It’s not your imagination. Women have fat loss struggles that seem to elude their male counterparts. Many of us have been known start to the “hey let’s do this diet together” – only to end up frustrated when we plateau and they…don’t. Of course this is an oversimplification of gender (not allmen lose fat super easily — but dang it sure feels like it at times!), but men definitely have a few advantages over us.
Over the next two articles, we’ll explore five main reasons why women have a harder time than men when it comes to shedding the fat.
Weight Loss
Women are often more focused on weight loss over fat loss, which means they pay a lot of attention to the scale. And if you’re constantly looking at the scale, that can skew what you think is progress. Men tend to not be focused on the scale when it comes to their weight. Most of the time, men just do one or two simple things and the weight seems to fall off of them (more on that later!) By eliminating the need to see a number on the scale, men do not get as obsessed about a certain “goal number” than women do.
You can lose weight in almost any way. You can lose weight by losing muscle mass, or water, or you can even lose a limb and see the scale drop. If the loss is coming from fat, then it actually keeps your metabolism on track. But if that loss is coming from muscle, it’s actually slowing your metabolism down, which is what happens to a lot of people.
Hormones
Obviously we all want to blame gains on hormones and whine “Women have it so much harder!!” Our hormones are more sensitive to stress than men’s hormones may be. So when we add stress into mix, (because let’s face it, we are more prone to stress about things) our hormones actually react in a way that stops us from losing weight. It actually causes us to often gain weight, especially in the belly. Women normally tend to hold onto fat in the belly area, but when under stress this area refuses to let any fat go. (This is referred to as a “Stress Belly”)
Guys may have a hormonal advantage because of their testosterone, but if we keep our stress levels low, we can use estrogen to our advantage, and help trigger the fat loss. Unfortunately, most forms of extreme dieting exacerbate stress – lower calories, higher exercise exertions, constant weigh ins, are all forms of stress which can, in turn make it incredibly hard for women to lose fat, especially in the belly area.
Muscle Mass
Another HUGE reason for why it’s easier for guys to lose weight than women is because of their muscle mass. Women naturally have less muscle. The time our muscle mass is at it’s highest is when we are young teenagers. That is, unless we do something about it – unless we choose to actively seek a lifestyle that builds and maintains our muscle mass. We want to see that scale go down because we think the scale is what is going to make us skinny. This typically means that we’re not focused on muscle mass.
Just like Melanie, you could be losing fat even when the scale isn’t moving!
Muscle equals metabolism, so when we start putting on muscle mass, the scale may not move at all, or even go up. It’s mentally tough to put focus on our lovely new muscle gains when that darn scale is going up/staying the same, so this is where we tend to self sabotage. When it comes to muscle, you can actually gain weight AND look better because the increased metabolism will help you burn fat even faster, burning calories at rest. Muscle is what keeps everything toned and tight and compact underneath your skin. Simply losing weight doesn’t do that. If you lose muscle you may get smaller, but you get softer looking. (skinny fat)
Releasing the grip that the scale has on you, managing your stress/hormone levels, and focusing on building muscle mass are three major keys to conquering the female fat loss code. In our next post, we’ll touch on two other ignored-but-critical factors that play a major role in female fat loss.
Our last blog post touched on five workout tips to prevent (or breakthrough!) the inevitable plateau. Today let’s take a look at how our eating habits can also cause a plateau, and 3 ways to avoid derailing our progress.
3 things to focus on with your EATS
Just as when mapping out how to workout for plateau-prevention, your food focus breaks down to three main areas of focus: Load, Frequency, and Type. Here’s what to pay attention to for each area:
Load – This is how many calories you should eat. This varies person to person and no one should be in a blanket calorie range (uh hello 1200 calorie plans) By using our calculator, you can find out three different things, how many calories you need to maintain your weight (TDEE), how many calories for fat loss (Cut) and how many calories for muscle building (Bulk)
By knowing these numbers, you can cycle your intake around when you are on maintenance, when you are planning a cut and periods when you are building muscle.
Frequency – This is the amount of calories you eat, for whatever phase you are in, and when to change it up. Like our load, we need to change the amount of calories we eat at times to prevent a plateau from occuring. When in a fat loss phase, we should be taking a “diet break” (eating at TDEE) every 8-12 weeks for a period of 1-2 weeks. This will “remind” the body what maintenance is, so as we start to lose weight, our Cut amount doesn’t become our Maintenance amount.
The type of food we eat does make a huge impact on our progress or our plateaus. Protein, Fat and Carbs are the most important ones to focus on to help make better quality food choices. If you are just starting out getting your macros into focus, plan on putting your protein goal front and center. Focus on one thing at a time and build up the habit, and this will set up your natural progression for better food quality.
By paying attention to these variables in our eating, we can stop a plateau from sending us down the rabbit hole and derailing any progress we might have had.
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When it comes to hitting plateaus along your journey, it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when.” Knowing that plateaus will come should prevent you from the all-too-common mistake of trying to change too many things at once.
This is difference between amateurs and pros. Pros know start small, tackling one bite sized chunk after another. This not only helps them have a plan in place before they plateau, but assures that they can actually stick to the plan — progressing for years to come. Amateurs try to move ahead “faster” by biting off more than necessary. This not only gives them nowhere to go when they plateau (because they’re already doing the MAX, when the minimum would have given the same result), but they also burnout very early on in the process, and give up. Over. and. over. Instead of approaching your journey in the all-or-nothing way of the amateur, let’s level up and attack your workouts like a pro this year.
Tips for preventing plateaus:
5 ways to add challenge/variety/levels to your workouts
Rep ranges – Don’t just stick to one. Try alternating short periods (daily, weekly, monthly) of one rep range before moving to another. Don’t get nostalgic or think that one rep range can do it all. It can’t/shouldn’t. (common rep “ranges” to alternate: 1-8 reps, 9-12 reps, 13+)
Amount of weight you’re using – Every time you change rep ranges, the amount of weight lifted should change. Higher reps = lighter weight, lower reps, heavier weight. If you’re sticking to one rep range for several weeks, you should be seeing weekly increases. At the very least, your weight by week 4-6 should be heavier than weeks 1-3. If your weights aren’t increasing, time to take a break from that phase.
Rest periods – Rest periods are not set in stone, they can range from no rest, to 3-5 min of rest depending on the above. If you’re lifting heavier weights for lower reps, you’ll need longer rest periods to keep hitting it hard. If you’re lifting light weights for high reps, less rest is needed.
Exercise type– Compound vs isolation movements. Each has benefits, so don’t be extreme, or expect any one exercise movement to be a holy grail. But as a general rule of thumb, beginners should stick with more compound movements (1-3 yrs), and advanced lifters (3+ years) can benefit from some isolation work.
Cardio – be strategic, add it slowly, if at all, based on preference. Your body quickly adapts to traditional forms of cardio, so adding in a ton from the jump makes it have a less of an impact in the long run. Unless you’re an endurance athlete, or just love cardio (and fully understand/accept it’s limits/diminishing returns), you may want to consider cardio as an occasional, “finish line,” or recovery-only basis.
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Let’s face it. We all think we’re special snowflakes. That certain rules only apply to others. That particular thing doesn’t matter if I do it or not. Yes, it might be how others got results but I’m different because…
They are called blind spots because we can’t see them. It’s not arrogance or rebellion. It’s a case of cognitive dissonance. We have been conditioned to think a certain way for so long, that to challenge it is to challenge our core beliefs. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary.
My blind spot was protein. I walked the EM2WL walk. Increased my calories. Strength trained with periodized workouts. Got my fibre in. Got my water in. Increased my protein. Yet the old cliche of spinning wheels was happening. I was confused, frustrated.
My trainer pointed out that my protein was averaging 17-20% Well, yeah! I’m a vegan! The 30% rule can’t apply to me! It’s impossible to get 30% from plant-based sources!
Then she pointed out that actually, as a vegan, I should shoot for 35% as plant-based sources are digested differently to animal proteins. Wait. Whaaaaat!! From then, every question I asked got the same response.
Where should my calorie level be at?
How’s your protein?
Should I add in walking?
How’s your protein?
Am I doing enough cardio?
How’s your protein?
I had to face it. Head on. Time to pull up my big girl plant-based pants and get it done! I started having protein shakes for breakfast. Found a pea protein sausage and high protein bread for lunch. Adapted the family evening meal to be high protein.
It wasn’t overnight, and there were some disasters (hemp protein powder, bleurgh!) but I now consistently hit 250g protein per day.
Within a couple of months, I started to see body recomposition. Muscles had more definition. Recovery after workouts improved.
My blind spot had been removed! We will all have a blind spot somewhere in life. It can be the one thing stopping us from reaching our goals. So if you hear someone telling you the same thing over and over, it might be worth asking yourself if they are revealing your blind spot to you.
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Should you just do cardio to lose weight? How heavy is heavy lifting? Do "strength" DVDs count? What if you don't want to lift? Sign up now for in-depth info on strength training and fat loss. You'll also receive special vids and free workout plans to help you get the most from your time in the gym.
Thank you for considering me to share my story with the world or whoever will read.
My story has been full of ups and downs. A lot of trial and error, tears and a lot of frustration. But without that it wouldn’t have made me the person that I am today.
I wasn’t always a bigger girl growing up. I actually used to get made fun of for being too skinny. But, with time, I ended up putting the weight on and totally losing control of it. I ballooned up to 230+ pounds. My doctor told me I was getting close to being pre-diabetic. So I knew right there and then I had to do something about it.
And this is where the frustration began.
I started off doing weight watchers, and then moving to Curves, and then joining a local gym which I was not happy at. Didn’t help that I had no idea what I was doing. At that point in time I was frustrated with seeing no progress and decided just to give up. I was sad and depressed. Avoided looking in the mirror and was disgusted having to shop in the plus size in all the stores. Nothing that I used to wear fit. Started wearing men’s clothes because it would hide a lot of my shame.
Then in 2012 a Snap Fitness opened up down the street from me which ended up saving my life and kick started my love of fitness. I started going everyday nearly two or three hours and eating very little. About 1200 calories a day. Yup got caught up in that cycle. Sure I lost weight. And before I knew it I was under 200 lbs. Took me a few years to go from a size 24 to a size 12 but had been logging my food with myfitnesspal since 2011.
I found eatmore2weighless through the forums on myfitnesspal and started to apply it to my daily routine. I knew that with the amount of work that I was doing that I was just simply not eating enough. For a few years I went back and forth from eating 1200 calories to 1700 calories. If I didn’t see the pounds move then I would cut cut cut.
Which brings me to a couple months ago (April 2016) when after all the frustrations finally piled up I said to myself that I’m going to start eating more especially with doing heavy lifting 4 to 5 days a week. Looking at progress pics I can see myself leaning out and toning up even though I’m the same weight as I was in September 2015. I’ve gained a lot of self confidence over the years and have done a lot of reading and research that I feel confident enough to take a personal training course so I can help others on their journey.
I don’t know where I would be right now if I didn’t find EM2WL. I look forward to see where this journey takes me.
It’s not your imagination. Women have fat loss struggles that seem to elude their male counterparts. Many of us have been known start to the “hey let’s do this diet together” – only to end up frustrated when we plateau and they…don’t. Of course this is an oversimplification of gender (not all men lose fat super easily — but dang it sure feels like it at times!), but men definitely have a few advantages over us.
Plateau Prevention 101: Workouts
Where should my calorie level be at?
Thank you for considering me to share my story with the world or whoever will read.
Then in 2012 a Snap Fitness opened up down the street from me which ended up saving my life and kick started my love of fitness. I started going everyday nearly two or three hours and eating very little. About 
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