Weight Loss: 5 Tips for Success (For Men Only)

Weight Loss: What works for women may not necessarily work for men.

Compared to women, men rarely seek professional advice when it comes to losing weight. And if they do, they certainly won’t bother with the food pyramid or calorie count. What works for men and what doesn’t?

New research from the Self-Help, Exercise, and Diet Using Information Technology (SHED-IT) trial confirms what family physicians have observed for decades.

Here are 5 tips that really work to help men lose weight effectively.

1. Limit portion size. Eat a Whopper for lunch instead of two. Eat two pieces of chicken instead of four. That’s easy enough to understand and easy enough to implement. This change alone would equate to a difference of £5 a month. Losing weight doesn’t have to be rocket science. Increasing exercise also helps, but it could take two hours of walking to burn off a Whopper; it is better to skip it in the first place.

2. Limit fat intake. Ask for a small fry, not an extra large. Ask for grilled chicken, not fried. Order a small steak, not a monster burger. Small steps, but enough to reduce fat intake and therefore calories. Men don’t care that a gram of fat has twice the calories of carbohydrates or protein. But they do understand that eating fat makes people fat, so they may be willing to make these simple changes.

3. Avoid sugary drinks. Don’t drink regular soft drinks. End of story. That’s all men want to know: the bottom line. Women tend to crave more sugar and carbohydrates than men. (A cookie won’t hurt, right? I can still eat birthday cake once in a while, right? – ask the women). In general, men don’t know that a large soda has as many calories as a candy bar. Eliminating a six-pack of Coke a day equates to about two pounds a week of weight loss. Also, because consuming sugary drinks doesn’t tend to make you feel satiated (full), cutting them out may not increase your intake of other foods.

4. Don’t worry about the vegetables.. Although fiber intake tends to increase feelings of satiety, men simply don’t care and won’t bother. They also tend to be less constipated than women, and therefore bowel regularity is less of a concern while dieting.

5. Can of beer. Two beers a day equals about three pounds a month of body weight. Drinking a six pack at night could add up to a hundred pounds in a year. It is well known that drinking beer causes a beer belly. It doesn’t take a doctor to explain that drinking less beer will make your waistline shrink.

If you are a man looking to lose weight, reduce your portion sizes, eat less fat, and avoid alcohol and sugary drinks. Since you’re not likely to bother looking into the matter further, focus on these simple steps and watch the weight melt away.