Pear Shape Body Diet & Workout Tips to Get the Pounds Off and Reduce the Health Risks of Your Female Body Shape

Do you have a Pear shape body? You may be surprised, but the warm and nourishing Pear shaped body women are very appealing to the opposite sex – at least subconsciously. Understandable. Why?

Because this curvy female body shape with a small waist and distinct hips, buttocks and thighs is perfectly designed for pregnancy and childbirth. In fact, the famous, always revered hourglass body shape is nothing but a variation of this Pear body type.

Your Pear body shape is defined by a small upper body and breasts, heavier lower body and a 0.8 or lower WHR (waist-to-hip ratio).

Not sure how to figure out your waist-to-hip-ratio? Here’s a simple way.

Stand up straight and don’t suck your gut in, then:

1. measure your waist one inch above your navel

2. 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.

Otherwise (with a WHR lower than 0.8), you have an Apple shaped body – find out your health risks and the matching weight loss diet and exercising plan.

But let’s get back to your Pear body shape.

You should know that having a Pear shaped body (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 (subcutaneously), mostly in and around your hips and thighs – to your great frustration.

Yes, I know.

Before looking at the weight loss strategy for a Pear shaped body, let’s see the…

Pear Shape Body Type Health Risks

Here’s the good news about your Pear body type. The typical health risks are far from those of Apple shaped body type women.

If you are familiar with Dr. Savard’s Apples and Pears – The Body Shape Solution for Weight Loss and Wellness, you already know that the health problems associated with your female body shape are mainly related to:

• osteoporosis
  
• cellulite
  
• varicose veins
  
• menopausal hot flashes
  
• eating disorders triggered by a poor body image caused by an “ideal” rail-thin, de-feminized body shape stupidly-advertised in the West for a long time (fortunately, not longer promoted, thanks to many brave models).

As you can see, while not to be ignored, these aren’t 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.

That’s why, with your specific female body shape you must be careful to not go too much over your optimal body weight.

Here are three helpful eating tips for your…

Pear Shape Body Diet

A bit more lax than the Apple shaped body diet, your individualized diet focuses on preventing the most serious health risks of a Pear shaped body and on helping you lose fat from the stubborn areas, along with reducing cellulite – weight loss goals requiring a low fat diet.

Here are three tips for your Pear shape body diet:

1. Eat minimum fat (stick only to the healthy fats): flaxseed oil for salads and low-fat dressings, nuts (not more than a handful daily), salmon, mackerel (both great sources of omega-3 for weight loss) and cook with a little coconut oil, which boosts your typically low metabolism.

2. Avoid refined carbs and ALL animal fat (fatty meats, butter, cream, full-fat milk, yogurt & cheese, sour cream), fatty or deep fried foods, mayonnaise, and stay away from salty foods (deli meats, pickles, full-fat dressings and gravies) and regular table salt; use healthier salt, like Himalayan pink crystal salt or Celtic sea salt – you’ll find these at your local natural health store.

3. Favor complex carbohydrates (whole grains, dark breads, wild/brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, oats/oatmeal, all veggies, legumes and fruits) AND high quality proteins (free-range eggs, skinless chicken/turkey breast, lean beef/lamb, fish, seafood, fat-free milk, yogurt and cottage cheese, whey protein powder).

Always remember that…

…with a Pear shape body type, you are at a higher risk of osteoporosis, so try to eat as many of the bone-strengthening, calcium-rich foods as you can.

Some of the best calcium-rich foods are:

– seaweed (wakame, kombu, nori);

– broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts;

– leafy greens (collard greens, kale, arugula, spinach, bok choy, chard);

– turnips, garlic, okra, celery, potatoes;

– tomatoes;

– calcium-rich fruits (oranges, apples, pears – no pun intended :-))

Of course, your Pear shape body diet should include lots of calcium-rich dairy (preferably low-fat).

A great source of calcium is low-fat dry milk, which you can add to your smoothies and dressings for a smoother, delicious texture.

You may also consider taking extra calcium: 1,500 mg daily (500 mg three times a day, as the body can’t absorb more than 500 at one time).

Important: When you take calcium supplements DO NOT add fiber supplements to your diet, as they interfere with calcium’s absorption in your body – and you need all the calcium you can get.

In a nutshell, the ideal Pear shape body diet is:

• 45% complex carbs
• 45% lean proteins
• 10% healthy fats (flaxseed oil for salads/dressings and coconut oil for cooking)
• a diet rich in calcium, plus extra supplementation.

Pear Shape Body Type Workouts…

…include both strength training AND aerobic exercising, just like Belinda Benn’s Get Lean Program recommends:

• do moderate strength training 3 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 medium intensity, preferably early in the morning to boost your metabolism.
  To protect yourself from osteoporosis, favor workouts that put more pressure on your bones, like walking, rope jumping, dancing vs. swimming, biking or 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 followed by a fat-burning, bone-strengthening calisthenics routine (bodyweight workouts).

Here’s the bottom line for your female body shape.

Let go of the “rail-thin” body shape ideal insanely imposed by the media. Let go of your self-consciousness of having a Pear shaped body – not only are you better protected against serious health risks, but your feminine, curvaceous body is more attractive to the opposite sex – 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 type into an Apple shaped body.