There are those that say you are not predisposed to being overweight and then there are those that are right.  Now, this is not to say that you HAVE to be overweight if you are of a certain body type, or underweight if of another, but the forces of nature are not working in your favor.  I am a firm believer that your pre-disposition to having man boobs or a skinny butt are etched in your DNA in the form of your God-given body type.

The three different body types are mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph.  We’ll get into the definition of these in a moment but I want to impress upon you the importance of identifying which you are.  It probably won’t be hard to do but this is another exercise in honesty because your success depends on determining which fight you are fighting.  To determine you’re body type, you can take the self test at Bodybuilding.com.

In the rest of this post, I’m going to use the body type definitions from Bodybuilding.com since there is no real need to invent the wheel here.  However, me being the aforementioned ‘endomorph’ (in the title), I will give my commentary on each to try to give you and idea of an endomorph’s perspective.  First, here’s a nifty little diagram that gives you a visual of the explanations:

The Endomorph

From Bodybuilding.com

An Endomorph’s biggest concern should be the losing of fat and adopting a lifestyle that keeps it off. Strength training should be done to get a better muscle to fat ratio and therefore improve metabolism. Use moderate weights at a fast training pace (very little rest between sets and exercises). You should lower your calorie intake (but not try to starve yourself) and should eat frequent but small meals. Sugars, sweets and junk food should be eliminated from your diet. Engage daily in some activity like brisk walking, biking, etc., and try to increase the amount of time you spend each week.

Dave’s Commentary:

Yep, that’s me but I swear I didn’t pose for that diagram!  I gave up the whitey tighties years ago.  Since I’m writing this post, I am going to take the liberty of stating, as fact, that endomorphs drew the short straw when it comes to the gene pool.  You can blame your parents, your grandparents, Obama…whoever.  It still won’t change the fact that your stuck with a body type that is pre-disposed to struggling with excess fat.  The sooner you come to this realization, the sooner you can get on with maintaining a healthy lifestyle and defying the odds. 

Another fact is that those with the other two body types just flat out suck.  Being as this is written from an endomorph’s (me) point of view, you’re going to find out just why the other two body types suck (read: why we endomorphs consider you lucky).

The Mesomorph

From Bodybuilding.com

A Mesomorph has a naturally fit body but to maintain it or improve it they should exercise and diet correctly for their type. Strength training can be done more often and for longer sessions then would be good for an Ectomorph, but you must still be careful not to overdo it. You should train with moderate to heavy weighs and at a moderate pace, not resting too long between sets. You will find you gain muscle quite easy (some women and even men might not want to get too bulky, but this won’t happen suddenly. When you are happy with your muscle size simply train to maintain it). Stick to a good healthy diet to keep you lean and muscular, and watch for any slow creeping fat gains. Engage in and enjoy aerobic activities, sports, etc. but do not overdo.

Dave’s Commentary:

Congratualtions, Mesomorph, you won the DNA lottery!  However, you get the dubious honor of both endomorphs and ectomorphs thinking you suck because of it.  Everyone knows this person.  He’s the one that looks like he’s weight trained his entire life but really on hit the weight room in high school twenty years ago.  What makes you really suck though is the fact that you like to share how little you have to do to keep your athletic physique.  It’s ok, though.  Having a naturally fit body is great and all but you won’t get the satisfaction of achieving the same body would you have been an ectomorph or an endomorph!  Yeah!  Ok, so that’s not much to hang my hat on but I’m struggling to find a down side here.

Wait, there is one more thing.  It isn’t unheard of for a mesomorph to gain some fat!  So, in the end, they should still be careful.  “Luckily” for them, though, it is easy for them to drop the fat (argh!).

The Ectomorph

From Bodybuilding.com

Ectomorphs should concentrate on gaining weight in the form of good lean muscle tissue (some women that are too thin may also want to put on a little fat to look more feminine). Weight training should be done but not too often or for too long each session. Weight should be fairly heavy and workout pace slower (longer rest periods between sets). Diet should be high in calories (good quality food not junk) and you should eat more then you’re used to and often. Aerobic and other activities (sports, dancing, etc.) should be kept to a minimum, at least until you are happy with your weight and looks.

Dave’s Commentary:

Ok, ectomorphs, you don’t suck quite as much as the mesomorphs but you do come in a close second.  Ectomorphs are the guys that are always complaining that they just can’t gain weight.  “I just eat and eat and eat and I can’t gain a single pound!” … SMACK!  I’m not advocating violence and I’m generally non-confrontational but hearing this really makes me rethink my ways.  Please, ectomorphs, if you feel the need to whine about your struggles and your self image, an endomorph is NOT the person to turn to. 

Most of the endomorphs I know would pay money to spend time as an ectomorph just to experience the freedom of eating food like pizza and wings while feeling no guilt.  I’m sure you have your own cute little struggles and I wish you the best.

Some Final Words

I’ve written some pretty serious posts lately and I just wanted to loosen things up a bit.  Obviously, my commentary above was meant to get a chuckle or two but I hope you were able to take something away from this.  All of us fall somewhere on the line between ectomorph and endomorph and it is important to figure out just where on that line we are in order to determine how best to achieve our goals.  To quote old school Saturday morning cartoons: Knowledge is Power!

I’m always interested in hearing what anyone has to say on any of my posts so feel free to post your thoughts in the comments below.

If I had to choose one question that I’ve been asked the most over the past few years it is this:  how have you kept the weight off?  Of course I get those ‘how did you do it?’ questions but mostly it is the ‘how do you continue to do it?’ questions.  Here is my answer:

I focused on my habits.

I have heard, and have even used myself, the phrase ‘I did it by changing my lifestyle’ but rarely is there any real explanation of HOW someone went about doing that.  Your lifestyle is just an accumulation of habits that you’ve created over a lifetime.  Obviously, if you’ve found yourself in a position where you are overweight, not all of those habits have been good ones. 

In an effort to try to answer the question of how you change your lifestyle to increase your chances of long term, or sustained, weight loss success, I have compiled a few ideas that I hope will help.

I spent most of today watching a train wreck.  One of those things you hate to watch but you just can’t turn away.  It’s been a fairly blah day here in Georgia so that means indoor family time!  That would normally be the case but today my son has been on a Spongebob coloring marathon, my wife was at work and my daughter had a play performance across town.   I was still in charge of my son but I wasn’t the center of his attention.  Woe to me if he’s never the center of my attention!

While the crayon shrapnel was flying, I was cruising the channels and stumbled upon “Man vs. Food” on the Travel Channel.  THAT is the train wreck I couldn’t turn away from.  If you aren’t familiar with this show, the premise is a man travels across the US in search of food challenges like “eating a 6 lb. hamburger in 3o minutes” or “eating 17 chili dogs in one sitting.”  It truly is a spectacle to behold and the host makes it through almost all the challenges.

It appears that the Government is considering a man boob and muffin top tax (MBMT for short).  Unless you’ve been living in a cave over the past couple of months, I’m sure you are aware of the new health care bill that is in congress.  The reason for the bill is to try to “fix” our health care system by instituting measures that will both reduce the cost of health care and provide insurance to those that can’t afford it.

As with anything that comes out of Washington, this, too, comes with a ridiculous price tag.  This one is estimated to cost the tax payers $1 Trillion (with a T) .  This has many sane members in congress balking at the proposal.  How are we going to pay for it?

A recent study released showed that obesity currently accounts for nearly 10% of all health care spending.  Because of this outrageous statistic, Congress, in all its wisdom, has decided they can cash in on our seeming addiction to “fatty” foods and sugary sodas.  The Joint Committee on Taxation calculated that just a 3 cent tax on every 12-ounce can of sugary soda would raise over $51 billion over a decade.  That is averages out to 169,900,000,000  (169.9 BILLON) cans of non-diet soda per year! 

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Did depression cause your weight issues or did your weight issues cause your depression?  Does it really matter? 

Yes, it does.

One is the root cause and one is a symptom of something deeper just like the weight issue.  The difficulty lies in determining which came first for you.  Before you get to that part, you must first realize what depression is and its symptoms.