Why Men Might Lose Weight More Easily

  • 1) They splurge on proteins rather than sweets. Apparently, men are more likely to treat themselves with a steak or a hamburger while women are more likely to overdo it on chocolate or ice cream. This makes sense to me!

    2) They lift heavier weights. (Enough said?)

    3) They are more likely to relieve stress by exercising or getting physical. Whereas women are more likely to overeat or eat mindlessly when stressed.

    4) They cut back on rather than eliminating their favorite foods entirely. The study stated that men tend to have less lofty fitness goals and are more comfortable scaling back on portion sizes rather than just cutting certain foods out altogether. This could be why they tend to be less likely to binge or overeat.

    (Of course, this doesn’t apply to all men or all women. But I thought it was interesting and maybe we could learn something from the boys!)
  • That's really interesting! I sound like a typical woman from that lol
  • This is WAY simpler. Men have more lean body mass than women and lean body mass is metabolically active so all other things being equal-men will ALWAYS lose more quickly than women. Women have to work harder. That's why it took so long to have a female winner on The Biggest Loser.
  • Well, obviously we’re made differently (men and women). This was more just the WAY they diet, not the WAY their bodies are composed to make them more likely to lose…
  • The first one is so true. But on the flip side, don't men have higher rates of bad cholesterol?
  • All of the things in the OP I find to be extremely true for me, but I agree with Petra that we tend to have some built in benefits just from having more muscle typically. My BMR is probably 500 calories higher than most of the ladies on here just right off the bat, which makes creating a defecit easier with more food.

    I can also say, and don't flame too hard on this, that after reading this site pretty closely for 3+ months now, that I (and most guys I think) are much less emotionally involved in this process than what I have seen on this site. It's hard for me to relate to so many of the posts on here that talk about emotional attachments to food, body image issues, etc. I guess that's a pretty typical guy/girl thing, and not sure if it plays any role in weight loss.

    For me it really boils down to laziness and a reasonable amount of self control. Guys can really pig out so it takes self-control there, and basically just getting off our butts to get our bodies moving. For many of us of us dumb cavemen it's not a lot more complicated than that.
  • I think author Bruce H. Lipton (Swami Beyondananda) said it most succinctly:

    "Men are protein; women are lipids."

    Jay
  • If you are citing a study, can you link the study?
  • The points in the OP make sense to me. Yes, men tend to lose faster than women, but they gain faster, too. I've known men that just stop drinking alcohol and drop 30 lbs in a month. When they go back to their beer, it all comes back, though.

    The joke around here currently is about my father. My mom says, "you know, your dad is just spottin' us 30 or 40 pounds and then he's gonna start eating right and leave us all in the dust!" A little competitive, maybe. But my parents are both over 60 and still cute in thir own little dysfunctional way.

    Edited To Add: My dad isn't one of the men I originally mentioned. I think I could count the number of times I've seen him drink on one hand. Bit of a lightweight, lol.
  • I know that you are posting other things besides biological differences regarding why men lose weight faster than we do. But I can say from very direct experience that it is more biological than anything. I've been dieting/exercising at the same time as two SOs and they have always lost weight faster and easier. We've eaten around the same type of foods. I've typically exercised more and pushed myself with weights more comparatively. Even with more effort I've seen less results then them!

    No offense gentleman, but women are just more important to the survival of the species! One male can be the father of many more children than one woman can birth. In fact because of our higher body fats and slower metabolisms we are much more likely to survive cold and famine. We are better equipped to survive a famine but in modern society where thin is "in" (actually WAY too thin is in!) we struggle with our weight more.

    If we compare our weight loss progress to them we are doomed to be disappointed!
  • I also think that eating attitutes when it comes to weight loss for men and women are different.

    For men, the emphasis is on protein. Eat it, drink it, breathe it.

    Women are more restrictive. Fat is bad. Sugar is bad. Carbs are bad. Protein is bad (and not really considered since most women think getting protein will make them into a female bodybuilder). So women (and mostly I'm talking about people who don't really know how their body works) eat 1000 calories of veggies, then come evening, it makes them delirious with hunger and they eat everything in sight.
  • Quote: No offense gentleman, but women are just more important to the survival of the species!
    Speaking for most men, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be very interested in survival if there weren't women around