Hi,

How to determine if I am ectomorph or mesomorph or somewhere in between. I want to know my body types thus accordingly I can plan for my diet. Any suggestion would be high appreciated.

Attaching few shots from different angles.

Thanks,

Mithun

Hey Mithun.

From your pictures, I would say you are probably an ectomorph, but people are normally a mix of at least two body types, so you could be an ecto-endomorph if you tend to store fat easily, for example.

Anyway, the real thing you need to know for how to plan your diet is... what is your goal? Is it fat loss? muscle gain? Both? I guess you have a bit of the skinny fat going on here, so you would ideally be looking to do both?

It can be done, mostly only if you are a newbie though - how long have you been training? We probably want to get you in a small surplus I would say, but let me know about the goal/goals and how long you've been training so we can get you sorted!

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the response.

My Goals are as follows:-

1. I play table tennis some time and I enjoy that. Could not play from last one month as I was traveling but that is one thing I will love to continue. May 2-3 times Week. Mostly Sat & sun.
2. I don't have much of strength. I do struggle in lifting stuff (30-60 lbs) to my 3rd floor apartment on a day to day basis. So I want to develop strength and endurance to do these stuff easily and not hurt myself when i need to do those day to day.
3. Even I want to improve my cholesterol and sugar levels. Cholesterol are insanely high.

Component Your Value Standard Range Flag
CHOLESTEROL 248 mg/dL 0 - 199 mg/dL H
TRIGLYCERIDES 270 mg/dL 0 - 149 mg/dL H
HDL CHOLESTEROL 58 mg/dL >38 mg/dL
LDL CHOLESTEROL CALCULATED 136 mg/dL 0 - 99 mg/dL H
CHOL/HDL RATIO 4.3 0.0 - 5.0
GLUCOSE 108 mg/dL 74 - 106 mg/dL H

4. I want to develop muscle and improve my aesthetics.

As per the training goes, I tried doing it just for few days (3-4 days) few months back but did not continue. So I guess I am still a beginner.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Thanks,
Mithun

OK so you want to get stronger, gain weight, and build on your physique - great! So you'll definitely want to be in a calorie SURPLUS in order to gain muscle and stronger.

With your cholesterol, the main thing there will probably be keeping an eye on your fat intake and just making sure it's coming from good sources - mostly monounsaturated fats, you will need some saturated fat in your diet, but you want to avoid trans fats. And of course you want to limit processed sugars in your diet too.

So you need to go to the @mealplan page and use the calculator (on the left hand side of the page) there to get some starting numbers for calories and macros. You'll need to decide if you are going to be going back to training as well, because that will have an effect on how many calories you need and therefore what your macros could be to start with.

Once you've done some calculations on the @mealplan page, post the numbers you get here and we will help you make sure they are looking on track to help you meet your goals!

Pounds 159.4
5 feet 9 inch Height
33 Age

BMR at rest 1708.47
BMR in Motion 2050.16

Macro calculation
Goal Hard Muscle Gain
Body Fat percentage 25 % Calculated roughly by looking at other similar pics (Don't have any way to measure the same)
Protein 1.5 Took the mid option (1,1.5,2)
Gram of Fat .45 Took the mid option (.35,.45,.55)


Calorie Goal 2550
Protein Intake Goal 179 Grams/day
Fat Intake Goal 54 Grams/day
Carbs Intake Goal 337 Grams/day




Let me know if know if I need to change the Protein and Fat gram percentage? Currently I choose the mid option for both Protein and Fat.

As per Goal, there are two option "Hard Muscle Gain" and "Lean Muscle Gain". Just wondering what is the difference, which one I should go for? For the calculation I choose Hard Muscle Gain.

As per the question "You'll need to decide if you are going to be going back to training as well, because that will have an effect on how many calories you need and therefore what your macros could be to start with"

Yes, I want to go for the training and change my diet accordingly. Please suggest what program should I go for as a beginner.

The difference between hard muscle gain and lean muscle gain is simply the rate at which you gain weight - hard muscle gain has you in a 500 calorie surplus, so as to pack on weight faster.. lean muscle gain has you at a 250 calorie surplus, to help minimize fat gain and it will mean slower weight gain in general.

I think going for 1.5g protein is OK for now, but I think as long as you hit around 180g-200g protein daily, that will be a good target. For the fats, try taking those to about 0.6g per pound of body weight, just so you can keep the carbs a little lower. I would maybe make these small changes to your macros...

Protein: 180g (720 Calories)

Carbs: 300g (1200 Calories)

Fat: 70g (630 Calories)

Total Calories = 2550

However.. did you do these calculations based on training? What option did you select for your training.. 1-3 days light? 3-5 days moderate? As a beginner, for you I would suggest starting with the PPL program.. and therefore your training option would be 3-5 days moderate.. and that might mean you need a little more food to be in a surplus.

So just make sure you double check that too - although you can start with 2550 calories daily still, and see how it goes!

Hi Scott,

Changing the exercise to Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week. The new numbers are as below.

BMR CALCULATION
Weight :159.4 Pounds
Height :5 Feet 9 Inch
Age : 33
Exercises : Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week
Sex :Male
BMR at Rest :1708.47
BMR in Motion :2648.13
MACRO CALCULATION Goal :Hard Muscle Gain
Bodyfat % :25
Grams of Protein :1.5
Grams of Fat :0.55
Calorie Goal :3148
Protien Intake Goal :179
Fat Intake Goal : 66
Carbohydrate Intake Goal :460

Can you please tweak this one too as you did the earlier one ,also let me know how you calculated the macros?

I tried calculating the fat 0.6 g per lb for my weight. It turned out to be 95 gm rather 70 gm.
Am i missing something like Lean body weight /body weight?

Do you suggest to go low on carbs and high on fat with the fact that my cholesterol are very high?

As per the exercise is concerned, can i go for the 12-Week-Home-Program?

Thanks,

Mithun

I calculated your fat intake from your lean body weight, which is about 120lbs if you are 25% body fat. That comes out to 72g of fat. But there's no harm in taking fat higher so that you can keep your carbs low.

Going high in fat shouldn't be a problem with your cholesterol - the real problem would come from things like trans fats so as long as you focus on mostly unstaruated fats, and just some saturated fats, you should be OK.

You can definitely start with the home program, so I would keep your training the same as you have above, and aim for about 2950-3100 calories to keep the gains a bit leaner. So you might want to try macros like this...

Protein: 200g (800 Calories)

Carbs: 330g (1320 Calories)

Fat: 100g (900 Calories)

Total Macros = 3020

This would have you in a surplus of about 350-400 calories. That should be a good starting point with the home program, which will help you build some base muscle as a beginner. What do you think?