Weight Loss and diet pills: Are they different?

Has a man in your life ever decided to give up drinking soda only to drop 10 pounds seemingly overnight? Talk about unfair! Of course, when you adopt the same exact approach, you don’t get the same fabulous result.

It’s easy to throw your arms in the air and just chalk it up to our Y-chromosomed counterparts having all the luck.

Well, guess what – there’s some serious truth to it all.

When it comes to weight loss and diet pills, did you know there are actually major differences between how the brain of each gender functions and consequently which active ingredients are more effective for each?

This may explain the reason men seem to be able to shed the pounds so much more easily than women. In fact, women are biologically designed to store more fat than men.

Since that’s the case, men and women need to approach dieting in different ways if they wish to achieve the best results. Understanding the differences in dieting for men versus women will help you set up your dieting schema with the right approach.

Social and Biological Differences in Weight Gain

Before we jump into the differences in diet pills, let’s look at how men and women differ internally when it comes to weight loss and gain. Men have quite a few biological attributes which make it easier for them to take and keep the pounds off.

To begin with, testosterone is more than libido leverage for men; it actually contributes to higher muscle mass. This steroid hormone makes them more prone to building muscle than storing fat, which tends to leave them with an average of 15 percent body fat, as opposed to women’s average of 25, since the extra muscle mass helps men burn more calories throughout their day. Each pound of muscle burns about six calories at rest, while fat burns only two calories.

You know how some men can eat a 16-oz steak meal followed by a heaping bowl of ice cream for dessert, and still keep the pounds away? Men have a higher metabolic rate than women, which explains why most men can eat a lot more carbs and high-calorie foods than women. They need more food to sustain their natural muscle mass.

Not that we’d recommend they scarf on ice cream to build muscle, but if men didn’t replenish the calories they burn on the daily, they’d start losing weight, which would surely take a toll on their muscle protein storage.

Women have higher levels of estrogen, which is the hormone that helps to keep weight gain under control. Lowered levels of estrogen, which usually occurs due to menopause and the menstrual cycle, can cause all sorts of problems that result in weight gain.

These estrogen peaks often propel us to eat significantly more (cheese crackers, brownies, cereal – at midnight) and exercise less, lowering the metabolic rate.

It’s not all our fault (seriously!).

Estrogen creates higher levels of stress and increases food cravings considerably. Most men don’t experience food cravings the way we do. They also don’t have the same consequences with regard to fat deposition.

Estrogen alone has been shown to affect fat deposition, particularly in the tummy. Furthermore, a number of social and mental factors affect the dieting approach pursued by ladies and gents as well.

This may be due to the fact that many women are mommies and/or homemakers! Even though gender roles continue to evolve, there’s still a high percentage of us who stay at home with our babies and are quite frankly, killer in the kitchen.

Those of us who plan the meals, do the grocery shopping, and prepare the food know all too well the temptation to pick up an extra bag of potato chips while at the store, or snack while we cook. And let’s be honest, sometimes our snacking leads to scarfing.

There are also certain mental perspectives that affect dieting. You know how it is when you look in the mirror and it’s as if you’ve gained 10 pounds in the last five minutes. Social factors are the culprit. As a group, we women have a much poorer body image than men and care about our weight more, which actually makes it easier for us to gain weight.

Oh, the irony!

The stress and depression associated with low self-esteem and poor body image causes more stress eating and a slowed metabolism. All of these factors come together to affect men and women’s overall ability to gain and lose weight, which plays a large role in the popularity of diet pills.

Diet Supplements for Ladies Versus Gents

Now that you have a better understanding of the differences in men’s and women’s response to dieting, let’s take a closer look at the way diet pills are made differently for each of us.

Overall, there are more diet pills out there for women than men, probably because women gain weight so much more easily and quickly than men do. Though most of the difference in diet pills lies in the marketing (see below), a few ingredients seem to work better in men than women.

Men tend to respond better to diet supplements that build up mass and eliminate fat. They generally use supplements with the key ingredients whey, protein, and creatine, which aren’t just for bodybuilders. These ingredients target the building of muscles, which leads to the burning of more calories while at rest and stimulation of weight loss.

The vast amount of diet pills on the market for women target fat absorption and conversion to help suppress appetite, speed up metabolism, and make women feel full longer. Key ingredients include chitosan, forskolin, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), Garcinia Cambogia, and synephrine (AKA bitter orange extract, citrus aurantium).

While our weight loss goals tend to veer toward slimmed and toned versus pumped and bulky, it’s still important women gain lean muscle so you can burn more calories while you’re resting, and keep your body supported and strong. Light free weights can help you achieve this effect, and if you’re ever short on energy and in need of a boost, plenty of diet supplements offer energizing effects, including those from caffeine.

What about marketing tactics?

Another key difference in the women’s and men’s supplement markets is the way products are marketed. Some diet pill companies use shame tactics to make women feel badly about themselves – keep an eye out for that! Men are targeted for fitness and muscle building but women may be shown photographs with ridiculous amounts of airbrushing, unrealistic but trendy thigh gaps, and whatever else is currently popular in terms of ideal beauty.

Remember that your body is always going to be different from the next woman’s, and you should choose a diet supplement that has Good Manufacturing Practices certifications, as well as Doctor Trusted seals. You can always research reviews and ingredients online as many websites seek to objectively rate different diet pills.

Overall, once you’ve isolated a dieting and supplement regimen that makes sense for your personal goals and is well aligned with your feminine physiology, you will lose weight and become the healthiest – and therefore sexiest – version of you!