Fat Loss for Females
Ladies, I do not envy ye, ye do not have it easy. Because you are tasked with that responsibility of preserving the human race it makes your health and fitness journey a whole lot harder.
First off men (in general) have more muscle mass than women. This allows us to burn calories a lot quicker than women. If we were to put a man and woman into a gym, and we set both of them a goal of burning 500 calories. Say for example the man burned 500 calories in one hour, the woman would have to work for an hour and a half to burn the same amount of calories.
So say for example a boyfriend and girlfriend go out for dinner at the weekend, they both order the same pizza and both have a glass of wine. The girlfriend will have to work 33% longer than the boyfriend would to use up those calories from the same meal.
Secondly because women have to be able to give birth they are physiologically designed to hold on to more fat than men are. So with rigorous diet and training it would be possible for a man to get down to about 8-12% body fat. If a female was to go through the same rigorous diet and training she may only be able to get down to about 15-20% body fat.
Thanks to social media these days both men and women are given a very skewed view of what the human body should look like. What a lot of people forget to take into consideration is:
- How long these people have been training for
- Their genetics play a huge role in their body composition
- Anabolic steroid use is now more prevalent with females than ever before
These people on social media make their living by looking this way. It’s their bread and butter don’t forget that. It may not be realistic for people of the general population to aim to look the same way.
We haven’t spoken about the menstrual cycle yet.
This is going to have a huge effect on both how you look and how you perform.
In week 1 and 2 you are in the follicular phase this is where you feel, perform and look your best. It is at this time you should be pushing hard in the gym, push for those PB’s! You may find sticking to your diet is a lot easier. Then once ovulation occurs you progress into the luteal phase.
Week 3 and 4 however won’t be as strong in the gym due to the change in hormones. Your recovery won’t be as good post workout. It is also a time where women are more likely to pick up training related injuries. Diet adherence will be a lot harder for women during this time too.
So what can you do with this information? You need to pay closer attention to your body. Every individual is exactly that, individual. Some women will be affected by their cycles more than others. Week 1 and 2 is where you push yourself with your training and your diet. Week 3 and 4 you need to tone back in the intensity of your training. If your cravings shoot up in week three or four you may need to start accounting for an extra treat or two in your diet. This way you’ll be able to stay on track rather than having two good weeks of dieting and two weeks where everything is thrown out the window!
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