It is scientifically proven that men lose weight faster than women. There are two main reasons that I have come across that prove that men lose weight at an increased rate over women. One reason is that the male body is set up that way; the second is that men are more active during the day.

Typically, the average male has more lean muscle mass than the average female body. This means that even while men and women sleep, the male will burn more calories than the female because the more muscle mass you have, the more energy your body must burn to maintain it. If a couple begins to workout and they do the same workout, the male will naturally burn more calories due to his body makeup.

Secondly, the male is more active in a day. I have read studies that show men burn about 16-30 more calories in a day because they can't sit as still as women. Think about it, you see it in everyday life. Even though some people say chivalry is dead, I see men opening the door for women every now and then... these small actions add up at the end of the day... women, next time get the door for the men if you want to stay on an even playing field

Women do however have an edge when it comes to perception. Because women are more in-tune with their emotions and body, they understand the need for exercise better than their male counterparts. There was a study done showing that women could tell that they had gained weight better than men. Also due to a males lack of emotional awareness it is harder for them to recognize when they are emotionally eating. Women know that when they want chocolate, it is comfort food and treat it as a treat better than men, who could eat it every day and twice on Sunday.

All that being said, the weight loss that men have over women is marginal at best. In the very beginning it is easier to see the difference, but as time goes by and we get past the need for instant gratification, it is very negligible and both men and women can be equally successful in their weight loss goals!

I also read that men have higher metobolisms than women. They are biologically programmed to have higher amounts of lean body mass, or muscle, than women. Research has found that the metabolism of a man is 5 to 10 percent higher than that of a woman of the same weight and height, an average.

Another reason why men lose weight faster than women is because they have more muscle. With more muscle, you burn more calories, even at rest.

I don't agree about it having anything to do with emotions and being in touch with ones body.

Put a man who works construction 8 hours a day 6 days a week up against a woman who works in an office as an executive and you're going to get the same answers as you would if the roles were reversed.

The one working construction is going to tell you that "exercise" is a waste of effort and the executive is going to stress the importance of exercise.

Reason being the construction worker is generally paid for physical activity so "exercise" in the traditional sense of the word seems like working for free. For the executive who generally delegates physical activity out to workers or machines however, exercise is an extracurricular activity.

That is a very valid point, if all men worked in construction and if women were relegated only to clerical work. Jobert, join us in the 21st century!

But I'm in the 22nd century, why would I want to come back to the 21st ?

You're missing my point.

Instead of a man VS a woman, take the same situation with man vs man and woman vs woman. You're still going to get the same results where the construction worker considers exercise a waste and the clerical worker considers exercise a necesity.

I worked construction from the time I was a teenager until my mid 20s and always considered exercise to be a waste since I got more than a good workout working construction. However, now that I do mainly clerical work, I don't consider exercise to be a waste anymore.

I gotcha now, but that is a different topic than Man vs. Woman. It is a valid one, I wonder who gets more of a workout, Blue Collar vs. White Collar... I might look more into that!

Men are more active than women?! Are you kidding me? You don't have kids do you? Ha! With little ones running around, you don't get any more active!!!

I think it depends on the man and the woman. There are a lot of active men and a lot of active women, but there are also a lot of un-active men and women! I know lots of women who are more active than a lot of guys.

Easy now... It is the averages. There are plenty of women who are more active than men that I know, but let's face it women are just smarter than men and do things more efficiently than men!

Now can you image how efficient the average women is with her kids at home versus the average man at home alone with the kids... do the math and you'll find that women can probably handle the kids, laundry, cooking and squeeze in a little exercise with less work than a man at home alone with the dog and the simple chore of taking out the trash... come on... you know it's true!!!

I know all about these women who stay at home and try to make it sound like they work soo hard.

When I was a kid my mom stayed at home and took care of my little brother and I, I remember how she used to tell my dad how exausted she was and how she spent all day cleaning/etc, yet she would spend a few hours cleaning and lay out in her lounge chair in the sun for most of the day taking breaks to hop in the shower or make lunch/etc.

When I painted, I can't tell you how many times I drove over bosses houses in the middle of the day unannounced to get tools we'd forgotten/etc to find their wives laying on the couch watching TV in the AIR CONDITIONING or sitting out back reading a book, or some other "exaustive" task.
It was all I could do not to burst out in laughter at the end of the day when we would all meet up there and they'd have these stories about how they'd been working non-stop all day.

There's more mental stress involved with kids than there is physical stress. If you're the guy responsible for what the guys you have with you are doing I dare say that mental stress still doesn't compare.

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Oooh wow, you had to carry a baby all day. Try carrying 5 gallon buckets of paint all over the place throughout the day, I can fit two of those babies in each bucket and carry one bucket in each hand!

Better yet try dragging an airless paint sprayer or pressure washer wand around getting help with the hose from some idiot off in dream land who thinks he's the next Eminem yet the concept that maybe wearing headphones and singing off-key on a roof with someone screaming "GET ME SOME F*****G SLACK IN MY HOSE" is probably a really, really, bad idea.

Kids spilling juice that might leave a spot on the carpet ? Oh no! How about having that same genius from the roof moving your airless sprayer from the front yard to the back yard and leaving a trail of paint between the two places, not just across the grass or gravel driveway, but across the sidewalks and patios, but wait it gets better, it hadn't occured to this lyrical Einstien that there's a pressurized paint hose being dragged behind this thing, so they just think "the man" is trying to keep them down when the hose gets snagged on something and they try to muscle through it only to have the connection between the hose and the sprayer itself snap and get paint spraying as far as the next door neighbors windows.

Certainly it couldn't get any worse, but alas, Slim Chance of Keeping His Job doesn't think to turn the pump on the airless off before they come running around the corner hooting and hollering about how the sprayer "just broke" and it continues to ooze paint out into a large puddle.

But no, the best part is when they ask if you could just pay them for the hours they worked in cash now when you tell them to go home and that you'll call them when you need help again and you know that even though they don't deserve it, those few bucks are less than it's going to cost when they slash your tires if you refuse to pay them for making that mess.

Please, PLEASE, try to tell me that a homemaker works harder than a bread earner in the 21st century. I need a good laugh.

</soap_box>

But yeah, there's both men and women who work really hard.

Good post, and I agree with you, 100%. Especially about the stress factor of being around little ones all day versus a real physical workout. Not the same.

A lot of men work very hard physically at their jobs everyday, I'd say more than women. Yes, some men sit at an office desk all day long, but hey, guess they deserve it because they paid the college costs to get themselves there. And yes, some women are out there working right along side men with physical jobs, but I would say more men dominate physical jobs. A lot of women are just not strong enough. So, bottom line, if the dad switched places with the mom, stayed home and took care of the kids, did all the chores, etc... in the long run, he'd get fat!! and she'd get skinny. lol.

When I was in my early 20s my stepmom had an affair and just up and left my dad (which I and everyone who knew us thought was hillarious because that's what he'd done to my mom) and he'd ended up having a breakdown, quitting his job, cashing in his retirement early, and just doing odd jobs around his house for years.

He ended up getting fat. So my initial thought of a guy who stays home not getting fat because he'd find things to do around the house like paint it went out the window real quick.

I agree, there may be a lot of things to do around the house, but... I believe it's not enough to keep you skinny, unless however... you do it everyday, dang near 8 hours non stop like a regular job... and who does that???

I think there are a couple main factors that lead up to people getting fat at home.

* Boredom and eating while you are bored is probably the main one.

Ways to combat it: Find a hobby... something you really love to do and do that instead of eat when you get bored... the more active the better

* Isolation and depression is another... especially in women with small children

Ways to combat it: find friends with similar interests that have your same hours and make play dates... for the kids and for yourself

Chores aren't exercise... You become effecient at activities you do everyday causing you to exert less and less energy to do the same tasks. Eventually you will get nothing out of washing dishes, mowing the lawn etc. If you want to stay healthy you must find some time for yourself to really build up a good sweat during the day. It won't take hours; 15 minutes of a good sweat is enough if you do it daily and you could do a little weight workout to really put an exclaimation on it!

In terms of weight loss, are men falling weight faster than women, this is because the amount of fat is much less than women, although the day-to-day more women who like to exercise than women (such as the fact in the gym near my house), always be the man who dropped the weight more quickly.