(upwave.com) -- The rumor: Men lose weight more quickly than women
Many people believe that
when it comes to weight loss, men have an advantage. Anecdotal stories
of ladies sweating and struggling to lose a pound or two compare to
tales of men cutting back on the junk, hitting the gym and watching the
weight drop off. But what's the real truth?
The verdict: Men do lose weight faster than women, at first
Men tend to have more lean muscle tissue,
which burns more calories than body fat, even during rest. And when men
and women cut the same number of calories, men usually do lose more
weight -- but it's short-term.
"Over the long-term, the playing field is more equal," says dietician David Grotto, self-proclaimed "guyatician" and author of "The Best Things You Can Eat."
"It's not a race to see who can lose weight the fastest. The important
thing is that you're both going in the same direction."
Weight-loss programs
often accentuate the difference. When sedentary men and women both start
exercise programs, men tend to lose body fat, while many women don't.
In one study out of England,
men and women were each put on commercial weight-loss programs such as
Atkins, Slim-Fast and Weight Watchers. Two months in, the men had lost
twice as much weight as the women -- and three times as much body fat.
But by six months, the rate of weight loss had evened out between the
genders.
If you're a guy, you can thank the testosterone you have -- and the extra estrogen you don't -- for your weight-loss edge. On average, women have between 6 and 11% more body fat
than men, an assumed evolutionary adaptation to help during pregnancy.
From puberty to menopause, women maintain more average body fat than men
-- even when they take in fewer calories.
But it's important to
remember that "fat" doesn't mean "unhealthy." Yes, women have larger fat
stores, but it's part of their physiology, meaning it's not extra
weight. So if a woman has 11% more body fat than a man, it doesn't mean
she's 11% "fatter." A perfectly fit woman will still hold 6 to 11% more
body fat than a perfectly fit man.
Also, men tend to lose
weight where they need it most (read: belly), so it's often more
immediately noticeable when overweight men start trimming down than when
women do. Ladies' fat stores are typically more spread out, which is
partly why they tend to lose weight at a slower pace than guys. Even
basic, regular exercise -- ideally 30 to 60 minutes a day -- tends to reduce abdominal obesity, even if guys don't technically lose weight.
Of course, ladies also
lose abdominal weight quickly -- they just tend to have less of it.
"Women with excess fat around the middle will lose it more or less as
readily as men," says upwave review-board member
Dr. David Katz, founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention
Research Center at the Yale University School of Medicine. "Men are more
prone to gain weight around the middle."
That said, carrying extra weight around the middle is also tied to increased heart risks,
making it arguably unhealthier to be an overweight man than a plus-size
woman. Big bellies, it turns out, are a sort of a double-edged sword
when it comes to weight loss: They're an extra health risk for men, but
give guys the edge when it comes to dropping pounds.
Ladies, don't despair:
Women have weight-related advantages, too. They tend to carry more body
fat on their thighs and backsides (the so-called "pear" shape), which
are much healthier places to hold weight than around the middle. Plus, while women are better at storing fat, they also tend to burn more body fat during exercise than men do. "The fat women find it hardest to lose is generally the least harmful to health," Katz says.
At the end of the day,
dropping pounds is hard work for women and men. And, really, it all
boils down to this: Anyone can lose weight -- it doesn't matter what
your gender is. You just have to be committed to doing it.
This article was originally published on upwave.com.
