Training for your body type: Endomorph

Diet

·         Diet is the most important factor for endomorphs. Endomorphs are usually sensitive to carbohydrates. They hold a lot of water and hold on to muscle glycogen stores well.

·         An endomorph is better off not attempting to carb load due to their sensitivity to carbs. An endomorph can tolerate a much lower carb intake and can go as long as seven days before depleting glycogen stores and can refill them in just one day.

·         Endomorphs respond well to high amounts of dietary fat.

·         A cycled diet is ideal, where a low carbohydrate/high protein diet is adhered to for several days and then followed by a moderate carbohydrate/low fat day.

Training

·         Endomorphs are better suited to short-term high intensity cardio of 15-25 minutes total duration, 5-6 times per week.

·         Endomorphs also respond better to multiple short sessions of hard cardio spread throughout the day. For example, 30 minutes of cardio for an endomorph would be more effective in burning fat by splitting the time into two 15 minute sessions or three 10 minute sessions, rather than one lasting 30 minutes.

 

·         They are also better off cutting rest intervals in training and doing weight training in an aerobic manner. Cutting rest intervals to 20-30 seconds will burn a significant amount of body fat.

·         It is difficult to overtrain an endomorph, so don’t worry about the short rest periods.