What are Endomorphs? ~ Fitness Models

What are Endomorphs?

Generally speaking, endomorphs are individuals that tend put on mass extremely easily. They have naturally broad shoulders, are stronger than average, and have naturally stocky appearances.

Whilst this may sound beneficial at first glance, unfortunately, endomorphs not only gain muscle mass relatively easily, but they also gain fat easier than average as well.

✓ Gain excess fat

Whilst most people would kill to be able to gain muscle mass like an endomorph, endomorphs do struggle with body fat accumulations, particularly around their midsections.

✓ Naturally wide waists

– And obliques – and often struggle to get their waists narrower, even when they drop down into single digit body fat percentages.

The good news however, is that, although it is tough for an endo to build muscle, whilst burning body fat, it is still very possible, they just need a little help along the way.

Endomorph Diet Tips

As you are no doubt already well aware, whether you have the genetics of a Greek God or not, bodybuilding, and building muscle mass in general, is reliant very much on diet and nutrition. We’ll be taking a look at a few endomorph training tips shortly, but before we do, let’s begin by taking a look at diet and nutrition as we provide a few useful endomorph bulking and diet tips:

✓ Increase protein consumption

Protein is absolutely essential for the growth and repair of muscle tissue, so whether you’re trying to cut fat, build muscle, or both, your diet should still consist of plenty of protein sources. Aim for around 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight, and make sure you consume no more than 40 – 45g of protein per meal.

Protein is also thermogenic, which means that the body has to work harder to metabolize it and break it down. This means that you will burn more calories just by digesting it.

✓ Count your calories

As an endomorph, you will be looking to build muscle, whilst being extremely wary of gaining too much body fat in the process. You ideally want to be aiming for 10 calories for every pound that you weight, so if you weigh 200 pounds, you should be consuming around 2000 calories per day.

Track your macros, make sure you’re getting enough protein, limit your fats to healthy dietary sources only, and aim to reduce carbohydrate consumption as that will help you to shed those stubborn pounds of fat.

✓ Don’t go low-fat

As mentioned, you should ensure you are getting enough healthy dietary fats from the right sources, and although it can be tempting to go low fat when trying to burn fat, as an endomorph, this is one of the worst things you can do.

Dropping calorie intakes from fat to less than 25% will actually hinder your weight loss as you won’t be getting enough dietary fat to support muscle-building and fat-burning hormone production.

Stick with healthy fats such as oily fish, whole organic eggs, nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut oil, and natural nut butters, and you’ll be fine.

✓ Sacrifice a little size

Whether you like it or not, in order to lose fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit, and unfortunately a calorie deficit will also result in a partial loss of muscle mass as well.

For best results, only drop into a deficit of around 150 – 200 calories per day, as that should ensure that adequate amounts of body fat are targeted, without the body feeling the need to tap into your muscle stores.

Endomorph Training Tips

Now that we’ve gotten the diet and nutritional basics out of the way, let’s look at a few endomorph training basics to help you pack on the muscle mass and burn that stubborn body fat:

✓ Keep in the 8 – 15 rep range

For hypertrophy in general, the 8 – 15 rep range has been found to be optimal for people of all shapes and sizes, but for endomorphs, this is especially beneficial. When you increase muscle mass, your body becomes more metabolically active, which basically means that your metabolism steps up a gear and you burn off more calories, even in a rested state. Not only that, but by leaning into the higher rep ranges of, say, 10 reps or above, not only will you build muscle, but you will also burn fat as your heart rate will increase.

✓ Try HIIT cardio

If you’re looking to really burn body fat whilst retaining, and possibly even building, lean muscle mass, cardio is so important. As endomorphs struggle with body fat, especially around the midsection, HIIT cardio is ideal.

With HIIT, as the workout lasts for roughly 20 – 25 minutes, the body has enough energy so that it doesn’t need to tap into your muscle supplies towards the end of the workout. HIIT is a great way of targeting stubborn belly fat, without sacrificing muscle mass.

✓ Increase training frequencies

As an endomorph you will recover from workouts more effectively than ectomorphs, so if you feel like adding an extra training session or two per week, your body should be able to take it.

More training will mean more muscle fibres being targeted, but on top of that, more training means more calories being obliterated.

✓ More sets per body part

Generally, most bodybuilders and individuals looking to increase their muscle mass, will perform 4 – 5 working sets per muscle group.

As an endomorph however, increasing this to 8 working sets per muscle group, will result in greater hypertrophy, along with more calories being burnt off.