We’ve all seen the scenario: he eats 4 hot dogs, a pile of chips, an ice cream sundae and a few beers because he’s “trying to gain weight.” She’s munching on baby carrots and celery trying her best to keep her figure trim. I’m guessing that most women have, at some point, silently cursed a man for having such a super-charged metabolism while she’s crawling along in the slow lane. Well kids, metabolism does play a role, no doubt. But there’s more to the genetic differences in men and women.
New research shows that it may be the female sex hormone, oestrogen, that causes women to store fat more readily then men. According to a new study done at the University of New South Wales, “oestrogen reduces a woman’s ability to burn energy after eating, resulting in more fat being stored around the body.” This could explain why women have around 6-11% more body fat than men. The study’s author, Anthony O’Sullivan notes an interesting paradox: during exercise, women burn off more fat than men, which suggests that women are more “efficient fat storers at other times.” Bummer? Not really.
Most likely, the reason women store more fat, is to prepare them for childbearing. And word on the street is, that’s a bigger and longer lasting thrill than having a super-charged metabolism. Also remember, with age, metabolism slows down. Your man can’t chug beer and inhale burgers without consequences his whole life. So there.
3 cheers for baby mamas.
