Why does it seem to take so long to burn fat…especially for a woman???

As most of us have come to realize, burning body fat can be extremely difficult.  That’s not exactly a major revelation, I know, but it can be very frustrating.  The frustration is even worse for women.  Women have more fat cells than men and those fat cells can be up to five times larger.  To add insult to injury, women have fewer fat burning enzymes than men.  Depressing, huh?

This is not some unfair dirty trick that’s being played on women.  Females store more fat for a great reason…child birth.  The female body stores fat in the hips and buttocks to act as an energy reserve for lactation.  This is controlled by hormones and is quite difficult to counteract.  That fat will stay there, even long after child birth, unless something is done about it.  Unfortunately, once a woman begins to do something about it, it will take her longer to lose weight than it will a man.

Another source of this seemingly snail paced fat burning frustration is something called visceral fat.  Visceral fat is fat that is found deep inside the abdomen surrounding the vital organs.  This is the most dangerous fat you can have.  Visceral fat has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke.  The accumulation of visceral fat is the result of eating a diet high in saturated fat and a lack of physical activity.  Both men and women have visceral fat.

Visceral fat does not show through the skin and does not register on body fat monitors.  It can only be seen through imaging machines.  Therefore, you never really know how much you have or how much danger you are in.  Even skinny people can have high levels of visceral fat.

When you embark on an exercise program and your body begins burning fat, it burn both subcutaneous fat (the visible fat found directly under the skin) and visceral fat.  The key point here is that the body is not ONLY burning subcutaneous/visual fat.  As a result, you may very well be doing everything right, your body may be burning body fat at the rate it should, and the mirror or body fat monitor may not show drastic results…at first!

Unfortunately, this is where many people let their frustrations overcome them and quit.  This is the absolute worse thing you can do.  Notice how I said the mirror and body fat monitor will not show drastic results at first.  Once the visceral fat has been burned away, the body can then concentrate on only the subcutaneous fat.  This is when visual results really begin to take place.  Had the quitters not quit, this would have happened for them too.

Another element in play here is your metabolism.  When you live a sedentary life complete with poor nutrition, your metabolism is functioning at a very low level.  It takes time after starting an exercise routine and healthy eating plan to get your metabolism out of the rut and firing on all cylinders.  You have to show your body that it’s alright to let go of the stored fat by proving that you are going to supply it with ample nutrients.

Our bodies are very adept at storing fat and this is primarily for survival reasons.  When your body is not getting enough calories or nutrients it goes into “survival mode” and begins to store as much fat as needed to survive the perceived ‘famine’.  After a couple of weeks of exercise and proper eating, your body gets the idea and begins to let go of the stored body fat.

As you can see, you are in for quite a battle if you are looking to trim up and get back into those ‘favorite’ jeans.  You must overcome hormones, visceral fat, a stalled out metabolism, and sometimes even genetics.  This doesn’t even take into account stress, hectic schedules, lack of sleep, etc.  Those are topics for another day.

My goal is not to depress or discourage you, but simply help you understand the enemy.

Your health is a three legged stool — genetics, physical exercise, and your eating habits. We cannot control our genetics, but physical exercise and our eating habits are all within our control. Whether or not you choose to take control is another story.

Too many times I see people getting frustrated because the results aren’t coming as fast as they would like.  The truth of the matter is the results are coming.  Just because they aren’t noticeable to the naked eye within the first 2-3 weeks doesn’t mean they’re not happening.  Drastic results are just around the corner if you just stay the course.  Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

This is why the idea of a “lifestyle change” is so important.  Many people begin an exercise routine with the idea of working really hard to lose as many pounds as possible in a short amount of time.  They don’t view it as a lifestyle change.  They want to lose the weight and get right back to their old life as quickly as possible.  This is a sure-fire recipe for failure.

If you can truly approach exercise and proper nutrition as a lifestyle change you will stick with it for much longer and the weight loss and toning you desire is guaranteed.  You will stick with the routine long enough to overcome the hormones, the poor metabolism, the presence of visceral fat, etc.  And the results you do achieve will hang around for a long, long time!

It’s not all doom and gloom for women, however.  Women do have one physical advantage over men when it comes to fat.  Pre-menopausal women are more efficient at removing digested fat from their blood stream after a meal.  The shorter the exposure to elevated levels of fat in our bloodstream, the lower the risk for clogged arteries and heart disease. Men do not have this protection.

That is the trade off. Women have a harder time managing their weight, but have less risk of heart disease. Men build muscle faster and have an easier time managing their weight, but have a higher risk of heart disease from the prolonged exposure to digested fat circulating in their bloodstream after a meal.

That means on average women live longer!!!

So, if you have ever wondered why you work so hard and still can’t seem to lose weight.  The truth of the matter is you can lose weight.  It’s just not going to happen overnight. It’s about lifestyle change.  This is a marathon not a sprint.

One of your keys to success is having the right program in place that will enable you to burn fat in the quickest yet safest possible way.   If you’re not sure how to design an effective program, contacting a health and fitness expert may be the way to go.  A fitness expert can alleviate months, even years of frustration.

We live in a microwave generation.  We want things and we want them now.  My suggestion is to take a step back, understand what you are up against, adjust your expectations, and get prepared to fight the good fight.  After all, isn’t it worth it?  As the cliché goes, “Anything worth having is worth working for”.