Endomorph's Internet Survival Guide 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.
Topic Author
