While there is no evidence men have an unfair natural advantage when it comes to losing weight, some obstacles seem tailor made to uniquely hamper women’s efforts to lose and keep weight off. 

“I think there’s a lot of things that could affect it: our eating habits, our activity, in addition to the body composition,” says Jacque Schwartz, a registered dietitian nutritionist with the Bariatrics Center.

Women view being overweight as a health problem

It starts with whether you perceive wanting to address obesity or just symptoms that result from being overweight. 

“Women are more likely to perceive obesity as a health care problem,” says Corrigan McBride, MD, Nebraska Medicine bariatrics surgeon. "Men meanwhile, tend to look at the results of obesity as the issue to address, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or heart issues." 

Because women normally make the health care decisions for the family, they’re more likely to view obesity as something they reach out for help on, Dr. McBride contends. 

Women often are the ones planning and preparing the meals, which makes it naturally tougher to steer clear of what the family is eating and just have a protein shake. They are emotionally invested in the meal, she says. 

Workout with weights

Men do enjoy the luxury of having more lean muscle in their bodies and less body fat than women, which means they just naturally burn more calories in every situation, says Heather Shafer, a wellness specialist at Engage Wellness, a workout facility at Home Instead Center for Successful Aging. But that’s not the advantage you’d think it might be, because men must have a lower percentage of body fat (25% vs. 33% for women) to be healthy, Shafer says. Men in a sense have a head start, but the bar is higher.

In the gym, women tend to gravitate more toward cardiovascular exercises than muscle building weight lifting, because they want to logically exercise in ways that burn calories and not look bulky, Shafer says.

But the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn no matter what you’re doing. Strength training helps build muscle, while running does not.

“You’ll probably find you will reach your goals more quickly than you think if you were doing the strength training,” Shafer contends. She advises working out with weight two to three times a week.

Especially after 40, you need the weight lifting just to maintain the current amount of muscle you have, she says. “It is a normal part of aging for your muscles to atrophy if you’re not doing anything to maintain it” she says. “Most people don’t do what they need to do to keep it at baseline.” That’s also one reason why people wonder if you’re doomed to gain weight as you age.

Visually men seem to have an advantage

Men tend to lose weight from the abdominal area first, which is very noticeable. Meanwhile, women’s fat is more spread out and they have less in their abdominal area, so weight loss is less noticeable, according to Shafer. 

Note: Weight loss results vary depending on the individual. No guarantee of weight loss is provided or implied.