The Misconceptions on Male/Female Body Types

To be honest I have been waiting to write about this for the longest time simply because we had this discussion on this topic at the gym a while back and I believe that the input that came out of it was actually damn good. Unfortunately a few unforeseen issues came up which was kinda delaying me to write the article sooner.

In today's society, I believe that we are a generation that has been absolutely obsessed with the way we look and for the very right reason. Each of us would want to make ourselves look presentable, good and attractive. To some extent so many of us would go through so much just or whatever it takes in order to get it.

I am in no exception to this group.

For many years I have done everything I can to improve the way I look and most importantly the way that I present myself in public. As you can see from my previous post (read HERE) I did not start off well in my teenage days and I took the initiative to do something about it which required a lot of hard work.

And I was lucky to have a great support group to do so.

But what scares me today is that many out there are either unaware, uninformed or in some cases misconstrued as to their own targets of how exactly do they want to look.

And I don't blame them.

In fact, here's the biggest surprise. Misconceptions in body types happen to both male and female!

I'll explain.

Many times I have seen both ladies and men not being happy with the way they look and would take extreme measures in getting to their desired body shape.

For those that feel that they are fat would usually skip meals and suffer in hunger for it. For those who are too thin would then start taking supplements or medication without knowing how to use them properly and in the end fork out unnecessary expenses with no desired result whatsoever.

Hence why I came up with this discussion.

Misconceptions on Female Body Types

First lets get the record straight. STARVING BY SKIPPING MEALS IS NOT A WAY TO GET YOUR DESIRED BODY! 

Most of the time girls feel this way is because they start comparing themselves to others who look good or from pictures or movies that they saw which got themselves conscious about how they look. Take the girls in the above picture.

[CLICK ON TITLE TO READ MORE!]

I've spoken to them before about this during my trip to the Caribbeans and all the girls said the same thing. They got themselves to look like that not through mere starving themselves to become thin but actually watching their diet extremely carefully and working out to look like that.

Hence why 3 main mistakes is always made when it comes to the ladies on their figure.

 Firstly, many would try to put themselves in a wrong category of body type to begin with

One must understand, everyone has a different body type that they belong to and they should be targeting a reasonable target for their body goal.

[Which category do you belong to?]

As you can see above, there are so many categories of body types for women and this is the one that I found most accurate categories for this aspect, instead of your usual "are your fat or thin" definition. Each of these body type has their own attraction and personally, it also gives an extremely realistic target as how you want to look like in the end.

I believe I represent most guys out there, we DO NOT see extremely thin girls attractive in anyway...

so keep yourselves fit. not thin...

Secondly,  many seem to think that the less amount of meals you take, the faster you lose weight

Again another mistake that people make. So far I have found from my research has shown that the more you do that, the more you force your body to store fat because it is only natural for it to do so.

Think about it.

People need to realize that the only way for a person to actually reduce their weight is to burn faster than their intake. Which means you need to be doing exercises to burn AND AT THE SAME TIME fueling your body with proper food to replace what your body has lost from the workouts. I will explain more of this in the future.

 Finally, which is extremely common. Reduction in weight does not necessarily equal to a slimmer body.

 I cannot highlight this more times enough.  A lot of people make the mistake that the number you see on your scale represents the body type that you are in at the moment. Which I can guarantee you for a fact is WRONG!

 

 I am not sure why but people tend to forget two things. 1. your body weight consist of the weight of your body fat, muscle weight, bones and internal organ weight together. 2. Body muscle always weight more than fat. Always.

So in the end if your target is to lose weight at all cost, you might be reducing your muscle weight but maintaining your fat in your body the whole time. Which in so many ways is really unhealthy and most importantly, defeats the purpose.

For this, people should remember. Your target should be reducing the fat percentage, not just weight which means that you are actually reducing the right weight target and maintaining "good weight" in your body, which should be the case.

and so, we now come to the guys. Believe me its not any different for us guys.

Misconceptions on Male Body Types

[TehTarikRunners. Three very different body type each]

The best thing about this is that guys make the EXACT same mistake that the girls make on their body types as well. Only difference is that we actually make more misconceptions because of the things we read, hear and talk about this topic. Read on...

Similarly with our female counterpart, we too have different categories that we can put ourselves into (albeit a little more comical than theirs) realistically. For example, I started of being in the "extremely skinny" category and I am gunning for the "athletic" body if we use the cart above (right now I think i am in the "built fat" category). To do so, I need to understand EXACTLY the do's and don't before even attempting to workout.

Most common misconception, supplements/vitamins/gym stuff are not magic formulas to get your desired body shape.

A lot of people think that by taking these supplements they are guaranteed to work wonders to your body and get you where you want.

I do not deny the fact that I take supplements and is essential to my workout BUT I only take these to "supplement" both my workouts and my diet. As I said above, there is no "easy way out" in getting the body you want and the only way to do it is to work hard through your workouts and diet.

By taking these supplement and not doing the work at par to your intake is just going to turn them into really expensive No.1s and 2s....

another misconception, is people fail to realize that your body is built 70% in the kitchen and 30% in the gym.

I have seen so many cases that a lot of people in the gym would work out as much as possible and end the day by gorging the most greasiest and fatty foods you have ever seen, thinking its ok because they did their time in the gym.

Rule of thumb for most guys is always the same. Your output would only depend from your input

As I mentioned above, your target is to reduce the percentage of fat that makes up your body and the only way to do so is to burn faster than what you eat. At anytime that you don't do so, you will still pack is up.

Take this diagram for example

Each of these body types represent THE SAME weight but different body fat percentage and you can see the difference that you would make in your body make. As I mentioned earlier, it depends on the things you eat that makes the difference to whether the amount of workout is worth your time and effort. Not the other way around...

As you can see, one must really know what exactly do they want as their end goal for themselves and at the same time get their targets right, rather than just basing it on a picture of someone else as target. For me, I am a hard supporter of keeping people fit and healthy instead of crazy diets that would starve and harm you in some way.

Always remember one rule.

If you want it you have to work for it. If someone tells you of an easier way to do get your target body, that person is lying to their teeth.

Workout hard and workout smart guys!