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Are you an ectomorph?

- Naturally thin,

- Small bone structure,

- Struggles to gain weight (especially muscle) and easily loses it.

Or a mesomorph?

- Greek God walking the Earth. Gains muscle easily. Gets lean easily.

How about a mesomorph?

- Naturally stocky,

- Large bone structure,

- Just has to look at ice cream and gains weight, struggles to lose weight, too.

I’ve got a surprise for you…

You’re actually none of these. Because they aren’t real!

In fact, these terms have been in the fitness industry for years… Actually have NOTHING to do with fitness. 

The terms ecto, meso and endomorph (also called somatotypes) were invented by a psychologist called William Sheldon. Not a strength coach or an exercise scientist… And they were mostly used to describe someone’s personality… Not their physique.

Let me give you an example:

Here’s me before I got lean. Not much muscle either. Must have been an endomorph, right?


Now here’s me when all I cared about was being lean. Not much muscle on that frame. Typical ectomorph?


What about after I had put over a decade into training and eating to maximise my performance and physique. Must just be a mesomorph, right?


I must have just hit the genetic lottery! And if you hadn’t seen these other two photos you might believe that to be true.

Somatotypes are essentially bullshit…

But… Is there any truth to the whole “body type” theory?

Let’s strip it right back.

When we’re talking about body types and body composition we’re essentially talking about two things:

1 - muscle mass (and how the muscles sit on the frame), and 

2 - body fat (and how the body fat sits on the body). 

Muscle:

- Certainly some people build muscle easier than others.

- For sure some people have more visually appealing muscle bellies in the way the muscle sits on the physique.

This is why you can give 2 people the exact same training and nutrition protocol and they will get wildly different results.

Fat:

When it comes to gaining and losing fat - somatotypes aren’t very indicative of anything worthwhile…

But phenotypes are. 

For all of us (regardless of our phenotype or somatotype) when we eat more calories - like going from maintenance to a surplus - our body burns more calories, too.

Then when we eat less calories - like going from maintenance to a deficit - we burn less calories.

Thrifty phenotype:

People who have a “thrifty” metabolism will tend to see only a small increase in the amount of energy they burn when placed into a surplus, and will see a large decrease in calories burnt when placed into a deficit. 

This makes it both easier to gain weight AND harder to lose weight.

Spendthrift phenotype:

Those with a “spendthrift” metabolism, will tend to ramp up their calorie burn as they eat more, and their energy expended stays relatively high even in a cutting phase. 

This makes it pretty easy to lose weight, and hard for these people to gain weight.

This phenomenon is well documented in research.

So it’s all a matter of genetics, right?

Not quite…

Another well documented phenomenon is the placebo effect.

In this study 223 participants were told they had either good genetics or bad genetics from the perspective of hunger, satiety and obesity risk.

The important part is - the researchers did this RANDOMLY so some people with good genetics were told they had bad genetics and vice versa.

When tested, the participants who were told they had BAD genetics for hunger, reported feeling hungrier after a meal, than those who were told they had GOOD genetics.

Yet, the meal was the same size?!

This shows you: Your perception can affect your reality.

So what do we about all of this?

Pretty much nothing.

Whether you’ve got a thrifty or spendthrift metabolism you’re only going to know how many calories you need to gain or lose weight at the rate you want by tracking them.

Sure, someone with a spendthrift metabolism might have an easier time losing weight than their thrifty counterparts…

And those with better muscle building genetics will have an easier time packing on slabs of tissue.

But at the end of the day it’s still just calories and progressive overload.

Some of us need more or less calories.

Some of us need more or less time in the gym to reach their genetic muscular potential. 

Even if you’ve got a ‘slow’ metabolism and ‘bad’ muscle building genetics you can still improve, it’s just going to take a little longer.

So use this information to make sure you’re not comparing your own progress to others.

But don’t use it as a cop out for not achieving the body transformation you want.

And if you need to figure out how to track your own progress so you can know whether you’re a spendthrift or a thrifty, an easy gainer or a hard gainer… 

You need our Progress Tracking Made Simple Guide, which includes an inbuilt progress tracker to help you track your gains for an entire year.

We’re giving this away within our private community: Fat Loss Hacks For Frustrated Dieters.

Yes, it’s free!

I’ll see you in there!