Struggles of Women and Body Fat...

Many women looking to transform their bodies are frequently frustrated over the body fat that covers their muscles. From their vantage point it seems that no matter how hard they work, the process is slow and to no avail. In my experience the women work a lot harder at their results, than men work for theirs. Evidence of this truth can be seen that how men can consume more calories than women without gaining any weight and also lose weight much faster. So what is the problem... What gives...? Well the simply reason points to the biological differences that exist between men and women. The more complex reasons are specific to you and I will deal with that later. Some of them can be found here.

Body Composition
One of the differences that impact your ability to burn the fat is your body composition. This is simply the amount of lean body mass (muscle and bone) in comparison to fat mass (fat) that makes up your body. Men, in general, have more muscle mass, heavier bones and less body fat than women. Its these differences in muscle mass that allow men to burn more calories than women at rest. Women on the other hand have the ability to store fat more efficiently than men, despite eating fewer calories proportionately. This the reason to incorporate weight training into your program, which will help increase your lean body mass. Not the "5's" and "10's" dumbbells either - you will need to progressively challenge your body with the "15's", "20's" and "30's" in order to force the body to lay down more muscle tissue. You have to challenge yourself.

Physical Activity
In general women are less active than men. In a study where metabolism was measured men and women showed that the reason women's for low energy expenditure was due to fewer calories burned from physical activity. This involves anything from differences in jobs for men and women, and differences in household activities - generally speaking of course. Increase your physical activity by taking the stairs where possible, staying on your feet more during the day, and/or parking further away at the mall or grocery store. There are numerous ways to incorporate more movement daily.

Metabolism
To the contrary though there is actually little difference between men and women in overall metabolism. On average, women's total energy expenditure, which is the number of calories burned to fuel breathing, circulation, digestion, physical activity, and many other body processes, is approximately five to ten percent lower than men's. The lower overall energy expenditure can be explained by body composition.

Now with more calories expended at rest and more calories burned during activities—makes it easier for men to eat more without gaining weight and also to lose weight faster than women of a similar size. However at the end of the day, the differences in gender cannot trump hard work in the gym with the exercise and hard work out of the gym with the nutrition. Now these differences are not allow to be used as excuses - I will have none of that. Just focus on doing what you have to do now, so that you can do what you want to do later. Gain control of habits that do not move you forward towards goals. Hence the phrase... "drop it like a bad habit". Just understand that your journey and struggles are yours to own and experience. What you need to change in order to reach your goals are specific to you. This is what makes you unique. Some will have to work hard and some will have to work harder.

Be Well.