I am sharing this because twice in the last week I have seen posts and comments that men lose weight easier than women on social media. There is a reason this happens and there is a simple solution.
This following scenario happens all too often. I watched it all the time in my gym.
A husband and wife join the gym. It is the first of the year, and they decide as a couple working out is something they can do together. Innocent enough of an activity, one that is going to benefit everyone, right? What could go wrong?
Unfortunately, this is usually how it goes:
Wife
“I hate you. We joined the gym at the end of January. It is barely March now and look how much weight you have lost and you are still drinking beer. I have not lost a pound. ”
Husband, speechless, with a look of bewilderment, says nothing. He knows full well no matter what he says….you get the idea.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I witnessed this situation from my front counter or club floor. As a spectator, forget trainer or gym owner, it is pretty easy to see what is going on.
The wife scans in, hits the locker room, out of the locker room onto the precor,
stairmaster or treadmill. She spends an hour or so on two or three pieces of cardio equipment.
The husband scans in and makes a bee-line to the weight room. He hits the free weights and maybe some hammer strength or similar pieces of equipment, squeezes in some chat time with the other guys in the weight room.
An hour later they reconvene at the front of the club and out the door they go.
This goes on for a few months.
Do you see why they get different results?
Both work hard and the wife may even work harder than the husband. Both are in the gym for the same amount of time.
The difference? The wife spends all of her time doing cardio.
The husband, all resistance training with weights and no cardio. After a few months, guess who has lost inches? Old hubby has dropped some pounds and inches, usually a pant size or two.
The wife is not so lucky, though it is not for not trying. She is investing her time in the wrong exercise, and this is easily corrected.
I recently spoke to a women’s philanthropic group and was asked this question. “How should women train to lose fat, maintain bone strength, and be overall healthy?” My answer was pretty simple.
“Train like your husband, boyfriend, brother or whoever. They are losing weight faster and easier because they are training differently than you are.” I then shared the story above from my gym. One cannot possibly do something different and expect the same results.
Now forget getting big and bulky. I have worked with thousands over the last two decades, including men and women that want to get big and bulky. It is not in the cards for most.
I had one woman that was predisposed to gain a lot of muscle and she still could not get big and bulky. She had the lean, sculpted and toned look.
Guess what? She trained heavy weights and looked like a fitness model.
Want to Lift, firm, tighten, tone, sculpt and all the rest?
1. It is 90% food…and NOT a diet. If you can not eat that way forever it is a diet and will be short term.
2. Do some type of resistance training.
The training program: Yes, you need to lift heavy things a few times per week.
- Deadlift
- Squat
- Pullup, Assisted if necessary
- Dip, Assisted if necessary
- Dumbell Shoulder Press
- Dumbell Row
Try 3 sets of 8–10 repetitions of each exercise. If you can do more than 10 reps the weight is too easy. Add weight. You now know the answer to “how much weight should I use?” Do this three times per week.
Cardio: You do not need it. Because many are going to insist they are different and have to do cardio to lose weight… here you go:
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)
- Walk for 1 minute
- Job for 1 minute
- Run for 1 minute
Repeat 6 times (that is right, ONLY 18 minutes of cardio), and do this 3 times per week.
It is that easy. Now go get started. Men often lose weight easier than women because they spend their time differently in the gym.