If you fall into this category, take a look at the members in your family. It might just be that you inherited a predisposition to thinness. What the ectomorph needs to do is add more calories to his or her diet. The way to do this is not by eating larger meals but by eating more calories over several smaller meals. By adding an additional five hundred (500) to one thousand (1000) calories per day spread out over five (5) to seven (7) meals you give your system a chance to utilize more of the calories consumed.

Look at the foods you are currently consuming and then either add to them or look at other food sources that are more calorie dense. Add dried fruits in addition to fresh or maybe eat more nuts, good fats, and grains. As an ectomorph you can increase your fat intake upwards to around thirty (30) percent but make sure that your consuming the majority from unsaturated fat sources such as fish, natural peanut butter and vegetable oil for example.

When it comes to exercise, the ectomorph needs to limit outside activities other than weight training. In order to build muscle, almost all energies should be put toward weight training exercises using low reps (5-10) and heavy weight with compound exercises.  You will also need to rest more due to the heavy strain. Workouts should be spaced about forty-eight (48) to seventy-two (72) hours apart.

Concentrate on compound movements such as the deadlift, squats, power cleans and reverse grip lat pulldowns and incline bench presses. The idea here is to build mass by working several major muscle groups at once, allow plenty of recovery time and worry about the definition later.

Consumption of protein should be in the ballpark of 1 to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. One of the pitfalls with this body type is that the individual can become complacent by missing to many workouts or thinking that they can get away from eating a healthy diet and have an extra desert without doing any harm.

The mesomorph should strive to consistently eat a health and well rounded diet limiting fat intake to around twenty (20) percent over four (4) to six (6) meals a day.

It is important for everyone including these individuals to eat a health diet and maintain consistent training because disease and health problems play no favorites regardless of how blessed you are with genetics. The affects of poor diet and lack-a-daisy training will eventually become evident especially in later years when your metabolism begins to slow down.
 

By spacing out meals and snacks to every two (2) to three (3) hours, four (4) to six (6) times a day; you begin to speed up your metabolism. Never eat two (2) carbohydrate meals back to back as this encourages the accumulation of fat by allowing the body to be accustomed to using carbohydrate as a predominant fuel when the objective is to switch your metabolism to prefer fat. Another important factor is to eat most of your calories, especially for carbohydrates in the early part of the day and consume more protein in your meals as the day progresses.

The idea here is to avoid eating at night to reduce the amount of calories which leads to larger fat gains. A good rule to follow is to decide when you are going to go to bed and eat your last meal three or four hours from that time. The other thing to remember here is to drink lots and lots of water.

The changes your system will be going through will need a lot of water to help speed up your metabolism and remove byproducts and waste toxins efficiently. The diet should consist of foods high in fiber such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans. Eating lean proteins, avoiding dairy products as much as possible are the important factors. Allow yourself to eat foods you like but be sensible about your choices.

It is important that you are not only satisfied from eating but also that the foods you eat give you emotional satisfaction as well. By eating foods you like you give your self the chance to enjoy what you eat as well as being healthy for you without the guilt or urges to a sneak snack or overindulge on binge foods from the nearest vending machine or fast food place.

Exercise is the other important component of the endomorph's success. Start by adding your favorite aerobic activity on a regular basis such as walking or cycling. Build up to at least thirty (30) minutes per day five (5) to seven (7) days a week. Then the next phase should be to incorporate a weight training routine into your schedule two (2) to three (3) times per week with at least two (2) to four (4) days separating these workouts.