Venus & Mars in happier times

While men and women are *mostly* the same physiologically (certain exceptions immediately come to mind)  turns out there are some important differences below the surface.  I just read an interesting article in MSNBC about the current research and  findings regarding gender differences in training effects.

There is obvious stuff like men are stronger and women look better in sports bras, but the really fascinating stuff is what is happening hormonally.  Men and women have the same hormones battling it out internally, but at very different levels.  A key difference is men have much more testosterone and women have much more estrogen. This stacks the deck in men’s favor. From MSNBC:

"Exercise is similar to short-term starvation," says Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. From an evolutionary perspective, he says, women need to withstand starvation to survive and have babies.

Yikes. That means that a woman has to work that much harder to trick her body into losing body fat.  This confirms what many trainers have seen for years.  (Research often lags far behind what we see in real world situations, but it cool when we find out WHY we are seeing what we are seeing.)

The research is now coming out to back up what we have been experiencing in the gym- women just get the short end of the stick (again.)

For men it is much easier (not easy, just easiER).  The high testosterone levels in men help build and maintain muscle.  Muscle increases metabolism, a higher metabolism means more calories burned per day which leads to more fat loss.  Women just have less testosterone. That throws a wrench into things.

…females have a harder time losing weight through exercise than men, says Day. Men’s bodies respond more favorably to exercise, whereas women’s bodies go into survival mode, slowing metabolism and hanging onto fat.

That is just not fair. So why not just give women testosterone?  This is why:

Thanks, I’ll pass

Yes that is a woman. In all seriousness testosterone treatments in much lower dosages have been tried, but there’s just no way to avoid the negative effects (bearded lady anyone?) completely.  It is simply not a feasible fat-loss solution.

Fear not.  The above is only part of the bigger picture. There is a lot more to fat loss and fitness than just estrogen and testosterone.  Sets, reps, rest periods, exercise selection, intensity, workout duration are just some of the training parameters that can be tweaked for individualized and even gender specific fat loss programs.

Science geeks in action

Science geeks continue their quest to research all conceivable aspects of training.  Exercise geeks like me can take that information and create drastic changes in body composition while taking into account the hormonal differences in the genders.

As the research continues the training programs used by forward thinking trainers  will only get better and the results will only improve.  It is always refreshing when research actually has a real-world application.

If you want a personalized fitness program let me know, I can help.  Free Body Diagnostics Evaluations ($227 value) are available.

Joshua Carter, CPT The Body Transformation Expert Carter Fitness http://carterfitness.com 818-337-6175