Taylor Jolliffe - WHETSTONE'S WEEBLY



Taylor JolliffeMrs. WhetstoneAP Lang 2nd11 March 2013Why Do Men Have It Easy?The perils of losing weight can be deterring and degrading for anyone, but women find losing weight a thousand times more difficult than men. The age-old cliché “eat less, exercise more” isn’t a guaranteed success mantra for women. Many women may follow a hundred diet plans in their lifetime without losing a significant amount of weight. Often times, women run around all day taking care of their family’s needs while putting their own needs on the back burner. The pairing of daily stress combined with post-baby fat or menopause is a toxic mixture of demons that make the battle to lose weight extremely taxing. Generally, losing weight is physiologically and psychologically easier for men than it is for women.The media has a gigantic influence on the self-esteem of women of all ages. Models that are undernourished beanpoles are clearly poor role models for women. Their images are plastered all over advertisements, depicting them as ideal or perfect women, a standard that all women must meet. Such threatening images grind, scrape, and gnaw at a woman’s confidence until only unclad bone remains. When women feel they are not worth anything a frightening tailspin into the labyrinth of depression is expected. It is necessary for women to understand that the difficulties of losing weight are not a result of their own failures, but rather a result of the way their bodies are designed monly, celebrity moguls endorse fad diets. Such celebrities deceive women by forcing them to think they must constantly diet in order to become “beautiful”. Rarely do fad diets, such as Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and Nutrisystem, produce significant results. Valerie Bertinelli, Jessica Simpson, and Marie Osmond, respectively, endorse such popular diets. Quite often, these diets produce results that are the exact opposite of the intended purpose of weight loss. When women don’t see the pounds melting away, as promised by their celebrity “role models”, they become angry with themselves. Women often throw phrases around such as, “why can’t I be as beautiful as Valerie Bertinelli?” and “if Jessica Simpson can lose weight, why can’t I?” Many psychological disorders such as depression, anorexia, and bulimia result from apocryphal promises made by deceptive celebrities. The human psyche is extremely powerful when it comes to contention with weight loss.There are many physiological reasons that cause difficulties for women who are trying to lose weight. It is known that women have a higher percentage of fat than men, specifically, “…around 20-30 percent against just 9-18 per cent” (Topham), according to Dr. Phillip McTernan, associate professor in diabetes and metabolism at the University of Warwick. This percentage of fat for women dates back to the beginning of time. It was necessary for women to carry excess fat in order to support the life of an unborn child. Women back then often faced harsh living conditions with periods of little to no food. The excess fat was a necessity for survival and reproduction of the human species. Therefore, even as humans have evolved over time, the genes of women have remained constructed for supple fat storage (Topham). Clearly, a woman cannot change her genes in order to suit to her weight loss desires. This excess fat storage causes weight loss to be quite the challenge for women of all ethnicities. Women must not become discouraged by this inevitable fact. Quite possibly, without the fat preserves of women during pregnancy, much of the population would not exist as it does today. Additionally, muscle mass and resting metabolic rate are key factors to losing weight. A higher resting metabolic rate facilitates with burning off calories and fat. Higher resting metabolic rates are a result of a high percentage of lean muscle mass. Ollie Lawson, certified personal trainer and nutritionist, agrees that men have higher resting metabolic rates than women, he states, “this higher metabolic rate is due in part to men's greater body surface area. Moreover, women's metabolism also dips before ovulation and during menstruation” (Lawson). Not only do women have lower resting metabolic rates because of their minimal amount of lean muscle mass, but they also have a weight loss disadvantage when they ovulate and menstruate. During menstruation, women are also more likely to eat more salty and sweet foods. The salty foods cause a woman’s body to retain water and consequently translate to extra pounds on the scale. Sweet foods often contain high concentrations of fat and carbohydrates that promote weight gain. Ergo, women must be careful of the foods they consume because they cannot metabolize said foods as quickly as men.Naturally produced hormones, testosterone and estrogen, have a significant impact on a body’s ability to lose weight. Men produce testosterone while women produce estrogen. Testosterone promotes the growth of muscle mass while estrogen promotes the growth of fat cells. Indubitably, these hormones determine how it is easier for men to lose weight than women. Likewise, in accordance with Ollie Lawson, certified personal trainer who has been involved in the health and fitness field since 1983, “Men tend to carry most of their excess fat around the belly, whilst women carry theirs predominantly around the hips, thighs and butt. Fat carried around the abdominal area is easier to metabolize than that on the hips, thighs and butt where women have a greater number receptors that promote the storage of fat” (Lawson). There is a greater chance that a woman will carry excess fat around her butt and thighs for her whole life than the likelihood a man will carry excess fat around his midsection for his whole life. The combination of testosterone, greater muscle mass, and easily metabolized fat around the midsection allows men to find the obstacle of losing weight fairly simple to overcome.Quite commonly, women in their forties and fifties experience problems with their thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is a producer of hormones that controls the way a body uses energy (Benjamin). A person is considered to have hypothyroidism when their thyroid gland is underactive; this often happens to menopausal women. As a result of hypothyroidism, a woman’s hormones go amiss and they don’t regulate the body’s energy properly. For example, Oprah Winfrey, famous talk show host, has hypothyroidism. Her weight has fluctuated often due to this occurrence of thyroid malfunction. Oprah is very open about her condition and encourages other women to see their doctor in order to check for thyroid malfunctions. Although it is possible for men to have hypothyroidism, it is not as common. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “thyroid problems occur five to eight times more frequently in women than in men” (Busse). Certainly, women with hypothyroidism must work much harder than men to lose weight.Psychological differences in men and women have just as big an impact on weight loss as the physiological differences. Kathleen Zelman, director of nutrition for WebMD, affirms, “I've noticed that many men just see the numbers on the scale creeping upward and make a decision to correct it. Plain and simple, they decide to increase their activity and decrease their food intake. But I've seen some women beat themselves up over a few extra pounds, even though this does little more than destroy their self-worth” (Zelman). This attitude of “see a problem and fix it” is one of most men who are at the forefront of the weight loss battleground. Women, on the contrary, often chastise themselves for gaining weight, regardless if they are exercising consistently and eating healthy food options. Frequently, weight gain causes women to eat more food in order to “eat their emotions”. This causes a vicious cycle to occur consisting of eating and punishing and eating and punishing and eating and punishing. When a woman is stuck in this horrible web of “failure” she tends to sink into depression. Depression is obviously not easy to escape and therefore weight loss is not accomplished. Most often, men do not have these emotional ties with food they have to deal with while dieting. Women must overcome emotional battles in order to find success, which makes the weight loss journey a rather treacherous one in comparison to that of a man.Stress eating is common for women who have too much on their “plate”. Often times women are the ones cleaning the house, driving the children to school and every other place on the planet, keeping the family’s schedule organized, doing laundry, washing dishes, making dinner, taking care of the dog, and holding up half the sky. It is not surprising that a woman would want to eat her feelings after a long, taxing day of saving the planet. Quite frankly, a glass of wine at the end of everyday becomes a habit for many women. As stated by CBS News, “a single five-ounce glass of wine, for instance, might contain 120 calories” (“Trap”), which results in the culmination of tons of calories at the end of every month. Each one-hundred twenty calorie glass of wine adds up to three-thousand six-hundred extra calories in one month that a woman has to deal with that most men don’t need to worry about. Clearly, men have the upper hand when it comes to slashing the pounds.Some men think that women can loose weight just as easily as men if they exercise more often and eat less, but that is simply not the case. That statement is proven false by a study published in The American Journal of Physiology. In the study, eighteen overweight women and men walked on treadmills for many sessions during the course of one day. Some of the participants consumed the amount of calories they burned off while others consumed fewer calories than they burned off. In the participants that consumed fewer calories than they burned, the energy-regulating hormones of men were barely affected, while the women had heightened levels of acylated ghrelin and decreased levels of insulin. Therefore, the women’s bodies were trying to replace the calories they burned, while the men’s bodies did not try to replace the calories (Reynolds). Decidedly, women’s bodies naturally want to retain fat, while men’s bodies have no desire to do so. This observation is precisely what gives men the upper hand in the weight loss battle.An individual study published in the United Kingdom’s second largest selling newspaper, The Daily Mail, displays the weight loss battle between a couple, Dianne and John, thirty-eight and forty-eight years old respectively. Dianne remarks, “I was eating less food than John yet losing less weight than him. I’d go along to see the consultant with John and he’d have lost 16 pounds while I’d lost only 4 pounds” (Topham). Quite obviously, women face more challenges while trying to lose weight. When their male partners lose more weight, it is discouraging for the women who work so hard. Seeing the men find success in weight loss causes the women to completely abandon their diet plans and surrender to their bodies. Further, women tend to switch diets more often than their clothes, instead of sticking to one diet plan and going hard at it like men generally do. The complexities of the female mind make for a complicated path to weight loss enlightenment.Women tend to lead busy lives. Women put everyone else before themselves. The combination of hormones, emotions, motivation, and time create quite the weight loss obstacle for women to surpass. It is most important for women to remember that they are beautiful human beings regardless of size. The key to living a happy life is doing activities that make her feel healthy on the inside, even if that feeling is not reflected in the size of her body. Overall, weight loss is a journey, a process, not a magic spell that goes POOF and solves every problem overnight. In order for success to manifest it is paramount for women to celebrate the little victories and not be too down on themselves. Whether the cause of unsuccessful weight loss is psychological or physiological, women need to surpass that bump in the road in order to become stronger individuals. The best things in life take hard work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears. Ultimately, there is always a light at the end of every tunnel.Works CitedBenjamin, Jennifer. "4 surprising reasons women can't lose weight - ." - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., 11 Aug. 2010. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. Busse, Matthew. "Symptoms Of Thyroid Problems In Males ." - Lose Weight & Get Fit with Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Tools . N.p., 28 Mar. 2011. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. Lawson, Ollie . "Is It Easier For Men To Lose Weight? ." - Lose Weight & Get Fit with Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Tools . N.p., 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. Reynolds, Gretchen. "Weighing the Evidence on Exercise - ." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., 16 Apr. 2010. Web. 4 Mar. ham, Laura. "Why ARE men better at losing weight than us women? Mail Online." Home Mail Online. N.p., 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. "Trap: Drinking Alcohol??Pictures - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. Zelman, Kathleen . "Weight-Loss Wars: Men vs. Women." WebMD - Better information. Better health.. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download