The short answer is yes, women and men do lose weight differently. While many women have suspected this is true, research now proves that it is in fact harder for women to lose weight than men.
Don’t worry ladies, you’re not crazy.
So, why is it harder for women to lose weight?
Women Have Less Lean Muscle Mass.
Women carry less muscle than men. This affects fat loss because lean muscle mass determines your metabolic rate. This is the rate at which your body burns fat when you are at rest (ie not doing any sort of strenuous exercise.)
Very simply, the more lean muscle you have, the more fat your body burns. Because women have less muscle mass, they burn less fat throughout the day.
Female Fat Cells Are Different
Women have more storage enzymes – chemicals that tell their body to store fat – than they do burning enzymes – chemicals that tell their body to get rid of the fat. While men have more enzymes that tell their body to burn fat. This means that the female fat cells receive the signal to store fat more often than men’s fat cells do. It is more natural for them to store fat than to burn it.
Female fat cells are also slightly larger than male fat cells, meaning they store more fat more readily.
