Why Women Often Have More Trouble Losing Weight than Men
One of the biggest factors men have in their favor is body composition. Men tend to have more muscle than women, who in turn have about 10 percent more of their body weight in the form of fat.
Muscle tissue burns three to five times more energy than fat tissues, so as you gain muscle, your metabolic rate increases, which allows you to burn more calories, even when you’re physically inactive. Because of their greater muscle mass, a man’s resting metabolic rate can be up to 10 percent higher than a woman’s (of the same age and weight), giving them a weight-loss advantage.
Men and women vary in the type of fat their bodies are made up of. Men tend to have more visceral fat while women tend to have more subcutaneous fat. Subcutaneous fat is found just under your skin, and is the type that causes dimpling and cellulite. Visceral fat, on the other hand, shows up in your abdomen and surrounds your vital organs including your liver, heart and muscles.
Visceral fat is the one that is linked to heart disease, diabetes and stroke, among many other chronic diseases. So from a health standpoint, having more visceral fat is not a benefit. However, from a weight-loss point of view, visceral fat is metabolized faster, making it easier to lose than subcutaneous fat.
Women may be more inclined to eating for emotional reasons than men – reaching for food (typically junk food) in response to stress, sadness, and loneliness. Research even shows that women may have a reduced ability to stave off hunger and resist food cravings than men.
Why People Have Trouble Losing Weight Even When Exercising
Exercise is necessary for health and for weight maintenance. However people rarely are able to lose weight without also reducing calories and weight loss with exercise and no calorie restriction is often less than expected. This is because the calorie deficit generated through exercise is typically less than what can be achieved through calorie restriction. Regular exercise also reduces resting metabolic rate by about 7 percent which can make losing weight more challenging. People also tend to consume more calories when exercising which also contributes to the challenge of losing weight. The most effective way to lose weight is to combine exercise with calorie restriction.
Dietary Fibers Role in Health and Weight Management
Dietary fiber, also known as roughage or bulk, includes all parts of plant foods that your body can’t digest or absorb. Unlike other food components such as fats, proteins or carbohydrates — which your body breaks down and absorbs — fiber isn’t digested by your body. Therefore, it passes relatively intact through your stomach, small intestine, colon and out of your body.
Fiber is commonly classified into two categories: those that don’t dissolve in water (insoluble fiber) and those that do (soluble fiber).
Insoluble fiber. This type of fiber promotes the movement of material through your digestive system and increases stool bulk, so it can be of benefit to those who struggle with constipation or irregular stools. Whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts and many vegetables are good sources of insoluble fiber.
Soluble fiber. This type of fiber dissolves in water to form a gel-like material. It can help lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels. Soluble fiber is found in oats, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, barley and psyllium.
Fiber has a wide variety of health benefits including the ability to normalize bowel movements, help lower blood cholesterol and control blood sugar levels.
High-fiber foods generally require more chewing time, which gives your body time to register when you’re no longer hungry, so you’re less likely to overeat. Also, a high-fiber diet tends to make a meal feel larger and linger longer, so you stay full for a greater amount of time. And high-fiber diets also tend to be less “energy dense,” which means they have fewer calories for the same volume of food.
For men aged 50 and younger you should be consuming 38 gram and women in the same age group should be consuming 25 grams per day. For men aged 51 and older you should be consuming 30 grams and women in the same age group should be consuming 21 grams per day.
When using fiber supplements we generally recommend consuming them at night before bed. Fiber does absorb water and increase in volume after being consumed in some people this can cause slight bloating or gas. Adequate water should be consumed with any fiber supplement.
Supplement Guide – Women’s Nutrition
Vitamin D
Supports bone health by promoting calcium absorption. Some animal and epidemiological trials show that vitamin D plays a role in preventing breast cancers.
Dose: 1000IU to 3000IU per day
Omega 3 Fats
Oily, cold water fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring and sardines have omega 3 fatty acids EPA and DHA that reduce the risk heart attack and heart disease, combat depression and reduce inflammation.
Dose: 1000mg of EPA and DHA per day
Calcium
Bone building peaks during childbearing years. A calcium supplement helps ensure there is enough bone mass to reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Choosing a supplement with magnesium can improve the absorption of calcium.
Dose: 800mg per day
Probiotics
Numerous studies show that probiotics can help enhance immune health and improve digestion.
Dose: 30 billion CFU per day
Training Tip 7/17/11: From the ground up
How often in real life are you pushing forward with your hands with your back braced off a flat surface? My guess would be, probably never. So, if that’s the case, why do so many people put so much emphasis on the bench press? In real life power is gathered from the ground, and is very rarely done straight out perpendicular to the body. Taking the example of an NFL lineman, when pressing with his arms, he’s doing it at an incline angle. Also, if he’s completely upright he’ll most likely end up on his back. He gathers power through his feet and transfers it through his body. Training should reflect this where the majority should be done standing, with seated or lying down being more secondary or supplemental options.
Jaime Gamache M.Ed., CSCS, is Owner and Head Strength Coach of The Way Human Performance Institute ( www.thewayhpi.com or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/pages/The-Way-Human-Performance-Institute/117742824954659 )
Training Tip 9/7/11: Keep it Closed
Whether you believe in evolution or creationism, one fact remains: human beings were designed to move from the ground up.
In the health club/nautilus culture, machines were designed with the intention of working every major muscle group in an isolated way with the theory that fitness is achieved by the collective summation of the parts of the body. Functional training takes an oppositional stance of the body acting as a whole and disregarding the strength of a single muscle group over others.
The invention of these machines has led to a host of exercises where the feet are no longer in contact with the ground (ie. leg extensions and leg curls). Excessive use of these machines creates strength where the focus of that strength is not at the point of contact with the ground, but at a point around the ankle. This creates unnatural or unbalanced torque on the knee. Exercises of this type are called “open chain” because the direction of force is not at the farthest point of the lever arm (ie. hand or foot). ”Closed chain” exercises are by definition the opposite, and maintain the foot in contact with the ground. Squats, lunges and even leg curls on a stability or medicine ball are all examples of closed chain exercises.
Jaime Gamache M.Ed., CSCS, is Owner and Head Strength Coach of The Way Human Performance Institute ( www.thewayhpi.com and www.facebook.com/pages/The-Way-Human-Performance-Institute/117742824954659 )
Training Tip 9/10/11: No such thing as “The Weaker Sex”
We would like to introduce our newest contributor Jaime Gamache M.Ed., CSCS. He is Owner and Head Strength Coach of The Way Human Performance Institute www.thewayhpi.com located in Cranston RI.
“Toning” is a myth.
Repeat, it doesn’t exist.
Toning only happens in printers.
It’s a word made up by the fitness industry to trick uninformed women (which I’m sure there are none of reading this) into believing that strength training using the same methods as men will cause them harm or to blow up like bodybuilders (which is such and easy process, why wouldn’t everyone do it?)
Well, to put the cart before the horse, as most of you know, putting on quality muscle takes years and years of training. Professional bodybuilders spend most of their lives in the gym and female bodybuilders are no different. The average woman walking into the gym will never even change their muscular circumference, never mind adding bulk.
The reason for this is that when women strength train, at a muscular level they perform a process called “Enervation”. In simple terms, this means that women develop neural pathways that allow them to access and activate muscle cells they already have.
The average person only effectively uses about 30% of the muscle in their body, pro athletes have been found to use up to 50%. The theory for this is that while adrenaline allows women to lift cars off their children, repeated occurrences of that magnitude would have devastating effects on our bones and ligaments. Men and women are born with a certain number of muscle (and fat) cells. This number never changes, regardless of training. While women enervate, men’s muscle cells get thicker. The key ingredient in the difference is testosterone. Testosterone is what allows men to create more muscle mass and while women do have some testosterone in their bodies, most don’t have enough to allow for bulky muscle to develop.
In a practical sense, this means that while on the average, women will not generate the same force that men will. This is more true for upper body strength than lower body strength where it has been shown that women display proportionate strength to mass ratio in the lower body. But, from a tactical standpoint, women can generate considerable force and power when performing the same type of functional training as their male contemporaries.
Jaime Gamache M.Ed., CSCS, is Owner and Head Strength Coach of The Way Human Performance Institute ( www.thewayhpi.com and www.facebook.com/pages/The-Way-Human-Performance-Institute/117742824954659 )
Melt Away the Fat with ANS Melting Point
ANS Melting Point is probably the most comprehensive of the non stimulant fat burning products on the market. If you are serious about fat burning check out what this product has to offer.
In the battle against fat 7-oxo or 7-keto DHEA carries a lot of weight. Double blind placebo controlled studies have shown this ingredient to increase resting metabolic rate by as much as 5.4%. 7-oxo DHEA also works to stop reductions in metabolic rate when calories are restricted during dieting. 7-oxo DHEA achieves thermogenisis not by acting as a stimulant but by increasing the activity of fat burning enzymes. Weight lost while using 7-oxo DHEA tends to be fat as this ingredient has been shown to spare muscle tissue.
The active chemical in Coleus (forskolin) initiates a cascade of chemical reactions that cause fat cells to basically release their energy and melt away. In more technical terms, what happens is Coleus increases an enzyme called adenylate cyclase, which increases levels of another enzyme called cAMP (cyclic AMP), which is found in fat. cAMP then stimulates another enzyme, hormone sensitive lipase, to burn fat. Additionally, by a similar mechanism using cAMP, coleus increases thyroid hormone production and release, thereby increasing the bodies’ metabolism, to burn more calories.
The polyphenols in green tea appear to activate our bodies’ thermogenic activity, promoting the use of calories as energy and thus may assist our fat-fighting efforts.
Raspberry Ketones are aromatic compounds found in red raspberries that have been shown to aid fat loss without stimulating the central nervous system. The molecular structure in Raspberry Ketones are similar to capsaicin – the thermogenic (caloric burning process through heat) agent in chilies and red peppers, but are thought to be far more potent than capsaicin at lipolysis (fat cell destruction).
Due to the similarity in structure of Raspberry Ketones to capsaicin, scientific research to test the fat loss effects of Raspberry Ketones were conducted, and clearly showed that Raspberry Ketones prevented weight gain in mice even when the animals were on a high-fat diet. Also, when rats were overfed fructose, Raspberry Ketones prevented fat synthesis.
Raspberry Ketones fat loss effects come from their ability to enhance norepinephrine-induced fat loss by promoting the relocation of HSL (hormone-sensitive lipase) to translocate to within the fat cell. HSL is the enzyme that, once inside the fat cell, slices apart fat molecules into various fatty acids in preparation for fat metabolism, which means that consuming Raspberry Ketones may lead to overall increase in fat being burned for energy without the use of harsh stimulants.
I really like this product as it ties together several ingredients that have compelling science backing their fat fighting potential. It also shows the dosing of each ingredient rather than hiding them in an under dosed blend.
Protein Promotes Fat Loss
Australian researchers published a long-term weight loss study in healthy adult overweight women (BMI initially ~32).
In this study, they followed 79 women for more than a year to see how protein influences weight loss and compliance to a dietary program.
Women who followed a high protein diet lost MORE weight and more fat than those that ate the high carb diet. Protein intake was inversely related to weight and fat loss such that for those that ate more protein lost an average of 14 lbs and 10 lbs of fat compared to those that ate less protein (and more carbs) who lost 7 lbs and 5 lbs of fat over the course of a year. Body composition was measured by DEXA, the gold standard for body comp assessment. After 64 weeks, body fat was higher in those that ate more carbohydrate and lower in those that ate more protein. The same was seen for belly fat – more belly fat in those that ate a higher carb diet compared to the higher protein diet.
Low Carb Diet Helps Insulin-Resistant Women Lose Weight
Overweight women with insulin resistance lose more weight after three months on a lower-carbohydrate diet than on a traditional low-fat diet, according to a new study presented at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting on June 19.
“The typical diet that physicians recommend for weight loss is a low-fat diet,” said the study’s lead author, Raymond Plodkowski, MD, chief of endocrinology, nutrition and metabolism at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno. “However, as this study shows, not all people have the same response to diets.”
As reported by Nutrition Horizon, 45 obese women between the ages of 18 and 65 years—all insulin resistant—participated in the study. Researchers randomly assigned the women to a low-fat or lower-carb diet. The groups did not differ significantly in average body weight. On average, women in the low-fat diet group weighed 213 pounds, while women in the other group weighed 223 pounds.
The composition of the low-fat diet was 60 percent of calories from carbs, 20 percent from fat and 20 percent from protein. Although the lower-carb diet also had 20 percent of calories from protein, it had 45 percent from carbs and 35 percent from primarily unsaturated fats, such as nuts. Menus included a minimum of two fruits and three vegetable servings a day.
Use of prepared meals helped make the structured diets easier and more palatable for the dieters. “We wanted to make this study real-world—anyone could follow this plan by making moderate changes as part of a healthy menu,” Plodkowski said.
Both groups lost weight at each monthly weigh-in, but by 12 weeks, the insulin resistant group receiving the lower-carb diet lost significantly more weight, 19.6 pounds versus 16.2 pounds in the low-fat diet group—approximately 21 percent more on average.