With the festive season around the corner, a good majority of people will be over indulging adding a number of pounds which is never easy to lose. But additional to this, is a slight unfair advantage between men and women. Have you ever noticed that men seemed to be able to lose weight a lot quicker than women with less effort? Over the 10 years I have been personal training I still have to re-educate female clients on the how fat burning works for women and why it’s different from men.
Unfortunately women are at a disadvantage when trying to lose weight. The reason for this is down to human physiology. Women have more lipogenic enzymes (fat building) whilst men have more lipolytic enzymes (fat burning). The reason for this is women have the amazing ability to sustain another life within their womb for nine months and then continue to feed the child from their own milk…..truly amazing!
So when looking at women trying to lose weight there are a number of factors that women should take into consideration:
Muscle – Each pound of muscle burns around 20 calories per day, hence one of the reasons why it is so much easier for men to lose weight as they carry more muscle tissue. So in order for women to burn more body fat you must get more muscle.
Diets – Women are obsessed with dieting. The big misconception is women believe the less they eat the slimmer they will become, right? Wrong! Research shows that reducing the amount of nutrients in your diet will send your body into its survival mode and will increase your lipogenic enzymes (fat building) by a whopping 50%. So when crash dieting, you will increase body fat and will lose nothing but water and muscle tissue, which tricks you into thinking you have burnt fat. If you don’t believe what I say then have a think about what happens when you crash diet and then go back to eating a regular 3-4 meals per day, does the weight stay off or come back with a vengeance?
Time – Remember that you will not gain muscle tissue quickly like men can, so in order for you to increase the tissue to burn more calories it will take time! By eating a balanced diet, reducing starchy carbohydrates and exercise 4 times per week you should aim for losing 1-2 pounds per week of fat. Don’t be fooled by the scales, because as you increase muscle tissue you may not lose any weight initially.
Be Patient – Most women tend to want everything immediately and after going the gym and eating reasonably well for a couple of months you become disheartened when you don’t lose weight so then give it up….sound familiar?
Motivation – When you don’t see any results in a short space of time the motivation tends to go out the window. This is a critical point and focus is needed here. Try visualisation techniques, think of how you want to look and keep thinking this picture at least ten times per day. Every time you want to eat bad food, think about your body and what you want and ask yourself the question. “does this food help me get to the body I want?” When you feel like skipping exercise ask yourself again, “will I get what I want by not training?”
You will get a lot of mileage out of these small but essential steps. So give it a go and I promise by following this you will achieve huge results. If you would like to know more on this issue then contact Lewis Bailey Personal trainer on 07771 533 408 or e-mail him on lewis@elitefitnessconsultants.co.uk
Good luck and keep your eye out for part 2 of this article coming soon.