Whats Your Body Type

author avatar Dr. Eric Berg 08/31/2023

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When I didn't get the results I wanted, I dug into the endocrinology textbooks for answers. I found something in a book called CIBA, Vol. 4 Endocrinology. Not only did I find out about the body types, but it described all the problems associated with each type. I was amazed and this began a new system of targeting specific plans for specific types.

What about if we walk this way? We walk into the wind. That might be better.  Yeah, let’s walk this way. Wow, this is the windiest day to film, I tell you. You know, you go to a doctor, and you do all these tests, and everything comes out normal; they do a blood test and they say you’re healthy. You’re not sleeping. You’re exhausted. You have blood sugar problems. You crave everything. You can’t sleep at night. So the problem with health care right now is we look at everything as a separate thing.

They don’t look at the whole body and try to figure out—out of all the things that are wrong, what is the thing that needs to be handled and improved? Yeah, you go around with this wrong diagnosis that you’re healthy and he or she would say, “If you just lost some weight, then all these problems would go away.” That is absolutely not true. You have to get your health back in before you can lose weight. The weight is there as potential energy. It is stored energy. It’s a protective mechanism. So as a person develops more stress, one starts holding on the more energy and we call that “potential energy”.

You know, people are not really too fat. They just have a little bit too much potential energy.  All I’m trying to do is to teach you the physiology and common sense of your body.  So, there are four body types. We have adrenal, thyroid, ovary, and liver. Alright, so I want to show you a little something about these body types and you can take this body type quiz to understand what body type you are. This would be the first body type I’m going to talk about; this would be the thyroid body type. If you take a look at what’s happening, the weight is all over, not in any one location. We have hair loss. We have loose skin, right here, and right here. We have the outside of the eyebrows falling off right there.

We have thinning of the hair, dry skin, and loose skin. These body types crave bread, pasta, cereals, crackers, biscuits, waffles, pancakes, muffins, sodas, alcohol; mad dog 20, 20—all of the carbohydrate family. And they like sourdough bread. You know, it’s interesting. There’s not a lot of nutrition in sourdough bread. There’s not a lot of nutrition in any of the things that people crave and that’s why they keep craving them. So, the nutrients solve the craving, not necessarily the calories. So this particular body type will like more of starch or sweet foods.

They have cold feet, they’re sluggish, and they’re tired. Despite how many hours of sleep they get, they’re exhausted. They might even be a little bit apathetic or depressed. They can’t absorb vitamins. So vitamin absorption is very poor. This is why they’re taking all these vitamins and they don’t really see any change in their overall health. So that would be thyroid. The next body type would be the adrenal body type. Now, this one is probably the most common. This one has a sagging belly- we call it the pendulous abdomen because it’s like a pendant that hangs and sags.

They might even get a buffalo hump back here. Round face. And they think that they need to do more sit-ups, but millions of sit-ups won’t flatten that belly because it’s coming from a hormone called cortisol. What’s happening is that the hormone, which is a destructive hormone, is eating up the protein in the legs and the butt, and putting it in the stomach as fat. So if you’ve ever watched these people climb stairs, their legs or their knees are really heavy. That body type should not be exercising at all. Why? They are in stress mode. Why? It is because the adrenal gland is the stress gland. I’m just going to show you right here.

So if you have the kidney, adrenals are right on top, so they’re right in here—that’s where the adrenals are; they’re right on top of the kidney and that’s the one that pumps out the cortisol. Cortisol—that which tends to put the fat around the belly. Also, the adrenal body type will have a craving for salty foods, chocolate, and crunchy cheesy things. They’ll have more pain in the body. Why? It is because of the steroids in the body; the prednisone shots that people get for pain, are all adrenal hormones. Adrenal hormones are anti-inflammatory. That’s why you get inflammation if you don’t have enough of them.

They get sinus problems and allergies; that’s the nature of the adrenal. They can’t absorb calcium, so they get tight calves; they cramp off the calves, and tighten their shoulders. Despite hours of massage, they still get tight. The question is, where does all that calcium go? It goes on top of the joints as arthritis.  It goes on top of the bursa as bursitis, or on top of the heel as a heel spur, or underneath the fascia, as plantar fasciitis. Or fibromyalgia; pain all over. So they have old injuries that just are stiff. Their hamstrings get tight, so their flexibility goes down and their posture goes down.

So all the flexural problems of the body go along with that body type. Other than that, they do quite well actually. Now, let’s talk about the next body type. This is the ovary body type. Look where the weight is. Saddlebags, cellulite, little pooch below the belly button, right from here all the way down.  Here, it’s higher above the belly button; here, it’s lower; here it’s all over. Menstrual cycle issues, ovarian issues, hot flashes. They crave creamy things like milk products, dairy, ice cream, sour cream, cream cheese. Their body needs calcium in fact, and they’re eating all the wrong foods. They have cyclic problems which are connected to the menstrual cycle. They should avoid soy and estrogen.

So that would be the ovary body type. And then, over here, we have the liver body type. Now, take a look at the difference between that belly, and that belly, and this belly; this is lower. This is sagging. And this guy is the guy on the beach with the speedo. Potbelly. Beer-gut. Why? This is because beer destroys the liver. The liver is located right here, and sometimes it’s leaking fluid into the belly right here. So if you take a person and you actually have your hand on their belly and you tap it, you’ll feel a ripple sometimes. Not saying it’s always fluid—it can be fat. But then, you can see it’s like a protruding belly right here. The liver sometimes will refer pain to the right shoulder, right here. So sometimes, they think they have right shoulder pain but it’s actually a referral.

I had right shoulder pain for a long time. I didn’t know what it was. So the liver body type, get grouchy in the morning. They usually lose that last hour of sleep so they get up an hour before the alarm clock.  For the adrenal body type, the sleep hour continues before the alarm clock goes off, so that would be the difference between those two. These people cannot feel refreshed. They’re always tired. These people just get moody at that time of the month. Also, these people are grouchy in the morning. They might have skin issues. A lot of liver problems have skin issues. It comes out through the skin; brown spots, red dots, psoriasis, eczema, and scratching. They have digestive problems; a lot of bloating and things like that.

They crave fried foods. What happens is that the liver can’t process these fats, especially the good fats; the omega-3 fatty acids, and they’ll crave any fat like deep-fried catfish with tartar sauce. So they want that fat but it’s the worst thing to consume. Don’t put these people on a high-protein diet. It would not be good. This body type needs more protein, and this needs less, and they do very well with cruciferous vegetables. Those would be kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, those types of things.

Sometimes, their back is really stiff, right here; they have problems with arthritis. They always have this issue with little whites of the eyes, kind of yellow or dirty or bloodshot eyes. Sometimes, they have kind of musty, or bad breath, and that’s because the digestive system doesn’t work right. So that would be the characteristics of the four body types, just to give you a little bit of information of all four of those types.

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