No excuses, chaps – men find losing weight easier

DIETING is more successful for men than women, researchers have found.

Men lose more weight and benefit more from shedding pounds, they said.

Doctors tracked 2,200 overweight men and women, placing them on an eight-week caloriecontrolled diet. Male participants lost 16 per cent more weight than women, the scientists reported.

In addition, their fat levels and heart rate improved more, and their metabolic syndrome score, a marker of diabetes risk, fell further than it did for women.

The research team, which included scientists from the universities of Nottingham, Copenhagen and Helsinki, believe this is because men tend to put on weight in the form of belly fat, which is easier to burn off. By comparison, women put on weight on their hips, thighs and face.

Belly fat, or ‘intra-abdominal fat’, is more dangerous because it wraps around the body’s vital organs, so the health benefits of shedding it are greater. The study, published in the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism journal, said: ‘Men mobilise more intra-abdominal fat than women during weight loss, and that this is accompanied by a more pronounced improvement in the metabolic risk profile.’

Lead author Dr Pia Christensen, of the University of Copenhagen, said: ‘Despite adjusting for the differences in weight loss, it appears that men benefitted more from the intervention than women.’

The team found men lost an average of 11.8kg (1st 12lb), compared to 10.2kg (1st 8lb) for women. Researchers said the men could have lost more, but were less likely to stick to the diet: ‘Women were closer to their theoretically achievable weight loss target (82.2 per cent) than men (64.5 per cent) …This suggests that women were more compliant with the diet.’

Experts said this was because women are under greater pressure to be slim, while men tend to be relaxed about their own obesity.

Professor Naveed Sattar, of the University of Glasgow, said: ‘Men have more to lose than women by being overweight…and more to gain from losing a few pounds.’