Bad news first. It seems that men lose weight faster than women. Duh! Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. The good news is that I watched something yesterday that explained a little bit of the mystery surrounding that and how to work with it.
According to this study, when men begin an exercise program, their bodies experience the benefits immediately. Their bodies go into calorie burning mode right away and they start to build more muscle and lose weight. Apparently, our female bodies handle it differently. When we start an exercise program, for the first two or three weeks...our bodies think they're being starved to death and start to act like it by hanging on to those calories with all their might. (I know it's felt that way for me lately!)
The solution? Consistency. Starting and stopping an exercise program is like yo-yo dieting as far as the havoc it wreaks on your metabolism. They suggest cross-training so that you don't even miss days at all. This is probably part of my problem. I do my walk/run 3 to 4 times per week and it's intense exercise....but then I do nothing on my off days. Bad move. I need to either do some type of exercise video, go to the Y, or do some exercise at home in between.
Another part of the study indicated that women lose weight more effectively with longer, less intense exercise sessions whereas men can benefit from the very intense shorter workouts because their bodies start burning calories right away.
I actually thought all of this was fairly good news. I started my training a few weeks ago and haven't really lost much. At least there's some science behind it.
For those of you on Weight Watchers: This means EAT those extra points you earned with exercise so your body doesn't think it's starving! I have a hard time doing this. I always feel like I'm eating up a bunch of calories I just burned up and nullifying the benefit of the exercise, but the opposite is true.
Wednesday's Fare:
Morning:
pbj on df ww bread
6
Subtotal
6
Midday
3 oz cooked tilapia
2
1 cup broccoli
0
pbj on df ww bread
6
Subtotal
8
Evening
whole wheat blend pasta
3
spaghetti sauce
4
Subtotal
7
Snack
1/2 cups strawberries
0
1/4 cup blueberries
0
Yo plus 4 oz yogurt
2
Subtotal
2
Total Food POINTS values used
23
Food POINTS Balance over (-) under (+)
-1
Exercise
50 min walking, brisk
3
Total Activity POINTS values earned
3
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1 comment:
VERY interesting! I'll have to keep that in mind when I am able to resume my normal exercise. Makes sense.
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