Diet for Endomorphs??

[Eva_Lynn]

I'm looking for some help with my diet. I am a total endomorph... I gain weight very easily and have a sluggish metabolism. I made some impressive changes in my body using strength training in the past, but I have been pretty inactive for the past year while I was trying to heal some sports injuries and dealing with a few other health problems which required a certain degree of "rest".

I am now healthy and ready to make a life change and commit to a healthier lifestyle and maybe someday even compete. I have a long way to go though, since I've backpedaled quite a bit over the past year and gained back a lot of the fat I initially lost.

I am 5'4'' tall, and I weigh 162 pounds. My body fat is approximately 28%. ( , what an awful number!!) Ideally I would like to get down to about 15-16% bodyfat. My cardio/lifting routines is as follows:

Monday: Chest and Triceps, Cardio
Tuesday: Legs and Abs
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Shoulders, Cardio
Friday: Back and Biceps and Abs, Cardio

I have heard that endomorphs shouldn't eat high carbohydrate diets because our metabolisms are naturally a bit slower and we usually have more carbohydrate sensitivity. So I would guess that something like 50c/30p/20f wouldn't be very effective for me? Would 40c/40p/20f be better for me? What would be a good macro ratio to try to lose fat while maintaining and/or gaining muscle mass? Also is eating approximately 1600-1700 calories appropriate for fat loss with this amount of activity? Should I go higher or lower?

[artsong27]

I am a split between a meso and endo. My lower half is where I hold most of my fat. Keep a close eye on your carb intake. They aren't bad for you, especially if your activity level requires extra energy. However, timing is important. I eat carbs when I need to (usually early in the day when I'm training), and as the day goes I begin to limit my intake. I eat plenty of veggies...you really don't have to worry too much about that. It was only when I dropped my calories to around 1700 that my composition started to change. My macros are 40/40/20. I try to get as close to that as I can. I would suggest playing with your numbers a bit. The calculations and number crunching will help a bit, but trial and error has worked wonders for me. Eventually, your body will tell you where you need to be. Keep doing what you're doing.

[pga617]

I'm a total endo all the way and find I respond well to lower carbs. I usually end up w/macros around 40/35/25. You can see my diet in my journal (address is in my siggy). My carbs mainly come from oats in the AM, sweet potato w/lunch and a piece of fruit before my workout, everything else I stick w/veggies. I stay within a range of 1400-1600 most days w/2 higher cal day (1800-2000) thrown in the mix to keep my body guessing, but usually keep the macros the same.

Workout looks like this

Sun - Off (or sometimes light cardio)
Mon - Arms & Shoulders/ 15 min HIIT
Tue - Abs & Calves/ 15 min HIIT
Wed - Legs
Thu - Off
Fri - Chest/40 min medium intensity cardio
Sat - Back/ 40 min medium intensity cardio

Just started a 12 week transformation July 1, sticking w/my diet I'm down about 2 lbs and 1% of BF to date.