Why you don’t lose as much weight as your dude does (part 1)
December 21, 2017 Ashley 0 Comments
“It’s not fair! Bae and I eat the same, but he’s the only one losing weight!”
I keep hearing it over and over from the women I know – and even some I don’t.
And, for a long time, I thought that (because most’ve these chicks are married with kids) it was just because of that. You have kids and suddenly everything changes. Hormones levels. Eating habits. Workout habits. You name it. But, then I noticed, even my never-been-preggo pals were complaining of the same. So what gives? Conventional “wisdom” would have you believing that it’s because dudes have bigger builds and thus faster metabolisms. Or that it’s because of their higher testosterone levels. And, while that might be (in part) true, it doesn’t explain two things. The first? That more recent studies have shown that testosterone doesn’t necessarily aid significantly in weight loss. The second? Me. I’m bae’d up. Just like my chick buddies who suddenly can’t lose weight, compared to their partners. And I’m doing just fine on the scale front.
So… what’s the difference?
Are dudes just lucky? And every chick who eats and works out like I do is just an alien?
Maybe.
But I think the whole problem boils down to a synthesis of far simpler reasons.
Ones that don’t involve lab rats or martians.
The first? Self honesty – especially when it comes to dieting. Ever seen that YouTube skit called “The Nail”? It starts with this chick who keeps complaining about headaches and listing possible reasons for them. The boyfriend, listens, intently and quietly. Then, finally, he pauses. There’s silence. And, when he speaks, he timidly tries to offer the solution. But, before he can even finish, she blows up at him. The big reveal? That she’s got a giant nail lodged in her cranium. The takeaway? That she doesn’t wanna admit the one thing that’s causing the problem – is the legitimate problem. As women, we do this a lot. We explain away our weight gain – lamenting this spontaneous adipose sheathing for coming outta nowhere. I see it all the time. My friends will defensively say, “I DO eat healthy”. But then they’ll order the fudge sundae asphyxiated by a ganache coating when we go out. Or polish off the bread basket. But, what’s more, I’ve been there. Pizza parties for one, giant breadbowls, and calorie filled cocktails all haunted my body in the past. And when I (for some cruel, unknown reason) couldn’t fit into my swimsuit, I was in total denial about why. Especially when I’d worked out so much. Once I got really honest with myself, however, I realized that I was just justifying my bad eating habits. (Protip: eating healthier is easier than trying to work off a bad diet.) I’d always felt I needed some kind of reward. So, I reasoned that those calories couldn’t possibly count.
(“Fat can’t register in your flesh if you’re standing when you eat. It’s science…”)
I deserved them, I believed. Because it was holiday. Or vacation. Or Tuesday afternoon in the middle of my period. After coming to terms with the fact that that’s not the way the world worked, I started synching up with reality and changing my habits. What’s more, I found novel forms of “rewarding” myself. Ones that didn’t sabotage my fitness path.
Now, I’m not saying all women do this. There are extenuating circumstances. But so many do because a great majority of us are emotional eaters. We eat because of stress, boredom, or depression. Some but far fewer dudes tend to do that. As a result, there’s generally less of a deep, visceral emotional tie to needing food as a crutch to cope with life-pain. And, as a result of that, there’s no deep need to secretly sneak it or subsequently go into denial about it later.
And, speaking of denial, that might be the second reason many women struggle in their late 20’s to stay fit. Denial. Except I mean self denial – as in denying ourselves of the food we do need. One in every 200 women is reported to suffer from anorexia. And two to three in every 100, is said to suffer from bulimia. (And that’s just what’s actually reported.) Many teens, under pressure to stay slender, start up an eating disorder. Then, one of two things happens. It either follows them into the rest of their lives or it effs up their metabolism, making weight loss harder later. To make matters worse, they dunno how to fix it. Having gone through that myself in my younger years, I can assure you: getting on a balanced, whole food, non-processed plant based diet is the way to revive your metabolic furnace. Sure, you might gain weight for a couple of months, but then everything evens out and that adipose monster sloughs off, revealing a beautiful, new you. Especially once you find a form of physical fitness that you dig.
Can’t give up eating creatures?
Well, even if it’s not vegan, just adding more plants to your snack list is a great way to stay fit.
Read on for alternatives… and more ways to catch up with bae.