How Women Can Lose Weight Video

Keeping fit is a struggle for most people, but it's tougher for women to lose weight than men for a variety of reasons including hormones.

Men have 20 to 30 times the muscle building potential of women because of the hormone testosterone. Therefore, men burn much more calories on a daily basis than women do.

Strength training can help women lose weight by adding muscle and changing their body composition. Muscle burns more calories. Another obstacle for women is size. Most women are smaller than men. And, as a rule, the larger the person, the more calories burned at rest or by exercise.

Therefore, it's even more important for a woman to make sure to increase her activity level.

Monthly periods are another variable women face trying to lose weight.

Food cravings are something many women experience at this time of the month. So, you wanna be very careful and watch your daily caloric intake right around this time of the month.

As women approach menopause, they lose almost twice as much muscle as men. And that lowers a woman's calorie burning potential.

Many women have expressed to me that their old dieting tricks aren't working and they're right because, at the onset of menopause, their metabolic rate is really diminishing as their lean muscle tissue diminishes.

And he says that's another reason why strength training is more important than ever at this time of life. I'm Magee Hickey for today's Good Housekeeping Report.

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