Experts say it has to do with our different body compositions. (iStock)
Ladies, you’re not imagining things: Men really do lose weight faster.
After two months on a low-calorie diet, men lost an average of 26 pounds, while women shed just 22, according to a study published in the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism journal.
Researchers tracked some 2,200 overweight, pre-diabetic adults in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. For eight weeks, participants stuck to an 800-calorie per day plan, consisting of soups, shakes, hot cereals and vegetables.
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Not only were men the biggest losers — they got healthier than women, too. By the end of the study, male participants had lower heart rates, less body fat and a lower diabetes risk than their female counterparts.
Meanwhile, women experienced more negative effects from the diet, with larger reductions in “good” HDL cholesterol (which aids heart health) and bone mineral density (which leads to bone weakness). Their only win against the boys was losing more inches from their hips.
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Unfair? Certainly. But not surprising to experts.
“I often see women lose weight slower than men,” Rania Batayneh, nutritionist and author of “The Simple 1:1:1 Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss,” tells The New York Post. “Sometimes, even if a man has no intention of losing weight, he’ll drop the pounds anyway.”
Batayneh credits the weight gap to men’s naturally muscle-dense body composition, “which is a calorie burner.” She also points out that men have a tendency to have more visceral fat, or belly fat. Losing abdomen fat revs the metabolism, allowing the body to torch calories faster.
In contrast, “women have more subcutaneous fat — often around their thighs, bottoms and hips,” she says. And unlike losing belly fat, shedding subcutaneous fat doesn’t “fire up” the metabolism.
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Her best advice to frustrated women? Remember that it’s not a competition, and “be happy with the amount you lost,” says Batayneh.
In other words, every loser’s a winner.
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