- Get Whey Protein Supplement
In addition to eating the proper endomorph macros ratio, it is beneficial for endomorphs to supplement their diet with whey protein. Whey protein is an excellent supplement to promote weight loss while preserving lean muscle. [4]
- Say No to Sugary Drinks
As mentioned before, carbs are not your frenemy. So, do yourself a favor and avoid sugary drinks. These drinks will increase the blood sugar and make your insulin levels go crazy and lead to a lot more weight gain. Cut back on fizzy drinks, sodas, and fruit juices that contain added sugars.
Eating the proper endomorph macros will help to ensure that your diet supports weight loss. Determining and keeping track of protein, carbohydrates, and fats seems daunting at first. However, most of us eat the same things every day on average so once you develop a routine, it should not be so tough.
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Till next time…
