For many women, losing weight seems like a never-ending struggle. Diets never work, but exercise drains you beyond measure. It also doesn’t help that you constantly see men losing weight much easier and faster than women. In this article, we’ll cover some tips and advice to help you reach – and keep – your goal weight.
Is losing weight really more difficult for women than for men?
Unfortunately yes. There are physiological reasons for this. Namely, men have a higher resting metabolic rate (RMR) than women. This was confirmed by a study that examined 328 men and 194 women. Men’s RMR was 23% higher than women’s, which means that men’s bodies burned more calories even at rest (1). Another factor is that men focus on building muscle mass and good physical condition while most women just want to lose fat. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, ladies! But by focusing only on fat loss at any cost, you’re likely to make some mistakes that can sabotage your path to a lean body.
9 Weight Loss Tips Every Woman Can Use Right Now!
Let’s take a look at some of the most common traps you can fall into if you want to lose weight.
1. Fad diets, intensive ‘crash’ diets and “diet” food – ouch!
These days, it’s hard to scroll through social media or turn on the TV without seeing some kind of weight-loss or diet ad. Have you ever felt that their claims are too good to be true? In most cases, you’ll be right. Can they allow you to lose a lot of kilos in a flash? Sometimes, but we guarantee that just about every hernia will return after the diet is over, and bring some additional ones along with it.
Fad diets are nothing more than a short-term solution
Fad and intensive diet trends and programs are basically very short-term solutions for quick weight loss, which means they are typically not sustainable in the long term (2). If you just want to lose a few kilos to look good at some special event, then this short-term solution will be perfect for you. But, for all those who want to say goodbye to kilos forever, this is not a suitable option at all! Some weight loss programs require you to buy their special preparations. Ok, that sounds convenient for weight loss, especially for busy women with little time! Basically, you will almost certainly lose weight with such programs. But just like with fad diets, the moment you go back to your old routine, the hernias creep back.
Diet companies are not stupid – they know this cycle very well! Ultimately, they want you to put the weight back on and return to their program to line their pockets for a while longer. In general, any diet that requires you to pay for access to their program or special preparations surely only has a financial interest behind it. What sounds too good to be true usually is. It is not at all humanly possible to burn 7 kilograms in one week , just as it is not possible to melt only belly fat! Ultimately, it is unrealistic to maintain most of these programs for long.
Beware of ‘diet’ nutritional products in stores
If you avoid fad and commercial diets and just stick to the store, are you safe? Not so fast! Diet products are hiding on almost every shelf in the store. Supermarkets are bursting at the seams with products that claim to be better for you because they are fat-free, low-calorie or sugar-free. Although such products can be useful for someone who wants to reduce their intake of fat or sugar, if you remove something from a food (such as fat) it must be replaced with something. This ‘something else’ is often sugar used to enhance the taste of the product. “Healthier junk food” is still junk food no matter how you look at it . It’s best to stick to the basics – fresh, nutritious food.
Change your lifestyle instead of your diet
Instead of diets and fads, try making small but lasting changes in your lifestyle . Start eating nutritious foods, start an exercise routine, take care of your overall health, and you’ll be much closer to losing weight than you think. If you follow this weight loss advice, your wallet will be fuller, you’ll be happier and fuller, and your weight loss will be more permanent and sustainable.
2. Associating food with emotions
We’ve all been there. The clichéd scene of a woman eating ice cream straight from the pot with a soup spoon while crying in a bubble bath is often not so far from reality. People of all genders often eat fatty and sugary foods to comfort themselves and avoid actually dealing with problems. Are you stressed? Eat a couple of pieces, or a whole chocolate! Do you care about love? Hurry up to get the cookies before they run out. Isn’t it interesting that when we are stressed, we only reach for baked goodies, ice cream and chocolate while we make illusions that this is exactly what will fill our emotional void and put us in a better mood? In fact, there is quite a lot of truth in this. Yes, you really will feel better. Because of two neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) – serotonin and dopamine.
3. Excessive fat deprivation
A few decades ago, everyone was convinced that fat was the cause of obesity. Many women still search for and buy fat-free or low-fat nutritional products in stores today, thinking that this will help them lose weight. If you have a specific medical condition, reducing your fat intake may really be your only option. But is fat really “bad” for weight loss? Absolutely not! Your body needs dietary fat for many important functions, such as storing energy, building cell membranes, and controlling the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (4). Most nutrition experts agree that adults should get 20 to 35% of their daily calories from fat , so there’s no need to allow yourself only small amounts of carbs every day (4). Eating too little fat can lead to various problems, such as a lack of fat-soluble vitamins and fatty acids.
4. Fear of carbohydrates
Similar to fat, carbohydrates have gotten a bad name lately. Completely eliminating carbohydrates from the diet will cause rapid weight loss , but this is usually just “water weight” and will return as soon as you introduce carbohydrates back into the diet. Carbohydrate restriction also causes prolongation of “plateaus” and slows down weight loss. Our brains are designed to constantly seek carbohydrates – after all, glucose is the brain’s favorite source of energy! If you deprive yourself of carbohydrates, you will definitely miss them a lot.
5. Scoparize with proteins
When losing weight, proteins are definitely essential for success , but many women do not consider them when planning their diet. Weight loss will also mean loss of muscle mass if you don’t structure your diet correctly, and fat burning is also less effective with insufficient protein intake. Adding high-protein foods will help prevent muscle loss and can keep you from stubborn plateaus. Some of the most popular sources of protein are meat, fish and eggs. Even if you are vegan or vegetarian, there is no reason to be protein deficient. Plant sources such as tofu, edamame, lentils and chickpeas are packed with protein. If none of these options appeal to you, you still have protein bars, shakes, and even protein cookies available in stores. Protein will also help you lose weight because you feel fuller for longer after eating a protein-rich meal.
6. Obsession with calories
The number one rule of weight loss is “calories in and calories out” , that is, that the intake of calories is less than the expenditure. This means that calorie restriction is a necessary evil when it comes to weight loss. But the quality of calories consumed is just as important as the quantity. Have you ever heard someone called “skinny-fat”? People who are generally thin but have some excess fat. If you stick to your calorie limit and fill it with only sweets and junk food, losing weight will not bring you any health benefits at all . You could if you ate complex carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats. Such poor dietary choices also cause fluctuations in blood sugar, lack of energy and general malaise.
7. You avoid weights
For our seventh weight loss tip for women, we’d like to talk about one of the most common misconceptions. A lot of women think that using weights and strength training will make them toned, muscular and not at all ladylike bodybuilders and lose their favorite curves. This is definitely something you DON’T need to worry about when you hit the gym. Yes, some women manage to achieve the classic bodybuilder figure, but it doesn’t happen by accident. Women do not have high enough testosterone levels to achieve such massive muscle growth (6). The rare, extremely chiseled female bodybuilders built their line through special diets and extremely hard intense gym workouts, and (most of the time) taking anabolic steroids. You can rest assured that simple weight training won’t get you anywhere near that extreme.
8. Skipping meals and over-deprivation
Food is not the enemy! You literally need food every day to stay alive. Of course, people like to complicate everything. If you tend to skip meals, you’re just throwing logs under your own feet. Sooner or later, the hunger will return , twice as strong, and you’ll once again grab the fastest, tastiest, and largest amount of food you can find. This can manifest itself in the form of overeating at night, sitting in the car at the drive-thru of some fast food restaurant, or simply by eating a MUCH larger portion than necessary. The same applies if you eat too little the next day because of the “sins” of the previous day. Chances are, you will repeat the exercise from yesterday. Don’t make everything more complicated than it needs to be.
9. The biggest mistake of all: Thinking that the scale is the only measure of your progress.
You counted calories, you exercised, you followed your new diet to the letter for a whole week. Hop on the scale and hope for an impressive drop in numbers from last week. After all that hard work, the difference should be visible, right? Not today. Although you stepped on the scale full of hope, you ended up feeling completely depressed because you had lost almost nothing, or even gained any weight. At such a moment, most women give up, surrender to “fate”, and this is probably the biggest mistake you can make. Losing weight does not always take place in a straight line . Even though they frustrate you and drive you crazy, fluctuations in the scale are TOTALLY normal! There’s nothing wrong with you, the scale isn’t broken, and you didn’t gain 2 pounds overnight because of that slice of pizza yesterday. Factors such as salt intake, weather, exercise, hydration and even hormones can cause your weight to fluctuate for no particular reason. Most of the time it is absolutely not your fault. The human body is a very complicated machine that likes to mess with us from time to time.