The FastDay Forum

Hi everyone, another newbie here

I've just started this diet on Monday along with several colleagues, we are all getting a little competitive in the office however someone mentioned men lose weight quicker on the 5:2 than women, does anybody know if this is true?

This is the first time I've ever dieted and the two days I've fasted so far all I can think of is food. Please say it gets easier?

Welcome!
To my knowledge, men lose weight faseer than woman because they usually have more to lose.
As per thinking of food, what can I say, fasting or no fasting I think about it all the time!

Welcome!
To my knowledge, men lose weight faseer than woman because they usually have more to lose.

Although strangely a higher proportion of women than men are obese
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/ ... ngland-men

I'm not referring to obesity, I'm just saying that men are usually bigger than women.

BTW, I won't post a link since it is in Greek but in Greece the percentage of obese young men (18-24) is double of the one of young women.
After 24, men and women go hand in hand but obese women after 64-years old are significantly more than men.

Edit to say: I think the reason why young Greek men are obese while women aren;t, is that as they begin to live alone they tend to eat crap.

[janeg]

Hello alittlenomadic
If you go onto the progress tracker, you can filter statistics by gender, age, type of fast etc,. I't's a great resource that our very own Moogie invented. I love it and am always banging on to people to put their stats in. You could use it for your competitive colleagues too,

jane's tip is a good one.

Absolute RMR is higher in men which would be one reason why men might - on average - lose more easily on any diet. Or maybe the '2 days on, 5 days off' appeals more to us men's naturally limited attention span?

The truth is that 5:2 works for lots of people and certainly a lot more women than men are following it, and succeeding with it, based on what we see here.

I think anyone can have success with it they are prepared to stick with it. It's probably hardest for those with hypothyroidism but then so is any diet.

My understanding is that muscle burns fat, and men have a higher percentage of muscle so lose weight faster than women. This is true of any form of weight loss really. Dominic, is this what rmr means? Don't mean to repeat it if that is what you have already said.

Hi Robnem, yes you are right. RMR = resting metabolic rate. The finding seemed to be that if they were the same weight and same body composition then men and women have the same RMR but as you say men tend to have more muscle at a given weight and also tend to be heavier so they have higher RMR on average.

Thanks everyone for your comments and insight. I'd never even heard of RMR before- I guess us girls will just have to try that little bit harder just in case!

Thanks also janeg for the progress tracker tip, i shall definitely be trying it out

Men have it easier due to their greater percentage muscle mass which results in a higher resting metabolic rate. Unfair, but that's the way it is!

Years ago my mom and dad (both in their 50's) were dieting on the "chicken diet," a restricted carb and calorie diet. Both lost at first, but then my mom stalled. I was visiting, and when she complained to me, my dad said that it must be that she was cheating. She vociferously denied it.

Then, I asked if there were any cookies around, and my mom said that there were boxes of Girl Scout cookies up in the top shelf of the cupboard because they couldn't eat them on the diet. Needless to say, when I looked, all the cookies were gone. My dad sheepishly admitted to sneaking them all. My mom was furious, not that he had cheated, but that he had cheated AND lost weight AND given her a hard time. Not fair!