BE HONEST: AT THIS VERY MOMENT, DO YOU HAVE THE BODY you want? I’m guessing the answer is no since you’ve picked up this book. Well, you’re in good company (and you definitely get props for coming clean about this). Many people discover that even after they’ve been killing it at the gym or sticking with a wholesome, balanced diet, they don’t get the results they were hoping for in terms of changing their body shape or body composition. Maybe they can’t shed the body fat or gain the muscle definition they’ve been striving for. Or maybe they don’t get the energy or stamina they want. Or maybe they don’t achieve the personal record they were working toward. This may be because while they appeared to be doing everything right, they were actually following the optimal protocol for someone else’s body, not their own. In other words, it might have been the ideal approach for their best friend or boss but not for them.
At any given hour during the day, millions of Americans are working out—running, lifting weights, or engaging in some other form of cardiovascular or resistance training. For the first time ever, in 2016 more than half of people in the United States reported that they were getting the minimum amount of exercise recommended by health experts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While that’s a major milestone, in my experience approximately 70 percent of people are exercising the wrong way for their bodies’ needs. To put it another way, for every 10 people who are exercising or working out, only about 3 of them are doing what it takes for them to achieve results efficiently.
Confused? Here’s the backstory: every single one of us has a genetic blueprint that dictates our body type (a.k.a. somatotype). Every body type has its advantages so don’t judge. But different body types do respond differently to certain dietary regimens or fitness programs. So, if you haven’t achieved the fitness or weight control results you’ve been aiming for, this may be because you weren’t providing your body with the physical challenges or the nutrients it needed to transform its appearance and physical condition. It’s not your fault since you probably didn’t have the fitness know-how or the right tools to do this. So don’t beat yourself up about what didn’t go right in the past, and stop bemoaning the build you were born with. It’s time to take a different tack.
Whether you have a naturally athletic or curvaceous build or a physique that’s slender, wiry, or willowy, there’s good news: with the right exercise modalities and the right foods, you can turn the body you have into the body you want, losing inches, dropping pounds, and developing a more sculpted look in the process. You can perform better at certain sports, gain energy and stamina, and improve your overall health along the way. The key is to work with your individual body, rather than against it, based on your natural somatotype. There are three basic body types—ectomorphs, mesomorphs, and endomorphs—that can determine how you respond to certain foods and physical activities, what your hormonal and metabolic characteristics are, and how much lean muscle and body fat you have (and where it’s located). This is something else you can partially thank your parents for: research suggests that a person’s somatotype is 56 to 68 percent inherited (for the record, the mesomorph type has the highest degree of heritability), according to researchers from York University in Canada. Few people are purebreds, though, as far as body types go; instead, most people have a mix of characteristics from different somatotypes.
Once you identify and understand what your body type is, you’ll discover how to work with it to achieve your weight and fitness goals. Adjusting your diet, your objectives, and expectations and adapting your workout approach to suit your DNA-determined reality can help you get to that prize. In other words, you can cultivate what you didn’t get automatically from your genetic makeup. There are limits, of course: eating more healthfully or training more efficiently for your body type won’t make you taller or change your bone structure—but it can change your body composition, as well as the way you feel, for the better. And that’s where this book comes in: you’ll learn how to put together a diet and exercise plan that’s designed for your natural-born body type so that you can fuel it optimally with your food choices and enhance it with the right workout approaches to achieve your goals to get fitter, stronger, sexier, and more self-assured.
Trust me on this because I’m personally and professionally familiar with the importance of working with your body, instead of against it. After winning a five-year battle against childhood leukemia (I was the bald kid in my kindergarten photo because of chemo), I became a fitness freak in my teens and developed a diet and exercise regimen that helped me become super strong and fit; before I knew it, people at the gym were begging me to train them. I thought about becoming a doctor but decided that instead of treating people who were sick, I wanted to help people avoid going down the path to disease or illness. Today, I am a highly successful global health coach and celebrity trainer based in Los Angeles and a father of three.
I have been training celebrities for more than 10 years, and I’m consistently able to give my clients results faster than they ever thought possible—even faster than other top trainers achieve with their clients. Just like our bodies aren’t mirror images of each other, our exercise and dietary regimens shouldn’t be carbon copies, either. That’s why generic weight-loss or shape-up programs often don’t work for the people who try them. To achieve success, you need to work with your natural body type and do the optimal combination of cardio, strength training, and flexibility exercises and consume the right proportion of carbohydrates, protein, and fats, also known as macronutrients, for your physique.
By the time you finish this book, you will be on your way to becoming your own personal trainer and dietitian. You’ll have put yourself in the driver’s seat, and you’ll be steering yourself toward becoming the strongest, fittest, healthiest version of you yet. The ultimate goal is not to achieve anybody else’s idea of the perfect body or stellar lifestyle; it’s to translate your own get-fit, get-healthy goals and your good intentions into effective actions that will help you feel more powerful, more comfortable, and more vibrant in your own skin. That’s a feel-good type everyone can relate to and achieve.
While fitness trends and fad diets will come and go, your body type is the one constant that’s never going to change. The message behind Just Your Type is simple but powerful—if you want to be healthy, fit, slim, and strong, focus on the physical and dietary moves that will enhance your natural-born body type. This book is based on the successful training protocol that I use with my celebrity clients, and it will give you better results in weeks than you’ve had with months of training or dieting in the past. These impressive outcomes are possible because my program will give your body the fuel and physical challenges it needs, not the ones it doesn’t. The workout that your willowy friend (an ectomorph) swears by isn’t likely to give you the results you crave if you’re strong and muscular (a mesomorph) or softer and more curvaceous (an endomorph). The right training approach and the right calories really do make all the difference. While the goal with my plan is to maximize your health and master your strength, weight loss (or body fat loss) is usually a positive side effect.
Stick with the sensible, targeted program in this book, and you’ll not only get leaner and more energized, but also you’ll emerge stronger, healthier, and looking and feeling the way you’ve been wanting to. There are no gimmicks or catches or torturous moves—I promise. This is the most effective diet and workout routine you’ll ever follow, and you’ll see results faster than you ever thought possible. Whatever body type you have, there is a diet and exercise formula that will provide you with an express ticket to a fabulous physique, improved health, and greater strength. Let’s get started and find the one that’s right for you.