When we say that men and women are different, we're not telling you anything you didn't know already.
But what many of us don't realise is that men and women are different when it comes to
losing weight, as well as in more obvious ways.
Our bodies have different needs and our minds have different motivations. Which means that if you want to lose weight sensibly, you can't just piggyback onto your girlfriend's
diet plan and expect it to work.
"Men and women are totally different when it comes to weight loss — different body issues, different hormonal issues, different psychological issues," says nutrition consultant Kate Arnold.
"And the image of dieting — that it's all down to cottage cheese and a lettuce leaf - is really quite girly and not attractive to men."
With that in mind, we've gathered together a few handy hints on how to diet like a man, so you can lose the love handles without losing the will to live.
The basics
In some ways, of course, we're exactly the same as women. Like them, most of us should be aiming for a
Body Mass Index (BMI) of between 18.5 and 24.9.
But it's not quite that simple. Men tend to have a higher percentage of muscle than women, and if you're very well built the BMI number may describe you as overweight mistakenly.
So it's worth measuring your waist circumference too. Over 37 inches and you start to become more at risk of health problems; over 40 inches puts you in the high-risk category.
Get help
If you have a wife or girlfriend, make sure she knows you're looking to eat more healthily. Women can be very good weight loss companions.
"I've seen men's health turn around purely because the cooking was done by the female in the house and they had no options as to what to eat," says Arnold.
But she adds a proviso. This requires a strong, supportive and respectful relationship. If we feel bullied or henpecked most men will simply stop taking orders and march straight back to the beer and greasy food diet.
Mate weight
It's worth telling your mates that you want to lose weight, too, if only to hear some uncomfortable truths. Because when a woman announces her intention to diet her friends fall over themselves to tell her how little she needs to diet.
And when a man announces his intention to diet his friends fall over themselves to tell him how much he needs to diet — and spend the next hour laughing at his insipient moobs.
Which is both cruel and kind. It tells it how it is. And if, in the coming weeks and months, the man fails to present a leaner, trimmer figure, his mates will make sure he knows about that, too.
The beer and kebab diet
But mates who drag you to the pub can also be trouble. To lose weight, men need to reign in their weekend excesses to an extent few women do.
The hard truth is that beers are packed with more calories than the shorter drinks women prefer. Kate Arnold suggests you offer to be the Saturday night driver for a few months and stick to lime and soda.
If you must drink alcohol, single measures of spirits with low calorie mixers are the best choice.
The same advice goes for the post-pub takeaway. The healthiest option is not to have one at all, but if that's occasionally out of the question, go for a chicken skewer rather than kebab meat, a tomato-based dish rather than a creamy option, and boiled rice rather than fried.
Don't diet
But weekends aside, perhaps the most crucial diet tip for men is to, well, stop dieting. "Diets aren't sustainable long term," says Arnold. Evidence suggests men fall off diets more easily than women.
And don't be fooled into thinking that low-carb meat-fest diets like the Atkins are exactly what men need. Men are already at higher risk of heart disease than women, and diets packed with red meat, eggs, cheese, butter and fried food will be high in artery-clogging saturated fat.
Eat like a man
So what should you eat — day-to-day — to lose weight? Some of the advice crosses genders, of course. Eat more fruit and veg, less fried and processed foods, and watch your portion size.
After that, Kate Arnold believes that sensible eating is not the nightmare of self-sacrifice some men think it will be, and that men simply need to change their perception.
"For instance, fat is seen as bad, but tell men they can have a scrape of butter and grilled bacon on wholemeal toast and breakfast becomes a completely different ballgame," she says.
More generally, men should eat protein when hungry, rather than carbohydrates and sugar. Protein fills you up, especially on top of small portions of wholegrain carbs like whole-wheat pasta, brown rice and wholemeal bread.
Kate Arnold suggests an ordinary day's eating for men might include scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast, a jacket potato and tuna salad for lunch and salmon or grilled chicken with sauteed potatoes and steamed vegetables for supper. Nuts and fruit make great snacks.
Repeat that sort of regime often enough and you'll lose weight, feel healthier and gain energy. Given those benefits, it really doesn't seem like such a great sacrifice at al
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body and mind...
