Article is wonderful & useful But How Can one distinguish between the shape of body. Any other method id there to find out the shape I am bit confused....

With a measuring tape measure your chest (men) or breasts (women), waist (measured 1 inch above you belly button), and hips (measured at the widest spot). Keep the measuring tape firm against the skin (not too tight but not too loose either) and keep it parallel with the floor. It's best to get someone to help you take your measurements since it is difficult to do on your own.

1. Pear Shaped: You are a pear-shaped person if you have a significant difference in the measurement of your hips and chest, but not your chest and waist.

2. Apple Shaped: If your waist measurements is significantly larger compared to your hip and chest measurements, then you are apple-shaped.

3. Ruler: If there is little difference between the measurements of your chest, waist and hips, then you are ruler-shaped.

4. V-Frame: If you have chest and waist measurements that are fairly close, but have hips that are about six inches or so smaller than your chest, then you have a V-Frame body shape.

5. Hourglass: Your body is hourglass shaped, if you have chest and hip measurements that are very close to one another, but have a small waist. To be classified as a true hourglass, your waist needs to be at least 6 inches between your waist and chest and your waist and hips.

6. H-Frame: Similar to ruler shaped but with larger waist and shoulders.

This is a great article! I guess i am apple shape, but my arms are big! what kind of exercises do I do to make them smaller? I'm only 4lbs overweight, but they seem bigger then they should be! Doing weights makes them even bigger!

@gill.. hi !!!

actually strength training will only tone ur muscles up.. use the lighter weights for the same... and xcept for strength training , you can also try hand rotations .. in forward and backward movements ... 50 each for each hand .. you 'll notice a considerable difference in just a week..

Thanks Payal I will try them!

thank you for the article.i am apple shaped young lady of 27 years and its like every year I gain weight especialy on my waist and even breasts but I do go to the gym every morning for an hour.i do stomach exercise twice a week with 20 minutes per session.so i dont Know where i am goin wrong because my diet has nothing to do with junk food or sugary foods. i used to eat weetbix for break fast and supper but since studying bout my blood groupn o this morning i dont realy know what to eat for breakfast and supper. some say i should sleep on empty stomach but its not easy.help with advices on my training and diet.

hi Bonolo,
what is the intensity of the exercises....are you doing the same type of exercises since you started going to the zym...how about cardio....all this will give you an answer/clue to better weight loss.

i do run on treadmill 10 mins everyday,then cycle or spin for 15mins before going going for weights.on weights section my program is llike this :monday i do the following for my back chin ups 3 sets of 12 reps
bent over barbel row (grip) 3 sets of 12 reps
seater pullies rows 3sets of 12 reps then for biceps i do hummer curls, seated dumbel rows and barbel bicep curls standing
tuesday , thursday is cardio and stomach exercises( 30 mins each)
wednesday for legs i do walking lounges 3 sets of 10 steps, barbel squats and press,lyimg leg curl,leg extensions and hyper extensions. for shoulders shoulder press, lateral raises and upright rows.friday chest flat bench press, incline dumbell bench press, flat bench dumbel flyers, close grip bench press
triceps i do overhead rope tricep extensions, dumbell tricep extensions (lying) and tricep dips on the bench. dats what i do in 5 days a week

@Bonolo....that is great...what i would like to know is.....week after week do u follow the same said routine.....and next is if u are running on treadmill.....what speed u run or distance u cover in 10 mnts or whatever time u run....how exactly u feel when u r doing that....i mean how comfortable u feel...hv u made HIIT part of your workout...???

i walk for minute then run at speed of 10 or 11 and sumtimes run on incline at speed of 7 or 8 or interval at speed of 10...sometimes i push myself with incline at incline of 10,11. every week yes i follow the same program but was thinking of changing it next week but to change it with wat i dont no.

@Bonolo.....good u gave me some input......right now measure ur weight and other measurement of ur body.....see u were looking at what to change right....here is my input....for next 10 days stop ur workout with weights.....and when u r running on treadmill at least 3 times a week, for 20 secs run at ur max speed and slow down and repeat this at 6 to 8 times....other 3 days of the week.....at incline 1 run for more than 20 to 25 (ur comfort level....) mnts.....at 10 to 15% higher speed compare to ur regular speed.....and at least once a week look at running for longer time (whatever possible for u to do....if ur other day runs are 3 or 4 kms.....doing 8 or 10 kms....).....keep me posted ur progress......all the very best.....!!!

thank you so much.will keep u posted

terribly informative article :) i am happy to be part of this forum..

Hai, love this forum. I'm a small and slim person but I have flabby thighs. Tried doing excercises but nothing seems to work. It only makes my thighs look big.

Hi Cass,
If you want to reduce only your thighs then exercises will work but only thing is your exercises frequency will decide whether you will gain weight on thighs or will loose fat along with loosing flabby thighs. May i know how many repetition and sets you used to do for your thighs?