Do Men Lose Weight Faster Than Women?

In fact, women’s bodies are biologically designed to preserve fat stores, something that serves them well during reproductive years but not so much after age 50, when menopause changes fat distribution and can make weight loss harder.  

What’s more, “there appear to be differences in appetite-regulating hormones like leptin and ghrelin that favor weight loss in men,” says Dr. Melina B. Jampolis, a physician nutrition specialist. “Compared to men, women consistently demonstrate higher levels of both emotional eating and hedonic eating — pleasure from eating, which tends to favor the intake of sweets and fatty food — both of which make weight loss more challenging.” 

But far from impossible. Even though men and women are built differently and research suggests that men seem to lose weight faster, one study noted that both sexes who dropped pounds lost 5 percent of their body weight at roughly the same rate when following a calorie-reducing plan. 

Also important to note: The goal isn’t simply to be lighter. It’s also about reaching and maintaining a weight that’s healthy for you — often, but not always, reflected by a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 to 24.9. Gender, muscle mass, age and overall health can influence the appropriate weight goal, which should be discussed with a personal physician before starting a weight loss program.

Lean muscle mass and weight loss

With all the emphasis on strength training and maintaining muscle mass, you might suspect there’s more at stake than keeping your weight in check. There is.

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Muscle helps regulate blood sugar, support strong bones and keep you on your feet as you age. Research links greater muscle mass and strength to a lower risk of premature death. The problem? Adults lose muscle mass as they age — about 3 to 8 percent per decade beginning around age 30, with the decline accelerating later in life. By midlife, both men and women have lost muscle, but men tend to retain more of it. That gives them a slight metabolic edge, since muscle burns more calories than fat, even when doing, well, nothing.

“Men have a higher resting metabolic rate than women, largely explained by greater muscle mass,” explains Jampolis. “And since muscle is more metabolically active — meaning it burns more calories even at rest — this creates a larger calorie deficit for men, allowing them to lose weight more quickly than women.” 

The role of hormones in weight loss

If you’re over 50, no one has to tell you about the role of hormones when it comes to shedding pounds. Declining levels of testosterone (for men) and estrogen (for women) can wreak havoc on weight loss.

Testosterone naturally decreases over time, with men losing about 1.6 percent per year beginning in their mid-30s, according to Jampolis. That sort of decline contributes to the loss of muscle mass and an increase in body fat — particularly visceral fat — and may also affect hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism, all of which makes it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it. Men concerned about their testosterone levels should talk to their primary care physician.

As for women struggling to move the scale in the right direction, declining levels of estrogen get some of the blame but not all of it. Research, including the landmark Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) found that aging — not menopause alone — is the biggest contributor to midlife weight gain. “Resting metabolic rate decreases in women over 50 due to aging and muscle loss,” says Jampolis.

Although estrogen, or the lack of it, isn’t the sole culprit, its decline does influence how your body responds to diet and exercise. As estrogen begins its descent during perimenopause, women often lose muscle, gain abdominal fat and experience metabolic changes that can make weight loss slower and more difficult than it was earlier in life.

Other menopause-related factors working to sabotage women’s weight-loss efforts: “Changes in mood, an increase in appetite and a reduction in sleep due to hot flashes and hormonal changes, which impairs insulin response, making weight loss harder,” Jampolis says.

Early research, however, points to a silver lining for women taking one of the newer obesity medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide. In a review and analysis of previous studies in the Journal of Diabetes, women taking a GLP-1 medication lost more, on average, than men on GLP-1s. 

“We don’t know exactly why women respond better, but there are several possible reasons,” says Corrado. Among them: “Women generally have lower body weight, which may result in higher medication levels in the body at the same dose. In addition, some studies suggest that women may continue losing weight for a longer period before reaching a plateau.”