My nutritionists advice for an endomorph - what you eat

From my blog:

So we know that I'm approaching my year on MFP and that I've been stuck for six months going on seven months now. So what have I learned?

Losing weight and getting in shape comes down to diet & exercise. For some people, that is more than enough.

If you are an ectomorph, you will find gaining weight a chore and hard. I have a couple friends who can literally tear through 6000 calories a day and still say very lean and they dont' have a regular workout routine.

Then there are the mesomorphs, which is what everyone wishes they could be. These are the people that can get fat, but when they start working out it takes little time at all for them to get well defined and look awesome.

Then there's the least desireable body type, the endomorph, which is the perpetually fat person. These people have to work very hard to keep the weight and body fat off. As it so happens this was the card I drew when I came screaming into this world and much of my family shares this genetic trait.

An endomorph can look good but will typically never have the extreme definition that their mesomorph counterparts can achieve. An endomorph that is in good shape will often be called barrel chested, bear-like, and can possess great strength, but will typically always have a larger amount of body fat.

The first thing to understand is how to deal wtih the body type and how to work it properly to come down in weight and body fat.

The standard "calories in / calories out" only gets you so far. To truly get into the best shape, one must look at what calories they are putting in. This is where I've been stuck.

See... I have a sweet tooth. I'm also insulin resistant, which is a trait shared by many endomorphs. What this means is that I will want sugar, and I will want to spike my insulin and once that happens, the insulin will store everything as fat. As such, I need to avoid insulin spiking foods as much as possible.

Even 0 calorie diet sodas will spike insulin. That means I can still gain body fat even though I'm not getting calories from the soda because the insulin levels in my body will still be elevated and anything i take in will be stored as fat. It can also contribute to diabetes, again... even though I'm not taking in any calories.

This is obviously very bad.

So my working out like I do is great but it is being sabotaged by my little cheating here and there. Cheat days need to be lessened to one every two weeks, not one a week. That kills me but ... I have a choice to make now. Stay fat or sacrifice the IHOP on Saturdays.

Here's an example menu:

Meal 1 - two eggs and two pieces of plain wheat toast
Meal 2 - Protein Shake
Meal 3 - 3/4 cup brown rice, 4 oz chicken
Meal 4 - Turkey Breast
Meal 5 - Stir fry with chicken or low fat beef
Meal 6 - Tuna

Meal 1 - 3/4 cup oatmeal (no sugar), 4 egg omelete (egg white only) and 1 cup of skim milk
Meal 2 - six crackers
Meal 3 - two pieces of grilled chicken
Meal 4 - Pasta with whole weat and low fat beef
Meal 5 - 2/3 cup bran cereal with cup of skim milk
Meal 6 - protein shake

Words cannot describe how the above makes my stomach turn but here I am at a cross roads... 50% of my intake in a day should be protein. While I may never have visible ab muscles, I can drop my body fat down to below 20 if I stick to the above and drink plenty of water.

Even my coffee can no longer have sugar in it and ... well... I'm going to be a grumpy Chris for the next couple weeks as I detox...