Why women lose weight slower than men?

In this day and age, men and women are treated equally because women can do most of the things that men can do; may it be office work, politics, sports, and even activities that are traditionally for men only like construction, weight lifting, and fixing a car. However, there are just some things we are either biologically or socially programmed that affect women differently than men. One such thing is the ability of men to lose weight faster than women. Let’s see below why.

Fact #1 Women have less muscle mass than men
Men are biologically programmed to have more muscles. Thanks to a hormone called testosterone, men tend to have a higher muscle mass than women. Testosterone is increased in men during puberty because it helps in the development of their reproductive organs as well as their secondary characteristics that includes increased hair growth, muscle and bone mass. Since men have more muscles, they burn calories faster through basal metabolic rate. Basal metabolic rate is the number of calories burned to supply energy to the body to do its physiologic functions such as blood circulation.

Fact #2 Women have more body fat than men
During puberty, men have increased testosterone while women have increased estrogen. Estrogen is a very important hormone as it is responsible for ovulation. Also, estrogen stimulates estrogen-sensitive tissues like the adipose tissues in the abdomen to prepare the woman’s body for child-bearing. Since men do not ovulate nor carry a baby in their tummy for nine months, they have lower estrogen level thus lower body fat compared to women.

Fact #3 Women cooks while men hunts
Way back in the primitive time, men hunt the food while women cook the food. Though hunting Mammoth for dinner is not applicable today, the fact that men do more physical activities than women still remains. Because of this, men burn more calories from being more physically active than women causing men to be leaner and lose weight faster.

Fact #4 Women takes in more calories than men when depressed
The majority of women agree that they eat when depressed; and chocolates become a depressed woman’s best friend. Chocolates contain phenylephylamine; a chemical that raises a person’s blood pressure and blood glucose levels mimicking the feeling of being in love, thus depression is relieved. However, most chocolates contain very high amount of calories that can make a woman gain weight fast. On the other hand, men’s comfort foods are home-cooked food like steak and vegetable pot which contains fewer calories than chocolates.

Fact #5 Women chats while Men play
When bonding with girl friends, women sit, chat, and eat as they talk about anything under the sun while men being forever kids at heart, shoot some hoops when they bond. Because of social activities like these, women lose weight slower then men.

Though women genetically lose weight slower than men, it all boils down to eating a balanced diet, regular exercise, and staying happy. Living a healthy lifestyle allows a person to get into shape regardless of gender.