Thank You Estrogen! Why He Loses Faster Than You

by Kris Pitcher

Here's an interesting (and perhaps infuriating) fact:

Women burn fat more slowly than men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day. Most men have a much easier time burning fat than women. Women, because of their reproductive role, generally require a higher basic body fat proportion than men, and as a result their bodies don’t get rid of excess fat at the same rate as men.

If I had a nickle for every time I heard someone tell me their husband/boyfriend/brother was losing weight faster than her...well, I'd have a lot of nickles. But there are some simple things at play here which can help us understand this factoid.

Women as described above are designed to carry more fat based on our reproductive role. Sorry ladies, but you're the one's who've been trusted to bear the children of this world and with that responsibility comes a little extra padding.

You need the fat to create and protect your child. Going to Cold Stone four times a week during your pregnancy was however, your choice.

The contributing factor here is estrogen. Our estrogen regardless of it's womanly wonders...keeps the extra padding on us. It keeps it on us just in case we need to populate this world of ours. You never know. Thank you estrogen.

One of the other major factors in the equation is men carry more muscle mass than women. Our metabolism is driven by our muscle mass, so it stands to reason that men burn more calories than we do. It's simple. We can level out the playing field a little bit by getting our estrogen filled butt into the gym to lift some weights. Weights heavier than our giant purse.

By building and maintaining our lean body mass as we age, our metabolism doesn't have to slow down. Use it or lose it ladies. Keep your body burning calories all the time (even when you aren't doing anything) by building muscle. Um, can you help me off my soapbox here, it's a little high for me to jump?

I just can't impress how important strength training is. Combined with your cardio, you'll find a sleeker, slimmer, toned you. A you who burns more calories every day. I bet you'd like to meet her! Now you're armed with some information to deescalate this reality of life: he loses faster than you. You're right, it's not fair. Get over it and get moving!