Endomorph Body Type

Endomorphs are adept at storing fuel, with muscle and fat concentrated in the lower body. The endomorph is the hardest body type to have in terms of managing your weight and overall fitness, but to get a more balanced physique, you should focus on developing your shoulders and stripping away excess fat from your lower body. A low- to medium-intensity cardio plan will help you shift fat, as will a 1,750-calorie-a-day diet that’s high in fiber.

Are You an Endomorph?

If you have trouble shifting weight, the chances are you’re an endomorph, caracterizad by a relatively high amount of stored fat, a wide waist and a large bone structure.

What’s Going On?

The good news is that, evolutionarily speaking, you’re a badass: when food was scarce, natural selection favored humans with fat-storing metabolisms. The bad news is that, now sofas and milkshakes are readily available, those genes are scupering you. Some experts suggest heredity factors might account for as much as 70% of your body mass index (BMI).

What Endomorphs Might Be Doing Wrong

First, the good bit: there’s no point in spending hours plodding away on a treadmill. “The first thing I tell people trying to lose weight is to ditch the long, slow, steady-state cardiovascular work,” says Purdue. “Then I get them doing more interval-based conditioning to strip away fat. Sprints and box jumps are great, but if you’re heavy to the point of being worried about your joints, then moves like the sled push are slower but just as intense.”

And if you’re doing hundreds of crunches to try and shift your gut, ditch them now. “Spot-reducing fat just doesn’t work,” says Hughes. “You need to lose it from everywhere to see results around your waistline.”