The title may have been expressed as a question but there is something categorical and declarative about it. At this time of the brand new year, 2025, when everyone is still obedient or trying their best to hold on to their promises and resolutions, this statement may dampen the enthusiasm of our women folks.
Right at the outset, it must be emphasized that being fat is not a disease, but rather a symptom of a disease process. And the sad reality is, women get fat more easily than men. Before the author gets a collective howl of protest and angry words, allow me to add that it’s harder for women to lose fat than men, for the following reasons.
Hormones are secretions of endocrine glands or ductless glands, so-called because these chemical substances are poured into the bloodstream, without passing through ducts. Male hormones—testosterone and related androgens—tend to build more muscle mass and lesser fats.
Muscles, especially skeletal muscles which form the bulk of the body, are metabolic energizers; that is, they burn fat more readily. Before puberty—age 9 for girls and 11 for boys, on the average—male-female differences are not so pronounced or significantly different. However, by the age of 20, active girls have 22% fat in their body while active boys have only 10%.
Female hormones alter their metabolic pathways to favor body-fat storage whereas men tend to produce more heat from their calories. Women also burn fewer calories because they are generally smaller than men and their bodies contain a lower percentage of muscle.
A woman may weigh only 10% less than her husband but have 30% less muscle. Thus, a woman must build up her store of muscle to lose her store of fat.
It is also an undeniable fact that women resort to fasting and sometimes to media-hyped irrational, unbalanced dieting gimmicks to get rid of fat. Sad to say, the effects of these tactics are devastating in the sense that muscle mass is reduced so the body’s fat-storing ability actually increases. To cope with the stress of these diet fads, the body gears down and learns to function on a lower calorie intake. Future fat gain follows and fat loss becomes more difficult.
Women, as a rule, have little time to exercise. In our society today, where a wife is career-oriented, most women have two jobs: the one they do outside the house and their “society-imposed job” inside the house as mother to her children and a dutiful wife to her husband. Thus, the usual scenario is a woman coming home tired and wasted from a day’s work, and whatever little energy she has left, she uses it doing her homemaker duties, leaving very little time for exercise.
Moreover, women are not as sports-minded as men, so calorie-burning activities are not a top priority. This gives the body more chances to gain and accumulate unwanted fat.
Now, to our dear women readers and friends, this should not in any way discourage you from pursuing that new year resolution to achieve a body that you love and a weight that makes you smile. Healthy weight loss is pegged at 1-2 pounds per week.
And just a friendly reminder, short-duration exercises, no matter how intense, burn only carbohydrates, whereas longer duration workouts—at least 30 minutes—even at a lower but sustained intensity, burns both carbs and fats.
Physical fitness gurus as well as endocrinologists agree that for effective exercise-induced weight reduction, one should have at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week, meaning it’s better to do a 30-minute exercise three or four times a week than a six days of 15-minute workouts weekly.
The rationale is that a 15-minute intense exercise burns only stored carbohydrates (glycogen), whereas a 30-minute intense activity burns not only stored carbs but also the stored form of fat, i.e., triglycerides.
By the way, being fat does come with a few advantages.
In fact, during chilly weather, one stays comfortably warm in a tee shirt or shorts while others may already be shivering even when they’re already bundled in their sweaters, hoodies, and jackets.
Why?
Because subcutaneous fat serves as an insulator that helps keep internal body heat. Besides, many husbands thank God for having cuddly wives whose cheeks they love to pinch and whose warm embrace lulls them into restful slumber, and are quick to add that, with a naughty wink, with their wives, they are secure swimming even in wavy seas.
So what if you are on the heavy side?
Besides, life is fair, as one pious lady prays: “Dear God, if You cannot make me thin and lean, please make all my friends fat!”
