Pear Shape Body: Specific Health Risks, Weight Loss Diet & Workouts for Your Pear Shaped Body Type
Do you have a pear shape body?
You may be surprised, but the warm and nourishing pear shaped women are most appealing to the opposite sex... Curvy, with a small waist and distinct hips, buttocks and thighs, a pear shape body is perfectly designed for pregnancy and childbirth.
In fact, the famous, always revered hourglass body shape is nothing but a variation of a pear shaped body type.
The pear body shape is characterized by a smaller upper body and breasts, a heavier lower body and a 0.8 or lower waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).
Don't know how to figure out your waist-to-hip-ratio? Here's how to do it:
1. first, measure your waist one inch above your navel
2. second, measure your hip, around the widest part of your body
Then, divide your waist number by your hip number - if the result is 0.8 or lower, you have a pear shape body.
If you have a pear body shape (known as gynoid body type in medical language), your body chemistry is dominated by higher levels of estrogen - the feminine hormone.
As a result, your metabolic rate is lower and any excess fat is stored directly under the skin (subcutaneous fat).
I know.
To your great frustration, this means that it's very obvious, mostly in and around your buttocks, hips, and thighs.
Before looking at the pear body shape weight loss strategy, let's see for a moment the...
Pear Shape Body Health Risks
You'll be surprised to find out that although the health risks of a pear shaped body type are serious, they are far from the gravity of an apple shaped body health issues).
eating disorders triggered by low self-esteem due to a poor body image - mainly because of the highly advertised "rail-thin" ideal (fortunately, not longer promoted, thanks to many brave models).
As you can see, nothing life-threatening.
But...
...Keep in mind that if after menopause you are significantly overweight (20 pounds or more), you are very likely to develop the same health problems as women with an apple shaped body, due to the loss of estrogen hormone in your body.
Pear Shape Body Weight Loss Diet
More lax than the apple shaped body type diet, your individualized diet focuses on preventing the most serious pear shape health risks - i.e., osteoporosis, and on helping you lose fat from the stubborn areas along with reducing cellulite, both of which require a low fat diet.
Here are the basic nutritional guidelines for the pear shape body:
Favor complex carbohydrates (whole grains, dark breads, brown rice, quinoa, all veggies, legumes and fruits) AND high quality proteins (soy foods, tuna, trout, skinless chicken/turkey breast, very lean beef, fat-free yogurt and cottage cheese, whey protein powder, eggs)
Include only a minimum of the healthy fats: flaxseed oil for salads and low-fat dressings, nuts (not more than a handful daily), salmon (great source of omega-3 for weight loss) and cook with coconut oil, which boosts your typically low metabolism
Stay away from refined carbs and ALL animal fat (including fatty meats like salmon and beef, butter, cream, full-fat milk, yogurt & cheese, sour cream), fatty foods, mayonnaise, and anything deep fried; also avoid salty foods (deli meats, pickles, dressings, gravies) and table salt - use powdered kelp instead as a much healthier choice.
In a nutshell, the ideal nutrition for a pear shape body type is 45% complex carbs, 45% lean proteins and 10% "good fats".
Always remember that with a pear body shape, you are at a higher risk of osteoporosis, so consider taking extra calcium.
Supplement your diet with minimum 1,500mg of calcium (500 mg three times a day, as your body can't absorb more than 500 at one time).
Important: You should know that when taking calcium you must avoid adding fiber supplements to your diet, as they interfere with calcium absorption in your body and you need all the calcium you can get.
Try to eat as many of the bone-strengthening, calcium-rich foods as you can - some of the top calcium-rich foods are...
Top calcium-rich fruits are oranges, apples, pears - no pun intended :-)
Of course, the pear shape body type diet includes fat-free dairy (a great source of calcium is fat-free dry milk - add it to your smoothies, yogurt and dressings for a smooth texture).
Pear Shape Body Workouts...
...should include both strength training AND aerobic exercising:
do moderate strength training 3-4 times a week to keep your bones healthy, increase your metabolic rate, tone up your muscles and shape up your body
do 30 minutes of aerobics 3 times a week at low to medium intensity, preferably early in the morning to boost your lower-than-normal metabolism. To protect yourself from osteoporosis, favor workouts that put more pressure on your bones, like walking, rope jumping, dancing vs. swimming, biking, rebounding.
It's best to do strength training and aerobics in alternate days. However, if you do them together, do the aerobics immediately after the strength training - you'll be very pleasantly surprised by the results!
If you rather enjoy the more balanced, whole body workouts, the most beneficial for your pear shaped body type are the 5 tibetan rites, power yoga and the fat-burning, bone-strengthening calisthenics routine body weight workouts.
The bottom line is this.
Let go of the "rail-thin" body shape ideal idiotically imposed by the media. Let go of your self-consciousness of having a pear shaped body. Not only are you much more protected against serious health risks, but your feminine, curvaceous body is more attractive to the opposite sex too - just ask any intelligent man ;)
Finally, you should know that losing weight will make you a smaller pear, but will never change your pear shape body into an apple shaped body.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting together such a wonderful site! Eye-opening info on the different body types... it really helped me understand how to adjust my meals to lose weight without craving sweets and being hungry all day... or crushing after lunch. I've already lost 12 pounds in the last three weeks and I'm thrilled!! Never ever thought it would be so easy!"
