It’s been proven that women lose weight at a slower rate than men – personally I don’t think it’s fair but here are the reasons why.
Too many women think that they’re ‘not trying hard enough’ – but it’s usually not that they aren’t doing enough – or that men are trying harder. It really comes down to the fact that men and women are simply made differently and those differences have a big impact on women’s weight loss rates.
The number of calories that your body requires – just to fuel its most basic functions – is determined by a couple of things. First it is simply your total body size – it takes more calories to fuel a large body than it does a smaller one and most men are larger than women.
Then there’s the issue of body composition – every pound of lean body mass you have burns about 14 calories a day, while every pound of fat you have only burns about 2 calories. So, the more muscle you carry (and the less fat) the greater your daily calorie burn. Men tend to tend to carry more muscle than women do.
As if that weren’t enough, men are more likely to burn more calories when they exercise. Again, it’s not that they’re necessarily pushing themselves that much harder – it’s just that the larger the body, the more calories it takes to move that body through space. A 250-pound guy is going to burn more calories running for an hour than a woman weighing 150 pounds – even if they go at the same pace.
So it boils down to this: the number of calories it takes for the average man to maintain his weight is higher than it is for the average woman and that can be a big advantage to men when it comes to weight loss. A heavy-set man who maintains his weight on 2500 calories a day can cut out 1000 calories or so from his daily intake, still have a reasonable 1500 calories to spend on his meals and snacks, and drop a couple of pounds a week.
On the other hand, a woman who is struggling with her weight might be maintaining her weight on only 1600 calories a day. To lose weight safely, she shouldn’t cut her intake to less than 1200 calories a day – which means that while the heavy-set man mentioned above, can easily create a 1000 calorie-per-day shortage, the 400 calories that she’s able to cut means she’ll be hard-pressed to lose even a half a pound in a week’s time.
I think it’s great when couples exercise together to try to get fit because they can help support and motivate each other. Remember it’s not a contest between men and women, it’s a case of just doing what you can.
Why not combine exercise with good Herbalife nutrition – click here to order products (you will need to register first).
