Any body shape can be healthy. It's when you're living with overweight or obesity that your natural shape can become a health risk. Eating well and exercising regularly are key to keeping your weight in a healthy range and keeping your body strong.
Body Shapes with the Highest Risk of Health Problems
Apple and pear body shapes tend to have the highest risk. Apples tend to be at greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, and strokes because they hold a larger amount of tummy fat.
There's no avoiding the fact that mesomorphs have things a bit easier than others. Their metabolisms are relatively efficient, they carry functional – if not athletic – muscle mass and are essentially ready to take on whatever fitness goal they please with minimal foundational work.
Apple Shape
Abdominal obesity is probably the most dangerous of all, and apple body shape is considered at the highest risk for health issues compared to the other body types. Larger waists can mean higher risk of heart disease. It can also mean higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Overall, men believed a more mesomorph (a more muscular) body shape to be more attractive to others; while women believed a more ectomorph (thin) body shape to be more attractive to others.
Pear Shape
It's more common among women, and it may be part of the reason they often live longer than men. That could be because belly fat, more common in men, is linked to more health problems than lower-body fat. One study found that in some cases fat in the hips and thighs was linked to lower odds for some diseases.
The ectomorph is not naturally powerful and will have to work hard for every ounce of muscle and every bit of strength he or she can gain. The extreme ectomorph may have long fingers, toes and neck are long. A pencil neck you could say.
Mesomorphs are more prone to weight gain even though they tend to have low body fat levels. They tend to gain or lose weight easily. Since overindulging is easier than counting calories, mesomorphs may gain weight before they realize it.
Hourglass figures are often considered the "ideal" female body shape, with a balanced upper body and lower body and a narrow waist. If your bust and hips are nearly equal in size and you have a noticeable waist, you likely have an hourglass shape. Your goal is to highlight your curves without overwhelming your frame.
Hourglass is the rarest body type, with only estimated 8% of women having this figure. Here's the thing: hourglass bodies are versatile. The stereotypical hourglass is too narrow of a depiction that often fails to capture the true beauty and diversity of this shape.
Before the menopause, women store fat mainly in the subcutaneous fat stores (buttocks and thighs), while men are more prone to develop visceral (abdominal) fat. After the menopause, women also become more prone to storing fat in the abdomen.
Hourglass body shape
This body type creates a naturally curvy silhouette, resembling the shape of an hourglass. The shoulders are often slightly rounded, and the legs are proportionate to the upper body. And with these features, dressing for this body type is a task that can be done in sleep.
Endomorphs have narrow shoulders and fat deposits in the lower abdomen, hips, and thighs. This distribution of body weight and fat makes it challenging to reduce weight and needs precise training methods.
A mesomorph has a large bone structure, large muscles and a naturally athletic physique. Mesomorphs are the best body type for bodybuilding. They find it quite easy to gain and lose weight. They are naturally strong which is the perfect platform for building muscle.
Despite this, there are many different body shapes, with an hourglass shape being one of the least common, but the most desired. Typically, designer clothes may fit a woman in size but not flatter her as they were made for a model's neat hourglass body shape.
An ectomorph can be defined as the body type of a person that doesn't gain weight regardless of the diet they have.
Endomorph body types represent people who are generally unhealthy. Yes, those with an endomorph body type by definition have higher levels of body fat, but that body fat can be lost through proper diet and exercise.
“Research has shown us repeatedly that belly fat is the most worrisome kind, so an apple shape can be a reason for concern in people with overweight and obesity,” Dr. Borukh says. That's because people with apple shapes are more likely to be storing unhealthy amounts of visceral fat.
The stereotypically attractive female body shape is an hourglass figure, which includes wide hips, a narrow waist, and broad shoulders. If you think about it, if broad shoulders weren't feminine, we'd call the stereotypical female shape an Erlenmeyer flask figure, not an hourglass figure.
The mesomorphic body type is considered to be the most athletic of the three somatotypes. In addition, mesomorphs tend to show stable blood pressure values across different weight ranges. Moreover, physical activity is often associated with significant increases in muscle mass.
The study, published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, showed that life expectancy for obese men and women was 4.2 and 3.5 years shorter respectively than people in the entire healthy BMI weight range. The difference for underweight men and women was 4.3 (men) and 4.5 (women) years.
Mesomorphs are more likely to have this “fast” gene than other body types, which may explain why sprinters tend to fall into the mesomorphic body type. Elite marathon runners tend to be ectomorphs while elite sumo wrestlers are usually more endomorphic.