Women and Men Need to Eat Fewer Calories

What Works and What Doesn’t

Two colleagues grabbing a quick lunch together and then getting back to work: although they don’t come out and say it, they are both trying to lose weight. Based on what each of them has ordered, we can conclude that each appears to be making food choices with weight loss in mind. But whose lunch do you think is the better choice? The answer: it may well depend on your gender.

Men tend to go for lunches like Don’s: other than the diet soft drink, when guys are trying to cut calories, they go for traditional foods to help them feel full and they skip the fat-free stuff.Women, on the other hand, are more likely to have a lunch like Kay’s: they’re more likely to prefer salads and rely on fat-free dressings, low-fat bakery products, and other calorie-reduced foods as a means of losing weight. And even though water is a healthful beverage, many women mistakenly believe that it is a short cut to weight loss. The truth of the matter is that men and women alike can lose weight only if they consume fewer calories than they burn.

That translates into making changes in one’s eating habits. While the majority of women recognize and embrace that fact, guys are apt to resist a bit because men are more likely to believe that they can simply exercise their pounds away. This article explores the different beliefs and attitudes that women and men have about eating, cutting back on eating, and the role of food in weight loss.

Foods Men and Women Choose to Help Them Lose

What is the primary reason for America’s soaring obesity rates? According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service, women and men are eating too many calories. The USDA is not alone in that opinion. Data from four National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) indicate that compared with thirty years ago, men reported consuming an extra 168 calories per day and women an extra 335 calories. While that might not seem like much, it adds up to a lot of extra pounds.

Where are the extra calories coming from? According to the USDA, they’re from foods laden with sugar and fat: sweetened soft drinks, fried snack foods, fast food, rich pastries, and the like. It stands to reason that if those are the foods that are adding fat to our waistlines, cutting back on them or their calorieladen ingredients is key to losing weight. To their credit, many women and men are working to reduce the amount of sugar and fat they are eating.

But the strategies the genders use to accomplish that tend to vary. It seems that the strategies that men and women prefer to reduce sugar intake are similar, but when it comes to getting fat out of the diet, they choose different paths. In terms of cutting back on sugar, Weight Watchers research has found that women are more likely than men to cut out sweets like desserts and candy.The same research found that the use of sugar-free products is about the same between the sexes.

By far, diet soft drinks are the most frequently consumed sugar-free products. There was a time when your typical guy would not be caught dead drinking a diet cola, weight problem or no weight problem.Those days are gone, however. In today’s world, sugar-free soft drinks are now the beverage of choice for a lot of guys, and there is no stigma attached to them, weight problem or no weight problem. When it comes to fat, reducing saturated fat is an important strategy for everyone working toward losing weight in a healthy way. How that is accomplished, however, tends to differ by gender. Weight Watchers research has found that women are much more likely than men to use fat-free or reduced-fat food products (fat-free salad dressings, low-fat snack chips, reduced-fat ice cream, and so on). Men are more likely to shun such foods, sometimes seeing them as fake or tasting bad. Instead, men rely on more traditional strategies to get fat out of their diets.

For example, they continue to use full-fat condiments like mayonnaise, butter, and salad dressing but cut back on the amount; eat fewer fried foods; and find a replacement that naturally contains less fat. How does that translate into food choices? For example, while a woman will spread low-fat mayonnaise on her sandwich, a man is more inclined to substitute mustard. Or a woman will put a hefty portion of fat-free creamy Italian dressing on her salad, whereas a guy will have a smaller amount of regular creamy Italian dressing or go with an Italian vinaigrette instead. While both the male and the female strategies can work to reduce calories, is there any evidence that some strategies work better than others when it comes to losing weight?

Certainly the switch to sugar-free beverages is a good thing. A 12-ounce can of a sweetened soft drink has at least 12 teaspoons of sugar and no nutrients. When it comes to cutting fat, it appears that the guys’method has a slight edge over the ladies’method. While the ongoing NHANES have determined that both women and men are getting the majority of their extra calories from carbohydrates, only women seem to be picking up extra calories from fat.

The average woman’s total daily fat intake has increased by 6.5 grams, whereas the average man’s has actually decreased by 5.3 grams. How is it that women can be using so many reduced-fat products and still be consuming more total fat? For starters, many of the reduced-fat food products still provide fat, and if a large portion is eaten, the grams of fat can quickly add up. In addition, relying on reduced-fat foods as a sole strategy for cutting calories from fat can create a false sense of confidence, so that care and awareness when eating foods naturally high in fat like french fries or burgers is low. In the long run, some women may be better off eating fewer fatreduced food products and relying more on some of the men’s fatreduction strategies.

FROM A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT FOODS MEN AND WOMEN CHOOSE TO HELP THEM LOSE

Starting a meal with a salad can help both women and men to eat less. Researchers at Penn State University found that people who ate a salad before lunch consumed anywhere from 7 to 12 percent fewer calories at that meal than diners who didn’t begin their meal with a salad. But there is a catch: the salad can’t be drowning in dressing. While many women avoid the dilemma by opting for a fat-free dressing, that may not be the healthiest option. Studies have also found that people who eat salads topped with fat-free dressings absorb fewer disease- fighting phytonutrients than people who eat their greens with regular dressing. Why? Our bodies need a small amount of fat to absorb certain nutrients. So for the lightest and healthiest salad, use reduced-fat dressings or simply drizzle on a smaller amount of regular dressing.

FROM A MAN’S VIEWPOINT FOODS MEN AND WOMEN CHOOSE TO HELP THEM LOSE

Not in the mood for a salad, especially if it means eating it with reduced-fat dressing? Then try the soup instead. Several studies have found that eating a bowl of soup reduces feelings of hunger, helps you feel full, and can lower your calorie intake not only for that meal but for the whole day. But not just any soup will do. The most effective are broth-based soups loaded with vegetables and lean meat. So feel free to skip the salad and order soup. And spread the word so women can reap the hunger-satisfying benefits of soup, too.