Seemingly an age-old question, and while not a hard and fast rule, we hear it pretty often. Why a difference at all? 🤔🤔 Recall a couple posts ago our weight loss formula: Caloric deficit = calories in - calories out For both men and women, 1 pound of weight loss approximates a caloric deficit of 3500 calories. ✔️ The difference then is in the "calories out": for a variety of reasons (hormonal, higher muscle mass, height), males tend to have a higher basal metabolic rate than do females. Thus, it tends to be harder for females to maintain the same caloric deficit over time than for males. Let's do some math ✏️📖 Someone with a 500 daily calorie deficit would take 7 days to accrue 3500 calories and thus lose one pound. Suppose we have a male👱, who without any activity, burns 2500 calories per day (aka his basal metabolic rate), and a female👩 who burns 2000 calories daily without activity. A 500 calorie deficit for our male would represent a 20% reduction daily (500/2500), whereas for our female, a 25% reduction (500/2000) from their break-even point. And that's exactly why it's harder: it's not the absolute value - 500 calories - that matters, but the percentage reduction from status quo that makes a diet difficult to sustain. The good news though is that we don't have to be limited by this! Through cardio ⛹, both men and women can increase calories burned in the short-term, and through strength training 🏋, increase basal metabolic rate long-term (muscle burns more than fat)💪. Combining both will make maintaining a caloric deficit and thus losing weight sustainable.
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