“I love chocolates but can't eat them. They make me fat.”

“I can’t even have a milkshake without worrying about the calories.”

These are just a few phrases that we come across from women on our daily basis.

We all know that women have a higher tendency to put on weight than men do.

Ever wondered why it differs so massively even when you’re the same height and weight as your younger brother?

How does he get away with Pizza for dinner every day and you count your Rotis?

Women burn less fat and more carbohydrates than men at rest.

The higher fat ratios in women can be attributed to their slow metabolism. Women bodies tend to burn carbohydrates quickly over fats.

How to tackle this?

Make your body metabolically flexible by forcing it to burn more fat by limiting carbohydrates in your diet. Doing anaerobic exercises like weight lifting and sprinting also helps your body become metabolically flexible.

Women store and burn fat differently as compared to men.

Women store fat right under their skin unlike men, who have more active visceral fat. Upon exercise, women burn the fat at the surface but have a hard time burning the core fat.

How to tackle this?

Again, research suggests that high intensity interval training and powerlifting can promote stubborn fat loss in women.

Stress inhibits fat loss in women.

Cortisol is an enzyme, which is secreted in times of stress. This enzyme spikes the level of blood sugar in the blood to help the body cope with stress. At higher levels of stress, this could be chronic, where the enzymes lead to greater fat storage and increase fluid retention.

How to tackle this?

Indulge in stress management techniques like yoga and meditation. Regular sound sleep also reduces stress.

Limited calorie intake and intermittent fasting could be detrimental for women but beneficial for men.

While fasting could be beneficial for men working towards weight loss, the same does not hold good for women. It tends to work opposite as many women have complained of increases weight and blood sugar levels upon restricting calories and intermittent fasting.

This is because with fasting comes stress, which releases cortisol. This cortisol causes hormonal dysregulation with the body holding on to its fat stores. The body tends to protect these fat stores for future life stages, when calories will be scarce.

How to tackle this?

If the body is supplied with a good balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, the hormones will be healthy, stress will be low and the whole process of fat loss will be easier. Avoiding calorie restriction if working out at high intensities would be a better option.

Young women have the same muscle building capability as men.

It is generally considered that women can’t build as much muscle as men. Recent studies show that protein synthesis and gene signaling that leads to muscle gains are nearly equal between young men and women. However, with ageing this protein synthesising ability is reduced in women and hence they don't show as much response to exercise as men of their age do.

How to tackle this?

if you want to look leaner, build some muscle. Building some muscle will increase metabolism and hence automatically help you shred fat.

Do you know what is Osteoporosis? Read more here.