Men lose weight so easy...
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The human body is programmed to preserve functionality. Women need a higher fat percentage to be able to be fertile and nurse offspring. Men do not. Our bodies were designed to hold onto fat - this along with the lower muscle mass potential and smaller average stature makes it more difficult as a general rule.
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but it is what it is for each individual and I am not sure what difference this makes except to try to irk people.0 -
I'm afraid males have been dealt the trump card in regards to metabolic rate.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329930/
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1126247?sid=21106119700723&uid=70&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=3738032&uid=4 (1953 in the house!)
Although probably evened out by male pattern baldness (I was 27 for crying out loud), nose and ear hair, and testicles, which being frank just get in the way.
My husband stopped upsizing his fast food meals and lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. He did not stop EATING fast food, nor alter his diet in any other way, nor add exercise. He just stopped getting french fry servings that were the size of a baseball, and instead got french fry servings that were teh size of, like, half a baseball.
And I exercise, and measure, and weigh, and blah blah blah, and I get 1.5 lbs down a week.
And yes, I do secretly say to myself when he looks at the scale and says 'Wow, down another 3 pounds, that was easy' I just think 'One day your forehead will be a five-head, and I will be SO VERY HAPPY.'
And, post-baby bodies, that's a thing for women, not so much for men.
Many women, myself included, have diastasis rectus, which is torn ab muscles (thanks twins!) so weight loss can still happen with that, but you just don't look like you used to.
Still, weight loss is hard for everyone. Except for my husband. He's a freak of nature.
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Yeah, Men really do have a small advantage in the losing weight department. My husband can simply cut out beer during the week and lose 20 pounds in no time. He's extremely muscular and has a very active job as well, so he often finds that he can't meet his caloric needs during the day with just food. It's tough when I really struggle. Thankfully, he's the most supportive man a woman could ask for so he never makes me feel like a failure and he celebrates every small victory I have with me!0
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_tigerblood_ wrote: »when I hear a woman say men lose weight faster I assume she's lazy making excuses. you don't hear me complaining that I dont lose blood weight every month.
Blood weight. You think that's actually a thing? Do you know anything about the female reproductive system?
Let me clue you in.
At max women lose a cup of blood. That's about half of a pound. And then it comes right back - so it can get lost again in the next month!
So yay for my very temporary, at max .53 loss every month. That makes all this so damned easy. I can't understand why I'm having so much trouble losing these last 15 pounds - and obviously if I complain I'm just making excuses (after having lost 72 pounds already).
I should just focus on all the advantages I get from my blood weight. Obviously.0 -
If Saturday was mean people thread day, Sunday is derp day. Maybe daylight savings time has screwed things up. . .then again. . . .0
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Men tend to have it easier. No question. We are more muscular and have more mass to play with (%).
Having said that, anecdotal evidence shows me that women can lose less weight but have amazing physical transformations with body composition. Small changes in muscles mass have a huge impact on appearance.
It is a tie in my books because the 'number' is only part of the story.0 -
I've never been less proud of a man than a woman for losing an amount of weight. Its a struggle for anyone to change bad habits and make improvements so I wouldn't undermine their efforts.
That said I do get the hump sometimes that my man eats whatever he likes and stays roughly the same weight without trying. If he does gain a few lbs it seems to go again without him making any changes. I wish I could eat like him and not gain. Also I spent 18 months weight training and building the tiniest muscles but when he decided to join me his muscles just popped right up. He already had a good base from lifting heavy most of his life but it did make me feel like my progress was really pants. All men are different though and I'm sure lots aren't as lucky as my fella.
My biggest peeve is probably that we both wanted children but it was my body that suffered the most and I don't think any amount of training is going to fully fix that now.
At the end of the day I'm here for myself-for my health, to get stronger, improve my figure and self esteem, you should be too so ignore anyone who tries to put you down.0 -
Some truths and observations: Hormones play a definitive role. With higher testosterone and lower estrogen, men have more lean muscle. I believe on average a man has a metabolic rate of about 5%-8% more of a female who is the same height and weight.
Also anecdotally, I think females are much more surrounded by food than men. Even today where you'd think it'd be much more even, females by in large still cook and grocery shop and take care of the kids. So the opportunities to nibble, taste, and just eat systematically are higher.
My experience with males is that most didn't really know much about nutrition or calories and just having them watch their intake (including sodium) made an immediate impact. Not uncommon for a couple to come to me, both start the same time, both eat the same foods and the male loses 10lbs while the female loses 4lbs even at the same calorie deficit.
Also I believe the approach to exercise is different. The majority of my male clients like lifting the weights with intensity with light cardio, while the majority of my female clients would rather do conditioning or a more aerobic based session and less weight lifting.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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From witnessing my colleagues trying to lose weight since Chrismas, the 6ft 1 24 year old guy has lost the most weight (20lbs) compared to the 5ft 1 46 year old woman, which was winding her up a fair bit - until we pointed out that she wasn't comparing like-for-like, she'd actually lost a greater percentage of her starting weight than he had. If you just look at total pounds lost, you might come to the conclusion that men lose weight faster/easier than women. Even if their bodies tend to be a bit more co-operative, men still have to create a deficit to lose weight, and still have to do the work to get fitter or more muscular.0
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But what about the guy who didn't know he had Hashimoto's and got down to 11% bodyfat? That wasn't very easy let me tell you. Though I will say it is totally possible to lose weight while untreated for thyroid.
Just wanted to throw that into the debate pool.
Am now on proper med.0 -
HuskyHiker413 wrote: »This is what I hear from time to time from women... I'm sure it has nothing to do with weighing all my food and hitting the gym 6 days a week!
So do you think men really lose easier than women?
I have no idea how difficult women in general find losing weight, but when I see the sort of macros/calories women have to cut to, I do feel for them. I mean in proportion to size, build, etc it should be fine. But most things you eat seem to be in 'man sizes' so I'd imagine it's a bit more of a job for a female to then cut that down. But I hope when people say it's easier for men, they just mean it's a bit easier and not easy. Because it isn't easy at all, not for anyone. I'm just over 10 stone and it's an absolute struggle at times that leaves me anxious if I think I've gone just a few grams of carbs over what I'm aiming for.0 -
Liftng4Lis wrote: »_tigerblood_ wrote: »when I hear a woman say men lose weight faster I assume she's lazy making excuses. you don't hear me complaining that I dont lose blood weight every month.
Seriously?? You ever had an anatomy class?
Or a girlfriend :huh:
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_tigerblood_ wrote: »when I hear a woman say men lose weight faster I assume she's lazy making excuses. you don't hear me complaining that I dont lose blood weight every month.
^^^^^What a douche bag
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I agree with all this. I think on the whole it is more challenging for women.Something that I think is important to keep in mind here:
We're discussing the relative difficulty between genders. It certainly is not "easy" for men to lose weight.
Sometimes discussions like this can become insulting because it paints a picture that men can just lose fat with ease or without any effort. And that is simply not the case.
Comparatively, I believe on average it's a bit more challenging for women.
But what I hate is the "you're taller/bigger so you can create a bigger deficit and eat more." Yeah sure, but I also have to eat more in order to be satiated. My mouth, stomach, etc are not the same as that of a 5-foot woman. I could make the same ridiculous argument that women "have it easy" because they can be not hungry on a smaller number of calories than I can.
And I hate the total math fail of comparing pound for pound loss rates of someone whose ideal weight is like 150% of the other person's. Of course the bigger person is going to lose "faster" when you completely ignore proportions. Same goes for the size of a calorie deficit. By this logic mice must have it really extra double super hard, because think of how long it must take a mouse to lose ten pounds.
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_tigerblood_ wrote: »when I hear a woman say men lose weight faster I assume she's lazy making excuses. you don't hear me complaining that I dont lose blood weight every month.
Are you by any chance a U.S. senator?0 -
Yes because they don't ovulate or menstruate. They bloat sure, but that's about it. They don't have like one week out of the month where it is the opportune time to weigh oneself, like us ladies. They can weigh whenever. They aren't really plagued by waterweight.0
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I think men have physical and hormonal differences that make it easier compared to women to see and get results. However I don't think that makes it "easy for men to lose weight".0
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This reminds me of that commercial for some weight loss thing, a woman is there eating her salad trying to lose weight, her husband sits down next to her, drinks a glass of water and boom, looks thin...then the dog comes along, drinks out of his water bowl, and boom looks thin. And shes just looking at them like wtf?!
I dont even know what product that commercial was for, but I laugh whenever I think about it, because it really feels that way!!!
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Oh, great. Another way us males can be resented for being male.-2
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KingofWisdom wrote: »Oh, great. Another way us males can be resented for being male.
Whaa? No way. I dont resent men at all... I'm grateful to be born a woman, wouldn't have it any other way! It would suck to resent men considering that would severely limit my pool of dating prospects...to like, zero. LoL!
Its nothing more than an observation and musing on our differences...at least from my perspective
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Edit.... some people thought I was being serious..... apparently.-1
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Well, I've only ever been one gender. So I don't really have anything to compare it to, you know? You'd have to have a heck of an experiment to officially see what happens, and personally I don't have time to orchestrate that.
Whether it's muscle and/or hormones and/or emotions, I really don't care. I think what's important is that you do whatever you need to do in order to see the results that you'd like. If anyone says "oh, you lose weight easier cause you're ______", then they're just ignorant tools who clearly don't know how hard you're trying.
Aka: to 'heck' with them.0 -
HuskyHiker413 wrote: »This is what I hear from time to time from women... I'm sure it has nothing to do with weighing all my food and hitting the gym 6 days a week!
So do you think men really lose easier than women?
It can definitely feel that way. I mean, if me and hubby both order the same meal at a restaurant, we aren't going to receive different portions based on gender (nor would I want anything like a children's menu, except for women, to be offered), so it can feel a little unfair that he could eat the entire meal and it could be just 1/2 of his daily needs, whereas if I ate that entire meal it might meet or exceed my entire calorie allowance for the day.
But, he's taller and a lot more muscular than I am and has a fairly active job, so my feelings that it's unfair that he gets to eat more are kind of bratty and I recognize that.
The biological factors that give men a bit of an advantage, however, are not enough to dismiss a fit males' fitness as being due simply to biology with no credit owed to his own discipline. It would indeed be laughable if an otherwise healthy but overweight out-of-shape sedentary woman credited a fit males' fitness, and excused her lack of fitness, to the differences in the biology of the sexes.
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Yes. Men are loaded with testosterone, which builds/retains muscle. Women are loaded with progesterone and estrogen, which want to hang on to fat to nourish a pregnancy.
The differences usually make women's weight loss slower than men's.0 -
_tigerblood_ wrote: »when I hear a woman say men lose weight faster I assume she's lazy making excuses. you don't hear me complaining that I dont lose blood weight every month.
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Having never been a man, I can't give a definitive answer to that question
It's like those that say it's harder to lose weight when you are short (I'm 5'2"), but since I've always been short I can't agree with that either.
My workout buddy is male and I can say that he struggles with losing weight, in a different way from what I go through. Each one of us experiences things in regards to losing weight in different ways with varying levels of difficulty.
Losing weight in general is difficult!0 -
Not in my experience. I've been overseeing my husband's intake (since I make his meals) and he doesn't "cheat" at all and yet he's not losing at the steady rate I would expect him to given he's 50+lbs overweight.0
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It is possible that men in general lose easier than women, or it's possible they don't, I don't know. At the same time, I seriously doubt someone is trying to undermine your success or any hardships you've faced. I think it was @herrspoons who often says sth along the lines of "People don't really care how much you lost or how, they care about their own problems"? Sorry if I got that wrong. Whoever it is, they're right. Just move on.
Regarding the guy who was so concerned with blood weight... I am going to be the eternal optimist that I am and assume that he is just very very young and trying to sound interestingly blunt, and coming across the way he did only by accident. It happens so often when you try for the "interestingly blunt" too hard...0 -
I wish I cared enough to read all the posts... But I am really lazy. Ill just say that everyone is different and everyone loses different and who cares who loses easier. Now............ DANCE PARTY!0
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"Easier" doesn't equal "easy" and that's the only issue here. I just sort of shrug and ignore people at that point.0
This discussion has been closed.
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