Why Men Lose Weight Faster Than Women…

2-18pm

Cynthia Sass writing for Shape.com sheds some light on why women don’t lose weight as quickly as men do. Firstly, men, who generally have more muscle mass than women burn 20% more calories than their female counterpart by doing nothing!

Another interesting point from her article was research done on how men and women’s brains differ when faced with their favourite foods. 13 women and 10 men fasted for 20 hours. They then had brain scans done while looking at their top most enticing foods such as lasagne, brownies, pizza, ice cream and fried chicken. They could look but not eat. According to the report, it turns out that after looking, the women’s brains still acted as if they were hungry, while the men’s did not. Although scientists don’t know why exactly, they did surmise that it could be because the female brain is designed to eat food when available because they need nutrition to support pregnancy. It’s also possible that female hormones react differently with that part of their brain that triggers or suppresses hunger.
(Source: http://www.shape.com/latest-news-trends/why-men-lose-weight-faster)

Dr. Phil puts it down to men’s muscle mass being the reason why men lose weight faster than women.

Men are generally bigger than women and require more calories to sustain their energy levels. So it becomes a bit of a numbers game. If a guy normally consumes 2500 calories per day and he wants to shed some weight, he can reduce his calorie intake by 1000 calories and successfully shed a kilo a week. If a girl normally consumes 1600 calories a day and she wants to lose weight, safely she can only really cut her calories to 1200 calories a day. Reducing her intake by 400 calories will definitely reduce weight but not nearly at the speed of the guy.
(Source: http://www.discovergoodnutrition.com/2012/07/womensweightloss/)

This is a quote from http://keysnews.com/node/41975
“Women tend to have more of the hormone estrogen, which makes it easier to store fat. Fat is critical for childbirth, so women’s bodies use that extra estrogen to hang onto fat more stubbornly than men. The differences are significant. A woman is considered an athlete if she has a body-fat range from 13 to 20 percent. A male athlete’s body-fat range is a much lower 5 to 13 percent. Since women are more likely to be overweight than men, researchers decided to see if there was a difference in the speed of their metabolism. They took 114 men and 121 women and measured how many calories they burned over 24 hours. Then they adjusted the figures to account for such things as body weight, body composition, exercise and even the effects of the menstrual cycle. The results were stunning. After “adjusting for differences in body composition, age, and activity,” the researchers found that women burn approximately 5 to 10 percent fewer calories than equivalent men. A 5-percent difference means that if a man and a woman of the same weight and body composition both ate 2,000 calories a day for a month, the woman would hold onto nearly 1 pound more than the man. And that’s just in one month!”

Of the articles I read, everyone seemed to conclude that if women wanted to up their weight loss, adding weight lifting exercises to their exercise regime is a large part of the solution. Even though muscle is heavier than fat, and you may find yourself initially gaining a little muscle weight, ultimately, the muscle you gain will ensure you burn more calories.

When I look at the difference in eating patterns between Mike & I, the one thing I notice immediately is that Mike stops when he is full. He doesn’t snack on, like I may be inclined to do, even though I am full.  I need to control my hunger, listen to my stomach and when I’m satisfied, stop eating! Women also seem to be emotional eaters or  ‘comfort’ eaters, which is also an easy way to not lose weight. Once you’ve got that under control, weight loss comes easier.

Keep on keeping on!

 1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

God bless you loads!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂