Why do men lose weight faster than women?

Fitness Answer Man

October 27, 2008|By CHAD SMITH

If I had a dollar for every woman that has asked me why do men lose weight faster than women, I'd be tripping over cash.

For the most part, women can lose weight as easily as men. However, each person is unique in his or her ability to burn calories. Your metabolism is determined by a number of things, but it's mainly affected by your body composition (fat to lean mass ratio), and eating and exercise habits.

Â The big game changer here is muscle mass. If you haven't noticed, men tend to have more muscle than women. The more muscle you have, the better you become at burning calories.

Also, being a woman (you're gonna hate me for this), your hormones try to keep your body higher in fat for certain biological functions.

Sorry. Men's hormonesÂ on the other hand, help produce rapid gains in muscle mass, which helps us burn more calories, even if all other thing are even, like diet and exercise frequency.

In my experience when women want to lose weight, they tend to overemphasize cardio training and skip strength training. Whereas, men start to add cardio training to their usual strength training program. The result is, women lose calorie-burning muscle by overdoing the cardio, which makes fat loss extremely difficult. Men preserve more of the muscle by not neglecting strength training, and add calorie-burning cardio activity to their program which results in rapid fat loss.

So do men lose weight faster than women? It's all relative. Here's your bottom line: More muscle equals more calories burned equals less fat. Got it?

Stay strong!Â

I've posted two new five-minute circuit workouts on my blog: www.fitnessanswerman.blogspot.com. Give 'em a go, and let me know what you think.

Chad Smith is aÂ local fitness expert and certified personal trainer. Visit his blog at www.fitnessanswerman.blogspot.com.

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