Knowing your body type can go a long way in helping you lose weight. A lot of people read weight-loss success stories or ask thin friends how they lost weight. But a pear-shaped woman who follows the advice of a fit hour glass-shaped woman when it comes to exercise will have disappointing results.
First, determine your body shape. When thinking about your shape, look at old photographs and the timeline of your life. You will always be either an endomorph, ectomorph or mesomorph. If you gain weigh around your middle due to pregnancy, for example, you may think you moved to another category. You didn’t.
No. 1: Endomorphs are the naturally fat people. They have pear shapes. Pears carry most of their weight on the bottom half. They often wear a smaller top and larger bottom. They have average ability to gain muscle — but below average ability to lose fat, especially in their hips and thighs.
When endomorphs or pears gain weight, they gain it in the mid-section so they may begin to appear like an apple – with only the top remaining flat chested and smaller. For an example, think of Jennifer Love Hewitt, who was mocked after an unflattering photo of her in a bathing suit with generous hips and thighs hit the magazines. Endomorphs were not necessarily fat their entire lives – they just have an incredibly easy time becoming and staying fat.
No. 2: Mesomorphs are hourglass figures. They may appear more as rectangular if they have had a baby or gained extra weight in the mid-section. They tend to gain weight in the mid-section due to stress. Hourglass women respond well to high intensity exercise. They are more athletic, having an extremely easy time gaining muscle mass. And though they don’t realize it because of their generous muscle mass, they have an easy time losing pounds of fat.
For examples of an hour-glass shaped women think of Jennifer Aniston. You may think she is a naturally thin “ectomorph” but she is more athletic, working hard for her physique. Kendra Wilkinson Baskett is also an hour-glass shaped woman in great shape. Hour-glass women have smaller waists, decent-size breasts and hips and typically slim but muscular legs.
No. 3: Ectomorph are petite and thin rectangular-shaped women who find it hard to gain weight. These are the naturally thin people. They have never had big hips and slide easily into “boy jeans.” Again, you don’t switch from ectomorph to endomorph as you get older. If you have big hips and thighs and a smaller body, you were never an ectomorph in your youth.
Ectomorph women don’t usually read weight-loss articles because they don’t need help losing weight. Think Ellen Pompeo who plays Meredith Grey on “Grey’s Anatomy.” She is a classic ectomorph.
Some quick tips for exercising if you are a pear: Don’t avoid weight training. Consider exercising your lower half with programs such as The Firm with the “fanny lifter” which targets your problem area. Figure out ways to become active instead of sedentary on a day-to-day basis. Don’t get into the mindset that you “worked out” for a half hour and can then remain inactive the rest of the day.
Some quick tips for exercising if your are an hour glass shape: Choose the more aggressive exercise approach such as training for a marathon. You have the athletic ability. If you want to tone up your arms, jogging or running will be more effective than weight training. When weight training, do more reps with weights that are not as heavy. Muscle weighs more than fat so you will always appear slimmer than the endomorphs, but more muscular than the ectomorph.
