In the age of information, many of the principles of health and fitness have become all but common knowledge. Nevertheless, there still is a very clear divide between those people who become successful at losing weight and/or staying fit and those who do not.
Why is that? And what can you do to improve your chances of being in the successful minority as opposed to the unsuccessful majority? When it comes to the world of weight loss and being fit, there are generally two areas that help to determine what you can expect for your efforts.
- Genetic Factors
- Psychological Factors
Most of the information out there is geared around the Genetic factors and how to compensate for any natural shortcomings with a certain amount of physical activity and dieting. One of the most popular topics along the lines of genetics is that of Body Type.
Anatomical body type is generally broken down into 3 basic groups: Ectomorphic, Mesomorphic, and Endomorphic.
Ectomorphic types are characterized as people with thin, up and down body frames who have the easiest time keeping their weight under control. Basketball players and runway models will often fit into this category.
Mesomorphic body types are characterized as people with athletic frames and generally muscular, well-proportioned bodies. Bodybuilders and dancers will often fit in here.
Endomorphic body types tend to be generally round figures and will often have the most trouble in keeping unwanted weight off of their bodies.
Most of us are combinations of two or more of these types with one being more dominant than the others.
One important note about these anatomical types is that while they may give some insight to how you look on the outside, they can deceive us as to how healthy you are internally. Many people who may be “thin” are literally decaying inside due to bad habits (poor diet, smoking, lack of exercise).
By contrast, there are many people who are not stereotypically thin, but are pictures of healthy due to healthy lifestyles (proper nutrition, physical activity).
The general role of knowing your body type is to get an explanation of how your body will tend to respond to your diet and lifestyle in terms of how easy or challenging it may be for you to “hold it together” in certain areas. Another way of classifying your body is by which of your hormone-producing glands dominates the way you process nutrients in the food you eat.
These Glandular (“metabolic”) types will fall into one of 4 categories: Adrenal, Thyroidal, Pituitary, or Gonadal. The explanation of each is very similar to that of the anatomical body types above. The adrenal type tends to correspond with the mesomorphic anatomical type. The thyroidal is similar to the ectomorphic, and the pituitary to the endomorphic.
The gonadal type is a women-only classification that is a hybrid of being slender on the top but somewhat larger below the waist with a greater amount of body fat. The gonadal body type among women is more commonly referred to as being “pear shaped”.
This brings me to a major point of clarity in this article:
As valuable as all of the body type information may be to learning your body, it is not the “end all” that it is often marketed to be.
You are neither “guaranteed” to look and feel great nor “doomed” to be overweight and unhealthy simply based on your genetics and body classification. Body types should only be used to give you insight on what advantages or challenges that you may have in your quest for life-long fitness—not a life or death sentence that limits what you can achieve.
In reality, the Psychological factors related to how you look and feel are really where the rubber meets the road in weight loss and staying healthy and fit.
It is here that you will find the tools to overcome whatever physical challenges that you are faced with. Therefore, it is here where you absolutely focus the MAJORITY of your energy if you are become and stay successful with your health and fitness goals. One thing that many people do not consider is how the knowledge of their “body type” and what that means affects their psychological outlook in the first place.
Many “fit” people who look great because they eat right and exercise do so because they already believe that they’ve “got something” that is valuable and maintained. Therefore, their healthy lifestyle is just a matter of course. The importance of the effect that your outlook on your results cannot be ignored. To put it plainly, your outLOOK directly affects your outPUT.
If you don’t happen to be one of those people who seem to “naturally” have it together when it comes to your body (or you have been before but have since lost the “magic”), then what you will need to do is simply tap into the strength of your own psyche to push you toward success. Tune in next week to learn 5 keys to keep you going.