Carbohydrate-Guide

A woman’s body is designed to store more fat than a man’s. Research has demonstrated that women’s fat cell are different form men’s in both look and how the function. When researchers analyzed women’s and men’s fat cell, this what they found:

• Womens’s fat cells are up to five times larger than men’s.
• Women’s fat cells can contain up to twice the fat-storing enzymes.
• Women’s fat cells can contain half the fat-releasing enzymes.

So what’s the meaning?

It is easier for women to put on fat and it’s harder for women to take it off. I agree, it’s not fair! However, evolutions priorities are not the same as ours. Odds are stack against women from the start. We know that muscle is the metabolic engine of the body that causes us to burn fat, and men carry, on average, forty pounds more muscle than women do. Men also produce 10 times more testosterone than women do-testosterone is a muscle-building, fat-burning hormone. Men manufacture up to twice the amount of fat-releasing enzymes that women do. The more of these enzymes, the faster fat is released as fuel.

Men Have Higher Metabolisms

All these factors give men a higher metabolism than women have. They can burn, on average, 30% more calories during exercise than women can. To add insult to injury, they can burn, on average, up to 30% more calories while at rest.

Women Can Survive Better Than Men

Women are obviously designed to ensure the survival of our offspring, which requires a much larger reserve of body fat to ensure survival in times of famine. Women have at least 8% more body fat than men, which allows them an extra 120,000 calories to use in needy times.

Nowadays, those 120,000 calories never see the outside of their storage containers (your fat cells). Another difference between men and women: A woman needs at least 16% percent body fat to allow for proper hormonal production.

Help - I Can’t Stop Eating!

Just because all that fat-storing capacity is in place doesn’t mean that women have to take advantage of it. But wait! Another cruel trick of biology is about to kick in. Women seem to crave extra calories with increased age. Why is this?

Because the declining hormone levels are wreaking havoc all around. As the levels of estrogen drop below normal, the levels of certain chemical messengers in the brain also start to decline, including the key regulator of hunger: serotonin.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter responsible for normal mood, behavior, and feelings of satisfaction. When serotonin levels are low, we feel tired, moody, and hungry. If we were hungry for vegetables it wouldn’t be so bad, but the hunger cravings are for sweets. The sugars from these foods can enhance the levels of serotonin, so to keep the brain happy, women eat and eat and eat until the brain is satisfied (which doesn’t last for long). In the meantime, they’ve added more calories that they don’t physically need-so those calories go into storage.

And Now the Good News…

There are benefits hidden in all this new fat-estrogen can now be produced to balance the negative effects of menopause. Here’s how the estrogen produced from fat cells helps women during menopause:

• It cuts the level of hot flashes to half of what leaner women experience.
• It allows for better sleep.
• It maintains natural collagen production, so skin stays healthy.
• It cuts the risk of osteoporosis to half the levels that thinner women experience.

The larger a woman’s fat cells become, the more estrogen can be produced. Research performed at the University of Pittsburgh showed that women who developed the largest fat cells produced at least 40% more estrogen than those with smaller ones.