Why is it harder for women to lose weight than men?

When it comes to los­ing weight, women have a much hard­er time than men. In view of their phys­i­ol­o­gy, they are sim­ply sharp­ened for stor­ing ener­gy and cre­at­ed for bear­ing and feed­ing a child.

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Women have low testos­terone lev­els, low insulin sen­si­tiv­i­ty, and few­er mito­chon­dria in mus­cle fibers than men. And in gen­er­al — mus­cle mass is much less, as a result — a low­er metab­o­lism.

The main reason is female physiology

A very impor­tant role is played by the men­stru­al cycle, which must be tak­en into account for build­ing the right work­outs and diet.

Nature dic­tates its con­di­tions to us, and it is point­less to fight it, and it is not nec­es­sary. It is only nec­es­sary to take into account some fea­tures and adapt to them.

Read also: Top 7 weight loss mis­takes. Nutri­tion­ist advice

Let’s take a clos­er look at some of the fea­tures of female phys­i­ol­o­gy. And the first thing to pay atten­tion to is men­stru­al cycle. Here the pri­ma­ry role is played by a change in hor­mon­al lev­els: a rapid increase in the lev­el of estra­di­ol in the last days of men­stru­a­tion, its con­sis­tent­ly high lev­el before ovu­la­tion and the almost com­plete absence of prog­es­terone pro­duc­tion — fol­lic­u­lar phase. After ovu­la­tion — the sub­se­quent decline in the lev­el of estra­di­ol and a sharp rise in the lev­el of prog­es­terone with its fur­ther sharp decrease before men­stru­a­tion — the luteal phase of the cycle. Well, the begin­ning of a new cycle, the begin­ning of men­stru­a­tion.

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It is these alter­nat­ing jumps of estra­di­ol and prog­es­terone that change the phys­i­ol­o­gy and psy­chol­o­gy of a woman.

Estradiol and progesterone

Let’s look at the func­tions of these indi­vid­ual hor­mones.

Estra­di­ol – it is one of 3 types of estro­gens, steroid female sex hor­mones. He is the main and most active of them. Estra­di­ol increas­es the elas­tic­i­ty of bones, increas­es the activ­i­ty of the thy­roid gland. As a result, over­all ener­gy increas­es, the amount of adi­pose tis­sue decreas­es, the con­cen­tra­tion of cho­les­terol and low-den­si­ty lipopro­teins (LDL — “bad” cho­les­terol) in the blood decreas­es, and the blood sup­ply to the brain increas­es. It also increas­es the pro­tec­tion of the myocardi­um from var­i­ous kinds of ischemic fac­tors. And this is only a small part of the func­tions that estra­di­ol per­forms.

Estra­di­ol for a woman is like testos­terone for a man

Con­cern­ing prog­es­terone, it’s not all bright and col­or­ful. Prog­es­terone, on the con­trary, increas­es the amount of adi­pose tis­sue by increas­ing insulin sen­si­tiv­i­ty, while reduc­ing insulin sen­si­tiv­i­ty of oth­er tis­sues (mus­cle). Increas­es the break­down of pro­teins (mus­cles) and increas­es blood glu­cose lev­els, all of which increase food moti­va­tion. In addi­tion, it relax­es the lig­a­ments and low­ers the over­all mus­cle tone.

medi­um bur­da

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Women’s emotions

In addi­tion to phys­i­ol­o­gy, the psy­che of a woman is also sub­ject to changes. This peri­od accounts for the largest num­ber of dis­rup­tions, espe­cial­ly dur­ing PMS, due to a sharp drop in prog­es­terone secre­tion on the eve of men­stru­a­tion. Emo­tion­al dis­or­ders very often (about 80% of cas­es) con­tribute to break­downs. And odd­ly enough, diet­ing can increase PMS symp­toms, in part due to psy­cho­log­i­cal effects. There­fore, it is high­ly dis­cour­aged to com­ply with strict dietary restric­tions dur­ing PMS. It is bet­ter to take a short break in the diet, so that lat­er with renewed vig­or to con­tin­ue the fight against extra pounds.

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