Mar 15

Mar 15 Why Is It Difficult For Women To Lose Weight?

Are you a woman? Have you been working your ass off daily in the gym and yet the moment you stand on the scale you feel like kicking it hard? Welcome to the group!!!

A few months back my husband came all excited from the gym, he had lost 3kgs (6.6 pounds) in a few weeks. I was shocked!! How is that possible? I had worked out for the same time and even followed a better than diet than him still I lost only 1kg (2.2 pounds).

You must have noticed that while you workout regularly or control your diet or do both you often don't lose as much as your brother or husband does. Even though they put in half the effort you do. On moments like these, you feel like punching them in the face, no matter how much you love them.

But ladies that's the bitter truth Men do lose weight faster than women. In fact, their bodies are built in a way that makes it easier for them to lose weight.

What Science says?

A study published in The Journal of pharmacology and therapeutics was conducted on diabetes, obesity, and metabolism in 2018. The study focused on how men and women respond differently to rapid weight loss.

Low energy diet (800 calories) was given to 2200 obese individuals with pre-diabetes. The participants were from 8 different regions of Australia, New Zealand, and Europe and followed the diet for 8 weeks. The group was composed of significantly more women than men.

Men had 16% greater weight loss than women did. On average men lost 26 pounds whereas women lost only 22 pounds. Not just men lost more weight they got healthier too with lower body fat, lower risk of diabetes and lower heart rates. On the contrary, women experienced some negative effects like lower bone mineral density and lower good cholesterol.

The only positive aspect of the trial was women lost a few inches from their hips.

Another 2013 study by the scientists at the University of Missouri states that women need to exercise 20% more than men to get the same benefits of diet and exercising as men do.

The study suggests monitored the heart rate and blood pressure of 75 obese men and women with Type 2 diabetes. They all performed cardio exercises for 16 weeks. Despite all worked out at the same speed, men reaped more benefits than women. The recovery time for men improved much more than women and they also lost more weight.

The results show that to get the same amount of benefit if a man works out at 65% of his ability women need to put in 85% effort or work out longer than their counterpart.

In fact, experts say that while men can lose weight by exercising only women need to both exercise as well as maintain a good diet.

Also Read: Sleep Deprivation: How to Know You Are Sleep Deprived And What To Do?

Why Does This Happen?

One of the main reason behind this is because of the body composition of men and women.

Men inherently have more muscle mass than women, muscle burns more calories than fat which results in a faster metabolism for men. On the contrary, since women give birth their body stores more fat approximately 6% - 11% more than men making their metabolism slower than that of men. Women can have a metabolism 3% - 10% slower than men.

This is an important factor because having a faster metabolism means men are burning more fat than women even when they are resting!!

Not so fun fact: Men have a larger heart and lungs and more haemoglobin which assists them in exercising

This was just how your bodies differ there are several other mental inhibitions and behavioural issues.

The most common misconception that is widely prevalent among women is about weight training. “ I just do cardio, I avoid lifting weights because I don't want to look manly or muscular”

Ladies relax, you don't have the testosterone for it!!!! (you do but not that much) Besides, it's not that easy to gain muscles. Doing strength training thrice a week and mixing it with cardio will give you a toned body and stop making excuses. You don't need to lift 50kgs to do a deadlift, go for light or medium weights with more reps.

Getting married or living in with your partner also affects your eating habits. Once you are living together you start eating as much as your partner does. That’s why you see most women putting on weight after getting married. Going for a long distance relationship might help!!!

Emotional eating...Sitting with a tub of ice-cream, watching a movie and crying about what a jerk your Ex-boyfriend was!! Remember something???

Well, I agree he might have been a jerk but that's no excuse to gorge up on that tub full of calories.

Hormones... in the end, everything comes down to our crazy hormones. You might be sick of hearing the word but they do play an important role. Ghrelin, the hormone that makes you feel still hungry rises after working out in women and that makes you eat more after exercising. No points for guessing this does not happen in men.

Also Read: Skinny Fat: Is Getting Skinny Same As Getting Healthy?

What Can You Do About It?

I know by this time you must be discouraged but that won't help you after all this is not in your hand but there are still tons and tons of thing you can do to make losing weight easier. You might not be able to lose the same weight in the same time as men do but you can definitely catch up with them in the long run. And come on any weight loss is good right??

As I already mentioned the importance of weight training, It is one of the best ways to lose weight, especially for women.

Lifting weights temporarily raise testosterone and growth hormones in women and burn the most fat.

It's also better than you focus more on compound exercises than isolation exercises.

Compound exercises focus on various muscle groups, for example, squats that use your lower body and core whereas isolation exercise focuses on one muscle like the bicep curl.

Some common compound exercises are;-

Squats
Pushups
Pull-ups
Chest press
Bench Dips
Lunges
Shoulder Press
Skipping rope

Don't buy or keep any packaged or processed food in your home. Yes, it does help, out of sight is out of mind.

Start sleeping at least 8 hours a day, if you lose out on sleep keep record of how much you lost and compensate for it later.

Reduce your portion size but increase your frequency of meals. Eat every two to three hours.

Include as many vegetables as possible in your diet. The fibres from vegetables and fruits can do wonders to your waist.

Bottomline

I know the results are highly demotivating for all the ladies. But on the bright side, you can look a lot more toned and slim and be healthy even with a higher percentage of body fat (21%-24%) although men need to reduce it down to (14%-17%) to reach the same level of fitness. So, don't sit there blaming it on your gender, if you work consistently you will have a healthier body may be in a few more extra months.