What
is Your Body Type?
Two months ago, as I was walking down the famous white sand beach of Boracay, I played a little game to pass the time. From behind the anonymity of my sunglasses, I was categorizing every person that I saw into three basic body types. The reason I was playing the body type game was because someone had recently asked me why he wasn't getting the same results as his friend who had started lifting weights at the same time. One of the answers I gave him was that he did not have the same body type as his friend.
Body types
The concept that all bodies are a combination or variation of three basic body
types is called somatotyping. The three body types are endomorph, mesomorph,
and ectomorph. A male endomorph is heavy set, stocky, and naturally strong (picture
an ox). This type of male body will easily put on muscle but will just as easily
put on fat so it tends to be bulky rather than chiseled. A female endomorph
is rounded, soft, voluptuous, and also easily gains weight. Male and female
mesomorphs have athletic looking bodies. They don't have to try too hard to
look like they are in shape because they are naturally muscular and they tend
to maintain their weight easily. Ectomorphs are the long, lean, and lanky type.
They have a high metabolic rate and can usually eat whatever they want without
gaining weight. They have very little fat but they also don't have much muscle.
They are small boned with slim arms and legs.
Variations
Most of us are variations of the three body types. Some people have an upper
body that is ectomorphic and a lower body that is endomorphic. In other words,
a slim upper body and a more fat- prone lower body. This is also called a pear
shape. Other people are the opposite. They are apple-shaped with endomorphic
upper bodies and ectomorphic lower bodies. They are the ones who store fat easily
in the upper body while their lower bodies remain slim. Sometimes the variation
is not as clear-cut as having one body type for the upper body and another for
the lower. There are ecto-meso's who have all-around wiry bodies (slim but muscular)
and there are also ecto-endo's who have slender but soft and rounded bodies.
Height has nothing to do with body type even though we tend to think of skinny
people (ectomorphs) as being tall and heavy-set people (endomorphs) as being
short. For instance, my sister and I are both the same height and size but she
is a mesomorph while I am an ecto-endo.
Genetics and body type
We inherit our body types from our parents who, in turn, inherited theirs from
their parents. That's why our bodies tend to be combinations of body types.
Since families customarily take their summer vacations together, I saw examples
of this in the living flesh in Boracay. For example, I saw a family where the
first son had an ectomorphic body (like the mother) and the second son had an
endomorphic body (like the father). The daughter was clearly of the mesomorph
persuasion so I figured she must look like one of the grandparents. Body type
aside, one of my other observations was that slim parents tended to have slim
children while overweight parents more often than not had overweight children.
The slim families were usually involved in doing something physical like playing
volleyball, riding a bike, or swimming while the overweight families were invariably
eating something fattening (ice cream, soft drinks, potato chips) as they sat
or lay on the sand. If they were walking, they were generally munching their
food. While genetics plays a role in whether we will be overweight or not, one
has to ask whether family exercise and eating habits is as big a factor, if
not bigger.
Sports and body type
Athletes come in all shapes and sizes though certain body types tend to excel
in specific sports. Ectomorphs do well in endurance sports like long-distance
running. Mesomorphs shine in sports that require power and speed like sprinting.
And endomorphs stand out in sports or team positions that require bulk. The
next time you watch a basketball game, see if you can identify the three body
types from among the team players.
Can you change your body type?
You cannot change your body type in the sense that an endomorph will always
have a greater propensity to put on weight compared to a mesomorph or ectomorph.
But you can change it in the sense that the endomorph is not doomed to being
overweight as long as he or she takes extra effort to watch calorie and fat
intake and exercise regularly unlike the other two body types that have a greater
caloric and exercise leeway.
The guy who asked me the question that inspired this column is an ectomorph while his friend is a mesomorph. It doesn't take a whole lot of analysis to figure out that his friend will see faster results in terms of more muscle bulk and definition. The ectomorphic guy will have to be more patient, work twice as hard, and be realistic about the results because he cannot compare himself to his mesomorphic friend.
All body types can gain or lose weight but the degree and rate at which they do varies. For example, all body types will become shadows of their former selves after spending a year at a World War II Holocaust-type concentration camp but the ecto's will get to the skeletal state much more rapidly. The endo's and meso's may survive longer because they have greater fat and muscle mass. Upon return to a normal environment, all body types will gain weight but the endo's will do so faster than the other two.
Body type vs. body shape
Body type and body shape are
different things. All three body types can come in four body shapes. Borrowing
the definition of Edward Jackowski, author of "Escape Your Shape", the four
shapes are the cone, spoon, ruler and hourglass. The cone has wider shoulders
than hips and is commonly found in men. The spoon has narrower shoulders than
hips and is usually found in women though I personally know about three men
with this shape. The ruler is straight up-and-down. Shoulders and hips are proportioned
but there is hardly an indentation for the waist. The hourglass is strictly
a female shape. Shoulders and hips have the same measurement but there is a
dramatic indentation in the waistline.
The terms "apples and pears" are usually used to describe fat distribution patterns. Apples have fat-prone upper bodies while pears have fat-prone lower bodies. The four shapes mentioned above describe skeletal structure. You cannot change skeletal structure but you can manipulate the muscles on top of your bones to look like you have changed your shape.