Why Guys Lose Weight Faster

Brad and Irene are sitting by a roaring fire on New Years Eve, wait- ing for their twin teenage sons to return home safely. At the stroke of midnight, they propose a toast to celebrate their New Years reso- lutions: Brads vow to get in shape and Irenes commitment to losing weight. Brad recently noticed that hes put on a few pounds and feels soft around the middle, and he has made the resolution to exercise more. Irene put on weight when she was pregnant with the twins.
Despite the fact that their kids are now in their teens, she has never successfully shed the baby weight. For the New Year she has made a commitment to cook family meals and stop eating late at night, a habit she developed when the twins started driving and she began waiting up for them.
After a few weeks, they have both made progress; Brad has lost 6 pounds and Irene has lost 3 pounds. Brad is not surprised that he has had some success: he says, I think working out every day on my lunch break has helped me get back into shape.
A few weeks later, Brad has continued to lose twice as much weight
as Irene. Frustrated and ready to toss the bathroom scale out the win- dow, she says, “Its not fair! Men lose weight so much faster than women. I’m eating better and snacking less but my body refuses to lose weight more quickly!”



Couples like Irene and Brian who have decided to lose weight at the same time have probably noticed that the man usually loses more weight and at a faster pace than the woman. Whats going on? The truth is that men do have a physical edge over women in terms of weight loss—their body composition enables them to lose more weight than a woman of the same weight. But women have an edge over men in other critical areas of weight management: women tend to be more attentive to whats going on with their weight and are better able to make the connection between food and emotions.
This chapter examines why men and women not only talk about the issue of excess weight differently but why they experience it differently as well.

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