Men, Women and Weight Loss

One of the questions on every dieter’s lips is: do men and women lose weight in the same way? If a man and woman follow the same workout and exercise routine, and follow the same diet, who will lose weight faster, and will one lose more weight than the other?

As unfair as this may seem, men do have the advantage of losing weight far quicker than women. This traces back to the days of survival, when men were required to be lean and strong to make them faster, so they could hunt down animals and provide food for their families. The women’s sole responsibility, on the other hand, was to look after the men, cook and produce babies. In order to produce healthy babies, women were designed to carry more fat.

Although times have changed as far as having women run big corporations and men sitting at home being “house husbands”, our basic genetic makeup remains the same.

Men are built up with larger proportions of muscle mass, while women have been designed with far less muscle mass. Because muscle is active, it therefore requires energy (calories) to keep it sustained. The more muscle you have the more calories you are able to burn, even at rest. So if a man eats the same “junk food” as a woman, she will probably end up storing most of those calories, while depending on his genetic makeup, he will more than likely store a lot less. The even sadder part is, if the man is active and has good muscle makeup, he’ll probably be burning those calories on the drive home from the fast food joint.

To make things even more unfair for women, men are able to burn off more fat when they exercise as apposed to women. It all goes back to the muscle composition, but also because men’s bodies were designed to be lean and masculine, and sadly women’s weren’t.

While all this “nature” mumbo jumbo may have you feeling a little down as a woman, bear in mind that despite these circumstances women are able to lose weight too. In the same token, men who have let themselves go or who have very little muscle mass and are relatively inactive will gain weight faster.

Understand and accept that it will always be easier for someone else, with a different genetic makeup, to lose weight, but following the principles of healthy eating will help you get and stay in shape, even if it may take you a little longer than your husband or boyfriend.

Author: Dimi Ingle.
Copyright 2009: Remedium. This article may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Remedium.