Battle of the bulge: men and women do not begin on an equal playing field when it comes to weight loss. Photo / 123RF
Battle of the bulge: men and women do not begin on an equal playing field when it comes to weight loss. Photo / 123RF
While it is not uncommon for couples to embark on a healthy new lifestyle together, improving your dietary habits can have dramatically different outcomes for men and women. Anecdotally, it is a familiar battle of the sexes – and one that appears to see men soaring ahead in terms of speed and volume of weight loss. But what is really happening beneath the surface?
A weight loss “gender gap” emerged when a 2018 study by the University of Copenhagen – alongside seven other intervention sites worldwide – analysed 2500 overweight pre-diabetic people, each following a strict diet limited to 810 calories per day for eight weeks. The results revealed that men saw a 16 per cent greater weight loss than women, with men losing on average 11.8kg compared to women who dropped 10.2kg. Ultimately, it succeeded in proving what many frustrated women have long suspected: men lose weight more easily.
What is vital to remember, according to Dr Adam Collins, a registered nutritionist and associate professor of Nutrition at the University of Surrey, is that men and women do not begin on an equal playing field. “You have to compare everything equally and account for things like behaviour, psychology and our individual relationships with food.
“But ultimately, if a man and woman are following an identical diet, the man will find it easier to lose weight because men have a higher energy expenditure, burning 500-600 calories a day more than women.”
Put simply, yes. “There is a lot of research to suggest we are completely different entities when it comes to diet, due largely to hormone fluctuations,” explains Rhiannon Lambert, a registered nutritionist and founder of Rhitrition clinic. “Men have a higher resting metabolic rate, which refers to the number of calories you burn when you’re doing nothing. It’s because proportionately men have a higher percentage of muscle mass which results in a higher BMR (basal metabolic rate), which means you will burn fat tissue faster.”
Due to physiological differences, men tend to burn fat faster than women. Photo / Sean S
Essentially, it is about body composition and the different ways that men and women burn energy – or calories.
“Men tend to have greater skeletal muscle mass so they’re metabolically more active per kilogram of body weight,” explains Collins. “Whereas women have more body fat proportionately, so if you look at a man and a woman who are the same body size, the man will still have a slightly higher energy requirement than the woman. Men tend to be leaner, have less body fat, and more skeletal muscle which requires a bit more energy.”
Perhaps more encouragingly for women is that, regardless of the speed with which the weight is lost for either sex, Lambert says that over a long period of time it will even out eventually. “If you’re noticing your partner losing weight before you and you’re on the same type of diet, you will get there eventually but it will take women a bit longer because of the way we’re built.”
This is down to the biology of the ways that men and women store fat. From an evolutionary perspective, women are physiologically designed to store fat around their reproductive organs during childbearing years. “Women store fat subcutaneously which means under the skin, predominantly in the thighs, buttocks, and hips,” says Lambert. “Whereas men are more likely to store it as visceral body fat, around the organs in their abdomen. Visceral fat is more metabolically active which means it is actively burning all the time for men, whereas the subcutaneous fat is more likely to be stored by a woman to be used for energy later, when they need it.”
Collins compares women’s fat storage to an energy reservoir and, crucially, it’s a good, functional, often healthier type of fat. “Pre-menopausal women are ultimately better fat users because their storage of gluteofemoral fat around the hips, buttocks and thighs is an energy depot for pregnancy, lactation and hormone production,” he says. “Generally speaking, this means women are better at mobilising and utilising fat than men because they can store it without any detrimental effects.”
On the flip side, visceral fat around your abdomen and internal organs is often linked to ill-health, predominantly metabolic syndrome which can cause high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol and increases the risk of stroke, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. This is another reason why it might be easier for men to lose weight quickly, according to Collins.
“It tends to be the last-chance saloon of fat storage so if you can’t store fat anywhere else, possibly because your fat tissue is at capacity and simply cannot keep up with demand for storage, it spills over viscerally or turns into liver fat.
“You’re not designed to store it long-term and if you do it has knock-on health effects, but by design, it is your body’s temporary solution. The good news is if you intervene with diet, lifestyle and exercise, your liver fat is the first to go so you get a lot of health improvement quite quickly, even if the weight loss is only small.”
The reason men tend to lose weight faster than women is down to different biological ways of fat storage. Photo / 123RF
Do men and women approach weight loss differently?
Individuals are multi-faceted and there are myriad factors involved in how people approach weight loss, so it is important to look at lifestyle, where you live, your working environment and stress levels. “Male or female, if you live in the Mediterranean and it’s sunny, your diet is going to be very different to somebody living in the UK and working night shifts under immense pressure, meaning that when, where and how you eat can be limited,” says Lambert.
Anecdotally, because men produce more testosterone they are believed to be more competitive than women but there is little scientific evidence to prove that one particular sex has a competitive edge. However, one study by the University of Sydney found that men tend to fare better than women when it comes to sticking to a weight loss diet, but only if encouraged by their GP and when their health is in jeopardy. Overall, men were less likely to take part in weight loss trials than women, with reasons including stigma and reluctance to accept they are unwell, but once recommended by doctors, men were found to be more likely to stick to their individual goals and be more committed as a result.
Timing matters, too. Lambert recommends eating two to three hours before you go to bed to give digestion a chance to work while we should also be focusing on stress and its impact on health. “Stress triggers the hormone cortisol, which makes us store weight,” explains Lambert. “Women are shown statistically to not sleep as well as men because of our hormone fluctuations, from puberty onwards, through menstruation all the way to menopause.
Men tend to stick to a weight loss diet better, but only if encouraged by their GP and when their health is in jeopardy. Photo / 123RF
“Lack of sleep can trigger the release of hormones involved in hunger and appetite, such as ghrelin and leptin,” says Lambert. Known as the “hunger hormone”, in addition to telling your brain you’re hungry, ghrelin increases food intake and helps your body store fat. So the less sleep you have, the more susceptible you are to weight gain.
It is also worth considering the impact of “emotional eating” where many of us turn to food for comfort, stress relief or to reward ourselves with a hit of dopamine.
“Common causes of emotional eating include stress, boredom, childhood habits and social influences which cause us to reach for junk food, sweets and other comforting but unhealthy food,” says Lambert.
One study by the University of Melbourne found that feeling “bored” was most commonly and most strongly associated with the urge to eat, regardless of gender. Overall, however, women had higher scores for emotional eating as a result of feeling “blue”, “sad” or “upset”, highlighting that women may have more of a tendency towards emotional eating to overcome when approaching weight loss.
Is it biologically harder for women to lose weight?
Hormones play a big role in the gender weight loss gap since women have oestrogen to contend with, which promotes the storage of fat. Men, however, are helped by testosterone, which is found to have a strong association with the amount of muscle we have and with fat loss.
“During the menopause, we may also notice more weight gain in women because women’s muscle mass is deteriorating,” says Lambert. “As we get older, we lose more muscle, so we burn less calories. Effectively, the amount of weight loss that men and women experience will even out over a lifetime but it’s the lifestyle habits that make the real difference here, so the quality of your nutrition matters at all stages of life.”
Midlife is a turning point for both women and men thanks to a drop in oestrogen and testosterone respectively. “Menopause is the most obvious morphological change that happens to women because we see the diminishing effect of oestrogen and by default the increased action of androgens (the opposite hormone),” says Collins.
Midlife is a turning point for both women and men thanks to a drop in oestrogen and testosterone respectively. Photo / 123RF
“The transition through perimenopause and menopause could see your weight creeping upwards, even if you maintain the same diet and lifestyle habits, because the reduction in oestrogen reduces your energy expenditure – so you’re burning less calories – and you’re also going to see some fat redistribution and start storing more central fat [like men] because you no longer need that protective gluteofemoral fat. The internal thermostat can go haywire – which anecdotally is linked to hot flushes – and can lead to a slightly lower metabolic rate.”
While the hormonal shift is much less dramatic and often imperceptible for men in midlife, by the age of 70, the average man’s testosterone drops to 30 per cent below its peak. “This means you’re more likely to gain weight, lose libido or experience more stress, as well as muscle mass tending to decrease over the age of 65,” says Collins.
Do men burn more calories than women?
Yes, due to their body composition, greater skeletal muscle mass and higher metabolic rate. Generally speaking, men are also slightly heavier and taller than women which will mean they burn more energy. “The average calories a man requires per day is 3000, whereas women need 2500,” says Collins. “The main determinant of how many calories two people of the same size and gender will burn is physical activity.”
Exercise alongside diet is a key factor in weight loss for men and women, particularly around midlife. “We should be focusing on the quality of our nutrition and exercise, instead of thinking we need to cut back on calories,” explains Lambert. “A lot of women going through menopause and, losing muscle mass, need to eat more protein, have more balanced meals and do more weight-bearing exercise to counter the loss of muscle mass that happens as we get older.”
Do women gain weight faster than men?
Before you start thinking of weight loss you should look at weight gain. “Typically men put on weight in their upper body, which is when we see that rotund tummy known as a ‘beer gut’, whereas for women it’s more evenly distributed fat due to the fat functions we’ve talked about,” says Collins.
The speed at which the fat is accumulated was the subject of a 2016 study by the University of Aberdeen, University of Cambridge and University of Michigan that used mice to uncover a gender difference in weight gain driven by physical activity and energy expenditure.
Targeting the brain hormones called proopiomelanocortin (POMC) that regulate our appetite, physical activity and energy expenditure, researchers were able to transform obese male mice into lean, healthy mice. However, the same transformation did not occur in female mice, leading them to conclude that females gain weight more easily and faster than males.
Are some diets better suited to men than women?
Diets are never a one-size fits all but there are some notable observations. “One of the things that has anecdotally been observed is that going on a low-carb or keto diet [high fat, adequate protein and very low carbs] tends to be very successful in men compared to women,” says Collins. “And this hasn’t been tested, but when you think that men are more generally reliant on carbohydrates, perhaps that’s a contributing factor in their success. The reason paleo or Atkins diets appealed to men was perhaps because you can eat lots of meat and protein. What tends to happen then is that by cutting carbs you’re removing a lot of items that people tend to overeat, such as cakes, bread, sandwiches.”
Diets are never a one-size fits-all but there are some notable observations. Photo / 123RF
Ultimately, the success of any diet is sustainability and conscious eating – anything that changes a person’s behaviour long-term. Lambert hasn’t found anecdotally that one particular diet suits men or women, she says: “Food is gendered – it’s predominantly women that consume plant-based diets first and then convince their partners to try it but it’s stereotypical that ‘men eat meat’.
“A successful diet for weight loss is something that fits into your lifestyle where you don’t feel deprived, you’re able to eat well, you’re getting loads of fibre so your bowel movements are regular, you’re energised, you sleep well, you can enjoy the odd indulgent item and you’re still managing to maintain a healthy weight. That’s the goal and it takes a lot of trial and error for both men and women.”
What midlife women need in their diet
“We all need protein, fibre, omega-3s and antioxidants,” says Lambert. “Throughout menstruation you’re losing iron but during menopause you need to support bone health because oestrogen protects the bones. This means plenty of calcium, vitamin D and phytoestrogens (found in soy). If you’re dairy-free, make sure your plant milk is fortified with calcium and vitamin D (especially in winter), and increase leafy greens and nuts.
“Folate (B9) and other B vitamins are necessary for metabolism and managing symptoms of menopause – you get those from legumes, pulses and beans, which are a great source of fibre and protein. If you don’t eat oily fish, make sure you’re getting omega-3s in an algae-based supplement. Eat the rainbow: plenty of different coloured fruits and vegetables that contain polyphenols to support the ageing process in our brains.”
“Throughout their lifetime men need plenty of zinc and selenium to support their reproductive system,” says Lambert. “A lot of men focus heavily on protein – most are getting enough naturally if they’re eating a balanced diet but could do with upping their fibre with wholegrains and legumes.”
Antioxidants are crucial – found in green tea, colourful vegetables, berries – to protect your cells from the build-up of oxidative stress (an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body which can damage tissues and organs).
“Anecdotally from my clinic, women talk more than men about stress and when there’s no outlet it can build up leaving the body depleted of nutrients. Reducing salt and saturated fat, especially if eating a lot of meat, will help protect men from that build-up of internal fat. Replace saturated fats with healthy fats – olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds – to enable the body to move, process and break down the saturated fat more effectively and lower cholesterol,” says Lambert.
