I love being a girl! And, as a guy told me when I complained about men being able to lose weight quicker, he said, "Yeah, but you women live longer!"

Once I got familiar with my expected weight changes with my cycle, I stopped getting upset about them. The only thing that annoyed me was having to weigh in as "heavier" with my support group, when I knew it was just temporary water weight.

As long as I stay on track, it goes away pretty fast.

I was laying in bed complaining about my cramps (they're REALLY bad, like throw up for a few days heavy bleeding really pale really miserable stuff going on) and my boyfriend was studying for his architectural engineering final - and he was saying that at the beginning of the semester his professor had them look around the classroom, and notice that everyone enrolled in the class was male - and there's a theory that most scientists/inventors/engineers are men because of this deep seeded jealousy that they, as a gender, can't produce life. They're always competing to build bigger, better, more advantageous things because it's the closest they can come to giving birth and that feeling of creation and importance.

It gave me a finer respect for my uterus, and also helps me from getting annoyed whenever he gets really finicky about his blue prints not being good enough.

periods suck, but without that i would never have been able to carry a life inside me ( twice) , give birth, and have the bond of breastfeeding.. for the flip side, the only part im not real impressed with being female, is Pap smears... i dread em each and every time... but, it comes with the territory lol..

In my view, that's kind of bogus. I think that most scientists/inventors/engineers are men because (a) it's always been a boys' club, for several hundred years, so it's been hard for a woman to get into those fields (I'm a scientist so I speak from experience), and (b) they have someone else cleaning the house, buying and cooking the food, and giving birth and caring for their offspring, so they have a lot of time to sit around and study and think.

As a woman who has never been interested in having children, I don't feel that being able to "produce life" is a consolation prize! Besides, women can't "produce life" on their own...

With regard to weight loss, it may be frustrating to see men in general lose more quickly or what seems to be more easily, but it's really all individual, isn't it? It's not like there's a race and men are winning...

Jay

this reminds me of something my friend (a male engineering student) said: "You women are going to take over the world. One day you wont even need us, you'll just clone yourselves in your own perfect image"

Losing weight slower does suck, but at least at the end we get to wear prettier things im so vain...

If you think about it, it's kinda the other way around...

Jay

Amen sistah!!!

Quote:
As a woman who has never been interested in having children, I don't feel that being able to "produce life" is a consolation prize!

This is me, too. I don't *love* my uterus because it's caused me a whole lotta pain thru-out my girly life. And if "giving birth" is the reason it's *good* to be a woman, then I'm in the Uh-Oh Club! Cause it ain't nevuh gonna happen! Yet, I've never wanted to be a man. And yeah, my husband can lose weight faster/easier than I can, & yeah, sometimes I get jealous about that. I would LOVE to be able to drop 20 pounds just because I gave up soda & junk food.... But he doesn't seem to care about that as much as I do. If he did, maybe he'd quit scarfing Oreos & enjoy some baked fish once in a while, and try out my Pilates DVD!

The fact is, society looks at fat men differently than they do fat women. It's just the way it is. What's acceptable for men is not-so-much-acceptable for women. Such as grey hair. When men go grey, they're "Dapper"... when women go grey, they're "old".

And this is why 93% of the dieting market is geared toward women. And no wonder it's a billion dollar industry! ~Everything else is just "fluff".

And men die first - so I'd much rather be a woman.

I have never wanted to be a man, at least I did not spend any time fantasizing about what it would be like to be one, but I think if I had a choice and was born again, I would like to be a man, just for comparison. The whole thing about the gift of producing life is totally lost on me and as somebody who had extremely heavy and extremely long periods for most of my life, I would gladly pass. Let somebody else deal with that. I have never had any issues with PMS per se, but the bleeding was enough on its own.
So yes, in my next life, I would rather have the Y chromosome. Now the challenge would be how to handle the dangly bits ......

Not touching that one ... err ... not commenting on that one.

Late to the thread, but I don't weigh myself the week before my period. I usually gain 1-4 lbs and while intellectually I understand I have not gained FAT I just don't like to see it on the scale.

I also really enjoy being a girl - I have the cutest toenails right now, dark red with white/pink flowers painted on the big toes. Mmmmm girly goodness

It's always easy to find "unfairness" in the world and get gripey about it. Frustration and envy are normal emotions, and as long as it's an occasional vent/rant, relatively no harm done.

But, weight loss is one of those things that you have to keep your head down, with the blinders on, to a degree (I don't mean that literally). I'm a member of TOPS, and we've got mostly women, and two men. My hubby is NOT losing "like a man," he's losing more like a woman. He's also disabled, and unable at this point, to do a lot of exercise (I remember when I couldn't even keep up to his walking stride, now I'm the one that has to slow down for him - and we've only been together 6 years).

Every week, the weight recorder announces the total losses, the total gains, and the best loser for the week, and we all go around and say whether we lost, gained, or turtled (but not the amounts, unless for some reason you wanted to say). There are people who lose very consistently. There are people who lose weight in large spurts (nothing for several weeks and then boom, a big drop). There are some people who struggle for every 1/4 lb.

In the 90's when I joined my first TOPS group after a herniated disk (and lost 60 lbs) I was routinely the "biggest loser" for the week. I was young, swimming three times a day, and had a lot of weight to lose. Some of the women who were older or thinner would grumble it wasn't "fair." At the time, if it were possible, I would gladdly have traded my 200 lbs to lose, for their 25 lbs to lose, even if it meant never again "winning" biggest loser.

You just can't compare your loss to anyone else's. Even within the same age, gender, and "weight class," there are too many variables to make it a fair comparison.

Hmm, interesting reading. I don't mind the weight loss differences between men and women, but I hate my period. I do. I have two wonderful children and I love them to death and I'm so glad I have them, but my period is really brutal.

I think it's getting worse with age. I have a terrible headache for days before that does not stop, I can't control my emotions, I'm a clutz, I have cramps that almost make me fall down from pain sometimes, I'm exhausted, and I'm bloated. I almost think that if men had to go through this, everyone would get an extra five days off work a month so they can just stay home and rest.

I put mine in a bra. OH! THOSE dangly bits! never mind

Dang it - that's twice in one thread that I almost sprayed out my iced tea onto my keyboard!!!!