If you are a woman and finding it tougher to lose weight when compared to your male friends, you’re not imagining it. While today’s post is discussing about diet plans for women, you ought to first understand why men and women need different regimens to lose weight.
Do Men and Women Lose Weight Differently?
There actually are differences regarding the way men and women diet, lose weight and respond to exercise. Some of the differences stem from biology; remaining differences are influenced by behavior. But while many of these seem to provide men a head start, they shouldn’t be taken to indicate that guys have it easy. No matter who you are or where you’re beginning, the road to your ideal weight is difficult at best, and perplexing for most folks.
Reaction towards Exercise and Food in Women
To begin with, there are the factors of muscles and metabolism. Studies has revealed that men tend to have more muscle than women, and because of the fact that muscle burns more calories when compared with fat, men tend to have a more rapid metabolism, too — anywhere between 3 to 10 percent higher than women. In other words, men inherently have the capacity to burn more calories than women.
When it pertains to food, there is proof that brains of males and females react differently. In a 2009 study conducted on women, it was observed that when asked to smell, taste, and look at goodies such as pizza, cinnamon buns and chocolate cake, brain scans revealed activity in the brain areas that control the desire to eat, despite the fact that all of the ladies claimed they weren’t hungry at that time (not the case for men).
Then, there’s biochemistry. According to a 2009 study; in women Ghrelin (the hunger hormone) spikes after an exercise, while Leptin (the satiety hormone) takes a nose dive, while men did not show any such changes. So post-workout, women typically eat more, which puts them at increased danger of weight gain.
Researchers speculate that this is essentially a Darwinian issue, in that it’s the female body’s natural way of fighting energy shortages in order to preserve fertility and perpetuate the species. When women are not getting adequate calories, ovulation and hormones that make procreation possible get suppressed.
So what can women do with all this information? Though it seems so easy to get disheartened, women can actually turn it into motivation. Biology is not destiny, because you have the freedom to choose. Make lifestyle choices that are immensely powerful.
Specialized Diet Plans for Women
In short, all of these studies tend to emphasize on a certain point. Women tend to react strongly towards food and exercise can even cause more weight gain because of increased need for food after workouts. So specialized diet plans for women are crucial to help them lose weight effectively and maintain the loss for prolonged periods of time.
Most Effective Diet Plans for Women
Now that it is clear that even if you are trying to lose weight with regular workouts or exercises, you need a targeted diet plan for women to maximize the results, let us discuss about the most popular options. Jenny Craig diet, Atkins Diet, Weight Watcher’s diet, HCG diet etc are some of the diet plans for women that have worked effectively and many of the celebrities like Queen Latifah, Kirstey Alley, Jennifer Hudson etc seem to be satisfied customers.