So here's my understanding of these three terms as of now:

ecto: fast metabolism. Loses fat easily but puts on muscle slowly

meso: Medium speed metabolism. Looses weight somewhat easily, and is average at putting on muscle

endo: Slow metabolism, puts on fat quick but gains muscle easily


OK so my question is this: What would you call somebody who gains fat easily but also has a very hard time gaining muscle? Or somebody who has a super fast metabolism and also responds very well to weight training (IE:puts on muscle very quickly). Wouldn't that last one make you an "ecto-endo" sort of?

So here's my understanding of these three terms as of now:

ecto: fast metabolism. Loses fat easily but puts on muscle slowly

meso: Medium speed metabolism. Looses weight somewhat easily, and is average at putting on muscle

endo: Slow metabolism, puts on fat quick but gains muscle easily


OK so my question is this: What would you call somebody who gains fat easily but also has a very hard time gaining muscle? Or somebody who has a super fast metabolism and also responds very well to weight training (IE:puts on muscle very quickly). Wouldn't that last one make you an "ecto-endo" sort of?


i think meso is not the medium but more like the best of both worlds type of thing. the meso drops fat easily... fast metabolism... and gains muslce easily... its the body type thats closer to perfection as i understand it.

someone who gains fat easily but also has a very hard time gaining muscle? hmmm... a hard gainer?? i guess... not sure... good one.

someone who has a super fast metabolism and also responds very well to wieght training.. puts on muscle quickly... thats a meso.... i believe.... generally speaking.

As I understand it....Ectomorph:- thinner build, fast metabolism, hardgainer, "skinny", usually lighter boned. Mesomorph:- Neither skinny nor fat, bigger bones than Ecto, metabolism not as fast as Ecto, has atypical frame structure of symmetry, puts on muscle easier than Ecto, ratio of normal muscle to bodymass better than Ecto. Endomorph:- Usually "fatter" than Ecto or Meso, slow metabolism, harder time dropping weight, tend to have "pudgy" look, not as symmetrical as Ecto or Meso in many cases in terms of frame composition, tend to be short-boned, however with right training Endos can yield formidable results.

I'd say someone who gains fat easily but has a hard time putting on muscle is probably suffering from a slow metabolism, doesn't eat healthy, and doesn't have a lot of lean/muscle mass. The best example I can think of would be a skinny guy who eats two fast food meals a day and is in the transition phase to skinny-fat guy. This describes a lot of guys in college and in their early-mid twenties.

I'd say someone who gains fat easily but has a hard time putting on muscle is probably suffering from a slow metabolism, doesn't eat healthy, and doesn't have a lot of lean/muscle mass. The best example I can think of would be a skinny guy who eats two fast food meals a day and is in the transition phase to skinny-fat guy. This describes a lot of guys in college and in their early-mid twenties.

can you cite a pic illustrating this body type?

All three of the guys on the right look like prime contenders. Not the stacked guy to the left. Myself as well, before I got on the wagon, would have fit that description perfectly. Basically I'm talking about the being skinny all throughout your youth, and then stumbling into the fatal combination of the relative poverty/reduction in intake of the college years/twenties with an already slowing metabolism. Toss some legal-age drinking and no mommies and daddies around to make sure you eat your greens, and you've got a classic example of the skinny-yet-paunchy guy who can't gain an ounce of muscle.

I honestly think these monikers are mostly useless. I, for instance, can put on fat VERY easily and I can also lose it pretty darn easily, but muscle gain has always been hard for me. So what am I? I dunno, and I don't really care. There's no program you can fit simply by determining whether you're ecto or endo or meso. It's not like when your were conceived the egg and sperm had a talk and then decided "Ok, let's make this kid a meso". It's a sliding scale and exceedingly difficult to qualify. Granted, there are some "classic" mesomoprhs; there are people who have always been lean and always will be and others who don't tend towards that much fat gain (probably more diet than anything, or simply their appetite) but can do a set of biceps a month and have 18" arms.

Then you've got other cases whereby maybe you can gain easily muscle in one area but not in another. Me, for instance, I have about 2 nanometer calves. They simply don't grow. My arms aren't very good either, but my pecs have never been a problem and I have very well built lats, proportionally. How much of that is training I don't know, but definitely some is genetics.

I gain fat and muscle easily and i lose fat easily :lol: Figure that out lol