Hi everybody. I need to get this out or I'm going to snap.

Does anyone else HATE being a girl sometimes?

This may seem extreme, but hear me out.

Men lose weight faster.
Men lose weight easier.
Men's bodies are not geared towards having a higher proportion of fat.
Men do not lose approximately one week a month to insane emotions, absurd water retention, and cravings that never seem to go away, no matter how faithful one is to ones healthy lifestyle.

This for me is the crux of the issue. I have been eating healthy, exercising, etc. for the past 5 weeks now. I've lost between 8 and 10 lbs. I say between them because it changes every day. If I go over my daily calories for one day by as little as 100 calories, I gain 2lbs by the next morning. Now I know that this is largely water retention but...COME ON! It is so disheartening. I know that it is temporary but it is so difficult to feel positive when the scale does nothing but creep up during this week. I feel like I'm never going to lose this weight. All I want to do now is cry because regardless of how well I eat or how much I work out all my scale wants to do is creep up. How do y'all deal with your TOM without breaking down and crying, or running your scale over with your car?

Thanks ladies, all the love
Sidheag

i understand. since i have been counting calories and busting my arse daily on exercise videos, i have lost a couple of pounds, yeah, but my husband has lost even more by being an innocent bystander. no exercise. he's just eating what i cook and it's falling off of him.

BUT....

i never hate being a girl. those few days a month give me the gift of giving life and that's something men do not have. i could write an entire list of reasons on why i am glad i am not a dude. less anger and testosterone being number one, more emotions, nurture and estrogen number two.

and hey. if you've lost b/w 8 and 10 pounds in two weeks then that is great! that's awesome! you are right on track with the optimum loss for the given time. keep yer head up.

and when you're menstruating? f the scale man. don't let that hunk of junk play psychological games with you. you know why it goes up a little bit. just think--this too shall pass. remember that the scale plays a minor role in all of this--this lifestyle change. don't let it get center stage.

peace

Yeah, and to top it all off, women get slammed by society for being fat, if they are. And women have all the eating disorders (truly). And women have all the dieting junk. Women are the garbage plants of the world.

I'm ranting with you <3

I lose two weeks a month thanks to my horrendous, raging PMS. But I never get on the scale during TOM. It's just not worth the frustration.

I really love being female, so I never wish I were a man, BUT yeah, it is frustrating to watch a guy walk around the block once and have 15 french fries with lunch instead of 25 and still lose weight and look awesome while I'm sucking back water, working out like a crazy person and eating arugula salads and ... I FEEL BLOATED and my PANTS FEEL TIGHTER!! Argh!

Word up.

Don't waste time fretting about things you cannot change. It's true men can lose a pound just walking to the refrigerator for another beer. They also have to shave every day.

I love you ladies so much. Your responses not only make me feel better but make me laugh.

And I suppose I should clarify...I would never actually want to be a man. I love being a girl. But right now it is frustrating. Especially since I live with my bf and it is so easy for him. *grumbles* Anyway, I just worked out which always helps me feel less like a crazy person. I suppose that's a small NSV...it used to be that I would have just eaten those feelings rather than walked them off (or at least part of the way off). I'd love to hear how more people feel about this though. *HUGS*

Sidheag

Lol, thanks for that!

But seriously, life isn't fair. There is a wide variance in the difficulty individual women face in weight management too. But this isn't a race. We have to play the hand we are dealt, set our own goals, find our own strategies, and make progress on the basis of what is possible for each of us.

That said, my hubby loses weight by cutting back on his ice cream (grrr!!!)

I HAVE TO SHAVE EVERYDAY TOO!! And, because I'm a WOMAN, I have to shave my legs and my underarms and everywhere cos otherwise no one will touch me.

Men, on the other hand, forget to shave..oh a beard might get there...that won't be mocked.

Men, however, cannot carry the miracle of life.

But men can provide sperm to produce life for years and years past when women hit the menopause. And you need a man as much as a woman to make a baby..

And is carrying a baby for nine months..lovely? Is life a miracle? Are bacteria?

I would much much rather be a man, back to therapy I go

I'm sorry for ranting. I have massive issues

You might be onto something here. Buy cheapy scales. Once a month run them over. Might be the best $10 a month you ever spent

Keep a 5-7 day running average of your weight instead of depending on the scale to tell you how you are supposed to feel every day. Watch the trend of the average - is it going down, up, or staying the same? (more days doing this = more accurate results.) If it's going down, then keep it up. If it's staying the same, change up the workout. If it's going up, watch more carefully what you eat. I've found that since I did this, I'm much less affected at what today's scale number means. It's just a data point. The trend is more important.

And being a girl is way fun. We get better clothes than guys, and can wear hot pink or turquoise without people looking at us funny.

Yeah, I can SO sympathize with this... since the beginning of freshman year (2 years ago) I gained 20 pounds and my boyfriend lost 25 - basically with neither one of us even trying.

So of course I hate his guts for that once in a while, but now that I've taken off that same 20 pounds and then some, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. I've come to look at his easy weight loss as a challenge. He can do it; can you??

Yes I CAN! So I have to work harder... but it just shows that I am, in fact, more disciplined than he is, in the long run. He doesn't have to do much to take off that weight, but I've become a master of self-control, and I think that's a pretty noble accomplishment.

You're on to something here... let's all buy cheap scales and a cheap hammer, and pull them out when we're feeling frustrated....