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WHY IS FAT LOSS MORE DIFFICULT IN WOMEN? (AND HOW TO FIX IT)

Women do not respond to exercise like men and take longer to lose fat. Explanations and solutions!


Maybe your man has the emotional depth of a canned ham and Dante needs to create a whole new Circle of Hell to put his foul-smelling socks in there, but you can forgive him. However, what you cannot forgive him is how easily he loses his body fat compared to you!

Unfortunately for you ladies, that same man who thinks dieting is stopping at the third serving of lasagna and lazily pedaling the bike for a few minutes, will indeed lose 2 pounds by next week ( we're exaggerating a bit here…).


But you ? Ah! It's a whole different story. You spend every lunch hour lifting weights and working out on an Assault Bike, to no avail. In terms of losing weight, women have some disadvantages. It doesn't mean that there aren't ways to overcome them. But first you need to know what you are going to face.


Women respond to exercise differently


Endocrinologist Gregory Henderson has described three major differences in the way exercise affects a woman's metabolic level:

  • Fat cells in women release less fat into the blood during exercise than in men.

  • Exercise affects resting fat oxidation more in men than in women.

  • Exercise inhibits the effect of triglycerides after food in men more than in women.

If you add it all up, you'll see why men seem to benefit more from exercise than women, at least metabolically.


Any other bad news?


We have (finally!) Some good news for women. While this metabolic difference is beneficial for men in terms of speed of weight loss, it is not in terms of health. It seems that when women gain weight, they are more likely to gain subcutaneous fat, while men gain more visceral fat.


This means that women tend to gain weight directly under the skin, which may be more noticeable when stripping naked, for example at the beach, while men are more likely to store fat around their organs there. where it's not very visible. In other words, subcutaneous fat is fat that is still “healthy”, whereas visceral fat is not at all.


You can, of course, you feel sorry for yourself and dislike your body, but the extra fat in men is much more serious, and can even be fatal! Esteem yourself happy ladies!


Sadly, just when you think you've won a victory over the opposite sex, I'm sorry to break it down like that, but it turns out that subcutaneous fat is harder to lose than visceral fat.


Exercise to burn fat: the truth


Now I am going to ask you to ignore all of these explanations that women are at a metabolic disadvantage when it comes to exercise and fat loss. Why ? Quite simply because it doesn't matter much. The truth is, exercising is not the most effective way to lose weight, whether you are a man or a woman.

Some women (and men) try to lose weight by lifting heavy weights or lifting weights and taking very short periods of rest. But be aware that the highest energy expenditure recorded during a weight training workout is just over 8 kcal per minute, which is not much different from what you would burn if you watered the begonias in your garden. If this example is not enough for you, you should also know that doing a single repetition of the most famous strength training exercises does not burn more calories than sitting in a chair and taking deep breaths.


You may find that you are more efficient because your rest periods are short. So short, that the sweat you spilled on the bench during your previous set hasn't even dried yet by the time you start the next one. Nice theory, but that only shortens the total duration of your workout, which means that the total metabolic expenditure of your workout is also going to be limited.

There is, however, some evidence that strength training temporarily curbs appetite.


It's already that ! You might think that this bodybuilding and fat loss information doesn't apply to you because you spend an hour or two on the mat running at a breakneck pace. Are you sure ?! This is probably not the case, as the energy expended on cardio is also really, but very poor. However, if it suits you to tire yourself out on cardio equipment for half an hour just to burn off the energy equivalent of a handful of tactics, so be it!


So what should women do to lose their fat?

  1. If you want to lose fat, eat fewer calories. Eat healthy, have a nutritionist monitor you. It's the only thing that works.

  2. Lift weights to sculpt your body.

  3. Do cardio to improve your energy levels, endurance and heart health.

  4. To lose weight, follow a diet that will be adapted to your level of physical expenditure. You will get much more important results than spending your lunch hour ruining your life on the treadmill.


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