Endomorph's Internet Survival Guide

[skelooth]

Copyright 2006 Patrick Avella

The Endomorph's Body Transformation Survival Guide.

If there was ever an area of personal study that is confusing, it's bodybuilding. Any quick combination of bodybuilding related keystrokes on your favorite search engine will result in a plethora of advice. This might seem like a good thing until you actually try to read through it all. Article A says not to do Y, but Article B says to do nothing but Y, still Article C says to do Z then Y. How do you sort through all of this stuff? How do you separate fact from fiction?

One of the best pieces advice that anyone can ever give you is that different things work for different people. If anyone ever offers you this advice you can probably rest assured that if they aren't entirely on your side, they at least know what they are talking about. What this means to our plethora of search engine results is that it's very possible that each and every one of those tactics work great! Just maybe not for YOU.

If you've been enticed to read this article because of it's catchy title then it's safe to say you already know what an endomorph is. It's also safe to say that you consider yourself to possess at least a small amount of endomorphic qualities. If this is not the case I will give you a quick break down of soma types as they theoretically relate to bodybuilding. Endomorphic people are genetically prone to being overweight and are typically lazy by nature. Ectomorphic people are the opposite being genetically prone to being skinny and are typically overactive and fidgety in nature. Mesomorphic are the “perfect blend” of the other two somatypes so to speak and are naturally very athletic. If you look into this further on your own you will see that most articles will liken the scenario to a three point triangle with Mesomorph being the top vertex.

So why is a soma type so important? Because it partially dictates what works and what doesn't work for us, and this is possibly the main reason why there are so many varying techniques of bodybuilding plastered all over the internet. What I really want to do is jump right into the cookie batter of why this is important to endomorphs in specific and dispel any confusions about training along the way.

Beware of bodybuilding articles that act as if you don't eat enough food you will never gain an ounce of muscle. Yes even as an endomorph you have a requirement to eat a moderate sized portion of calories throughout the day, the issue is that it's just not as extreme as it is for ectomorphs. As an endomorph you will most likely never in a million years need to consume anything called a mass gainer shake. You will probably never even have an issue with not eating enough. In fact your problem will most likely be the opposite for the rest of your weight lifting life. If you're reading an article that talks about eating food like it's going out of style you can pretty much rest assured that the author's body type is from a completely different end of the spectrum, and that his advice probably does not fit you as well as someone else's might.
You do not have to live your life on the treadmill! Time and time again I see nutrition and fitness gurus preaching to us that we need to do cardio for hours upon hours each week, and that for the rest of our lives we'll need to continue doing it. I think this is some type of conspiracy to make us chubs miserable. It's just blown way out of proportion and will serve most of us nothing better than burning out and hating exercise. A cohort I interact with regularly is a slightly endomorphic bloke who's obtained some pretty low bodyfat percentage levels. His advice is to only add a little more cardio if you need it. Otherwise keep it at a minimum. What a beautiful piece of advice, it translates into less being more.

How does an endomorph know if he needs more cardio? Well, I hate to rain down on you with my acid rain, but you should be doing at least 30 minutes of moderate cardio per week. Mostly for cardiovascular health reasons and not just weight loss. You know you need more if your weight loss has halted. Pretty simple eh? The best advice always is. Adding 10 minutes per session or an additional 30 minute session is really all you need to do. You can even take this extra torture time back out later on if you like.

Your cutting calories are not 3,435! This is another huge mistake I see all over the internet. Some of it is intended for ectomorphs, while some of it is just math applied in an unrealistic manner. Beware of high calorie amounts from webpages that give you formulas and equations. There is only one true way to determine your maintenance calories. Are you ready? Because I'm going to tell you right now. Carry a notepad around and log everything your eat. At the end of the week add it up. If you lost weight you're below maintenance calories, if you're the same weight then you're eating right around maintenance calories. Do it for a few weeks to months and you will have a pretty accurate measure of what your metabolism is really like. You might find that endomorphs have much lower maintenance calories than we'd like to believe.

Carbohydrates are your enemy! If you say this out in public be very careful... the general fitness crowd might tie you to a pole and burn your low carb ass alive. Unfortunately the general fitness crowd is not forward thinking enough to realize what's going on under the hood of all of my endomorphic brothers. Most endomorphs are partly the way they are because of insulin resistance. That is it takes more insulin to break down carbohydrates than it does for the thinner part of the population. Endomorphs are at high risk of things like type 2 Diabetes because of the huge roller coaster of insulin levels we put ourselves on when not paying attention to what we eat. Follow any clinically obese person around the supermarket in ninja like fashion.... watch in amazement as the majority of their diet will be carbohydrates. Coincidence? I think not.

This is not to say to cut carbohydrates out completely, this is more implying that you should be weary of how many carbs you eat, and that they probably should not take up the majority of your diet. 40/40/20 is a very popular macro-nutrient percentage breakdown, but 40% carbohydrates may actually be high enough to limit fat loss because of insulin floating around. Try a 40% protein, 30% carbohydrate, and 30% fat diet instead. I think you might be surprised with your results in terms of both fat loss and over all energy levels.

There is no supplement or drug under the sun that will make you have the metabolism of a thin person. I don't care what the ad on TV or in the magazine said, it's a lie. Things like ephedrine can help, but supplements only supplement your diet and training.

You are not going to look like a fitness model in six months, and you'll be lucky if you do in six years. This is something that drives me crazy because it sets people up for some terrible disappointment. I will not mention any names but there are multiple “transformations” of people who have gone from a supposed 30% bodyfat down to a muscular 10% in anywhere between 6 weeks and 6 months. I'm sorry folks, for the majority of us this is just not going to happen. You can attain anything in this world you desire within reason with enough work and dedication. If it could be attained in 6 months then everyone and their brother would have done it 6 months ago.

Delving out of the area of things to avoid, I'd like to offer my simple advice. After all, isn't the best advice always simple? Make healthy fat a part of your diet. Taking fish oil caps isn't enough sometimes. Learn to incorporate things like olive oil, salmon, avocados, and flax into your daily diet. Avoid bleached white flour and sugars, they're just not good for you. Watch your sodium intake, water weight can look just as gross as fat weight, especially if you have loose skin that fills up like a balloon. Oh, and don't eat too much protein. Your body can only process so much protein, and no one wants to smell your protein farts.

[retro_roots]

Good article.

A follow-up with the positives of being somewhat endo would be cool. For example, Being able to lift 12+ heavy sets per muscle group and not over training and relying solely on Oats, WPC, and Almonds for a bulk.

Or a reverse perspective would be cool, The Ecto's Survivalt Guide. Things like when you read limit carbs to oats and fruit and you don't need mre than 500 cals over "maintence" to gain don't apply.

[HawkAttack]

Very good insight. Ive been looking for an article like this. I am only a slight endomorph, but If i ate 3,000 calories a day, i would be 500 pounds in 6 months. :-P

[Donmecca]

good advice brother.

[tru]

I have been a few of the wrong things with my endomorph body type. Thanks for the advice, and the realistic approach to achieving realistic goals. I have been reading on this site heavily for the last few months, and have read so much about having a caloric intake of around 3500 for my weight (253lbs), and really thought that was too much for me too loose fat.

[The_Frat_Lion]

Thanks alot

[xXBoStErXx]

strong article bro reps

[NewMindstate]

great article..but are you saying that as an endomorph..even with proper training and nutrition (in reference to your 6 month/6 year comment) that I couldn't lose 10-15 pounds in a few months and drop a few bf percentage points just because I'm an endomorph?

[MattYBoY07]

Do you know of a ectomorph work out schedual?

[DamnSheSwole]

Originally Posted by skelooth

Copyright 2006 Patrick Avella

The Endomorph's Body Transformation Survival Guide.

If there was ever an area of personal study that is confusing, it's bodybuilding. Any quick combination of bodybuilding related keystrokes on your favorite search engine will result in a plethora of advice. This might seem like a good thing until you actually try to read through it all. Article A says not to do Y, but Article B says to do nothing but Y, still Article C says to do Z then Y. How do you sort through all of this stuff? How do you separate fact from fiction?

One of the best pieces advice that anyone can ever give you is that different things work for different people. If anyone ever offers you this advice you can probably rest assured that if they aren't entirely on your side, they at least know what they are talking about. What this means to our plethora of search engine results is that it's very possible that each and every one of those tactics work great! Just maybe not for YOU.

Oh, and don't eat too much protein. Your body can only process so much protein, and no one wants to smell your protein farts.

I've been saying this forever, which should be a common sense thing as it is.

And yeah, you definitely have it on the money about too much protein. Protein gas will literally melt flowers and peel the paint off the walls in your house with ease.

[Richardcorda]

Just to follow up, i feel as though being an endomorph makes your road to sucess very difficult at times. I love food and probably could eat for hours on end and not get full but the fact that we learn to control ourselves and know that we work even harder for our results make it that much better. i mean lets face it, it is harder to resist the temptation of a nice cheeseburger and supersize fries with a milk shake, rather than just worring about stuffing your face to gain muscle.... always remember that you are not the only one out there, and when you start looking better than every single person you walk by, remember you worked ten times harder for it, and as you pass by smile

[wakingmalice]

i'm bustin on the 5000 calorie bulk as an endo an doing fantastic.

[queenofswords]

nice article. Holds true.

[Gordon Bombay]

Endo meso here. I read and heeded advice to eat as much as possible and guess what I ballooned to massive proportions, from 180lbs to 207lbs with no noticeable gain in muscle.

I am on the CKD/anabolic diet because it looks to be the best for people like me.

[GaTo]

excellent read thanks for posting

[FatboysFatter]

Originally Posted by queenofswords

nice article. Holds true.

indeed I do agree, the article was quite interesting.

[tenga_bitch]

great article with lots of good tips. definitely relevant to me.

[feverinlove]

As an endo, I believe the best thing for us is to continuously make a "clean" bulk.

Cutting is very hard for an endo. I eat healthy, low carbs, have 150grams of protein every day and I still cant drop weight.

[donny453]

lol i hate the endo life. I hear my friends telling me its so hard to gain weigth, for them. then im like what??? i can gain 4 pounds a day if i wanted too. </3

[jeffaus]

Thanks skelooth, a good read for us endomorphs that seem to take longer to get weight off than others. Understanding the why's always helps.

[bobjonez]

Amen my endo brother!!!!!!!!!

[Ryanaldinho]

Great post!

As an Endo, similar to what others have said before me, I find it particularly difficult to lose fat. I can lose weight, but just seem to look smaller rather than leaner...

[LevroneFan2002]

Repped. Body type is very important.

[XX400EX]

Yes great post.

[seanward]

thanks for the info. repped

[Ratix]

10/10 post!!!
This really helped me a lot.
This opened my eyes, and made me realize that i was doing wrong just basing my diet on formulas (though the lowest ones), because i could not loose much weight (as my own eyes tried to tell me).
I even used to eat without ANY hunger, though it was a fat loss diet.
So i drastically reduced calories, so that i'd go to eat with at least a little (not too much) hunger.
Now i can see the results with my own eyes every week, and it doesn't seem i'm loosing muscles.

Thank you again.

[pmpimbura]

Great Post Thanks!

[UCFBuilder]

very good read...being an endo with meso tendencies this article applies heavily to me....everyone thinks that im eating way to little at 1700 cals a day...but im only losing 2 pounds a week...thats with 2 and half hours of cardio a week plus intense lifting sessions....i really hate being a endo...i love eating and it sucks that i cant eat any of the foods i love....i already have it in my mind that im fat as hell..i hate taking off my shirt..and still wont allow people to take pics of me unless i know they are..doing this comp i have in a few weeks will hopefully help me get past this stage of my life...

[jojow77]

this is such an great article that all endos should read. I wish I read something like this 6-8 years ago. Only recently did I find out that I eat way too much carbs and like you said following the usual nutrition advise doesn't work for people like us. We def are all different and one plan does not work for everyone. You first have to figure out what body type you are first.

[KrazyKevin]

Originally Posted by donny453

lol i hate the endo life. I hear my friends telling me its so hard to gain weigth, for them. then im like what??? i can gain 4 pounds a day if i wanted too. </3

so true


Also, it is possible to drop weight as an endomorph. I lost 30lbs in three months on a low carb no sugar diet, for my wedding.
Sadly I gained it back during our two week honeymoon

You just have to limit your carbs and sugar as much as possible because of the insulin resistance we suffer.