IT’S IN YOUR GENES

The idea that human body types are genetically pre-set is nothing new. Plato mentioned it in The Republic (380BC), and 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche referred to the idea in The Antichrist years before the American psychologist William Sheldon popularised three broad ‘categories’ of body in the 1940s. Since then, it has become widely recognised that most people have a body type that marks them as either an endomorph (big with high body fat), an ectomorph (lean) or a mesomorph (muscular). Over the past decade, science has discovered more about the genetics behind it all – and what you can do about it. Read on to discover how you can get results, whatever your genes.

ENDOMORPH

ARE YOU THE TYPE?

If you have trouble shifting weight, the chances are you’re an endomorph,