He laughed when I asked him if he had a tapeworm! That’s right, my boyfriend Mike laughed in my face while eating fast food as he told me that he had lost 8 pounds over the past few weeks. I was pissed. Mike had taken some time off to eat junk over the holiday season and was enjoying every second of it. I remained vigilant for my body and even through the holidays, baking cookies, and more, I kept myself to my nutrition plan. Mike on the other hand packed in the garbage and processed junk that we keep out of our diet 90% of the time. His result? 8 lbs down!
My initial reaction was to get annoyed by this. I try extremely hard to control myself and eat mindfully. I have one of those bodies that if I even smell cookies and cakes, I’ll gain weight. (Not really, but I tell myself that quite often)
I remembered being here before with a client, who , like me, got a little defensive when her male partner lost weight with what seemed like less effort and more ease. Although I strongly ENGOURAGE everyone to support each other while succeeding in their own weight loss journeys, I can relate to the feelings of contempt when your male partner is losing weight without an issue.
It’s Not Their Fault
Men are genetically pre-conditioned to have an easier time with weight loss. Due to their increases testosterone levels, they are prone to gaining muscle faster than women. Muscle tissue burns calories and the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you will burn every day, even if you just lie in bed all day.
(In Mike’s case, he really wasn’t trying to lose weight. He filled himself up on garbage and couldn’t eat his regular high calorie content – see he’s always trying to GAIN weight. Even more frustrating!)
Conversely, women are designed with higher levels of estrogen, a hormone which receptors aid in controlling both blood fat level and your bodies water/salt balance (retain water during their period? Thank Estrogen)
They have different emotional attachments to food and exercise
Men have a great way of turning certain emotional connections to food off. They tend not to be emotional eaters and usually crave different types of foods than women. Women tend to reach towards sweets and carbohydrates if it is their tendency to be an emotional eater. Men, on the other hand, crave more meats, potatoes, and hearty sandwiches, foods that remind them of Mom’s home cooking.
When men think about exercise, they usually don’t have much of an issue turning to weights and strength training. Women, on the other hand, live with the common misconception that lifting weights will cause them to ‘bulk up’ and waste their valuable exercise time with fruitless efforts like 45 minutes on the elliptical. (refer above. more muscle = more calories burned=more fat lost)
PS – ladies: there are 3% of women who are genetically pre-disposed to ‘bulking up’ when they lift challenging weights. That’s a 97% chance that you WON’T. Besides having witnessed many women lose weight by lifting weights (myself included) if we were betting, I’d stick with the 97%
The truth
Weight loss is hard for everyone. Women tend to create many more emotional attachments to ‘dieting’ and nutrition and forget to focus on a healthy lifestyle. If you are married or living with a male partner, remember their success is yours as well. Instead of being angered by their success, use it to motivate you. Encourage your male partner to continue to live a healthy lifestyle and create that for both you and him in your home. They were designed to struggle a little less than us. However our uphill battle towards weight loss is one that creates so much self-pride and joy that the little extra push that you need from inside makes it all worth it. So hate if you want, but your negative emotion is powerless against the way the human body was designed. At the end of the day, the more support you have for YOUR partner, the better chances of YOUR success too.
