Because we’re fat.
Let me back up. Much has been said over the past couple of weeks about what Olympians eat. Michael Phelps and his 12,000 calories a day has put so many people into shock that iHop is sending out emergency chocolate-chip pancake teams into all major cities. On the other end of the food spectrum, you have everyone and their Karolyi opining about what the tiny female gymnasts (don’t) eat. But my favorite money quote on the subject is from ABC’s What Olympians Eat:
Says, Elizabeth Applegate, Olympian nutrition consultant: “sex, not size, matters. Pound for pound, women burn fewer calories then men do, simply by the difference in their bodies. If a 140-pound female athlete and a 140-pound male athlete ran side by side, in sync, expending the same amount of energy, the female athlete would still burn 8 to 10 percent fewer calories.
“Isn’t that a jip?” Applegate concludes.
Besides the very unPC – and oddly misspelled – racial slur, I also object to Applegate’s conclusion. If she is correct, then women are simply more efficient human beings than men. We can do the same stuff but require less energy to get the job done. That’s not a rip off; that’s an evolutionary advantage!
Last weekend while my husband and I were camping with our kids, I let a derogatory comment about my thighs slip out. Generally I am pretty good about keeping the body-hate inside but these last couple of months have not been good in that regard and I said something about my arch nemesis – the fatty bits on the tops of my thighs that make it impossible to wear “skinny jeans” without making them look like sausage casings (something all good vegetarian women strive to avoid).
My husband immediately shot back, “Hey! I love that fat! Plus, it feeds our babies.”
Of course he is right. Not only does the aptly named saddlebag fat exist for the purpose of nurturing the sucklings but women who have adequate fat stored in their hips and thighs also have smarter babies.
Why is society so insistent on belittling our genetic advantages? In most eras of time, it has been a distinct advantage to a) be able to function well on less calories and b) store enough of the good fat to support a baby even if food is scarce. So why are we supposed to feel bad about needing less calories and carrying a little extra syrup for our milkshake?
I’m not trying to denigrate men here – certainly they have their biological advantages – and you know I live with four of them whom I love more than even the most thigh-flattering jeans in the world but can men do this with their menses? I rest my case. Women rule.
“If a 140-pound female athlete and a 140-pound male athlete ran side by side, in sync, expending the same amount of energy, the female athlete would still burn 8 to 10 percent fewer calories.”
How can they each be expending the same amount of energy, but then burning a differing amounts of calories – calories are the same as energy, aren’t they?
Perhaps she means “effort”?
tis true. men will perish and women will remain. they always die first.
and im inclined to agree with anonymous: if they expend the same amount of energy, they burn the same amount fo cals. they should have said if they ran the same race at the same pace- or something like that.
and im sure every gypsy everywhere is appalled.
http://www.everygymsnightmare.com
I, too, think she must have meant effort? (and look at me not climbing on my soapbox to rant about that weirdalmostslur! :))
My family is one big example of this: the woman live to be OLD. 90’s old. and my grandma passed away at 102. the men? not so much.
oh, and charlotte? why does this make me wanna leap in the car (and drive to where my old relatives are) and give you a hug:
Generally I am pretty good about keeping the body-hate inside.
you are GREAT at being a role model for those kids of yours—that’s not at all the issue.
it made me sad that it’s there.
that you are so successful at keeping it inside—but that it’s inside to keep.
M.
Interesting post and a good read. Could it be due to the fact that men carry more muscle? Muscle burns calories at all times, even when not being used so,
More Muscle = more energy required.
Hence, men burn more calories from the same activity…
I love that you made the point that from an evolutionary standpoint, women’s ability to store more fat and better ability to metabolize energy is actually an ADVANTAGE. Now, why we have been shamed for that… Not so sure… Girls rule. Just lie Mizfit, in my family, super healthy, strong women. Me, meh… not so much.
Okay. So.
If natural selection were to be set back into motion (ah, medicine, you stopped it a long time ago!) most of the men would die. There would be lots of Boticelli-esk ladies running around. Why?
See, to repopulate the world, you really only need to start out with one man and a bunch of women (women who can birth lotsa babies even in famine)! Sure, there’d be some inbreeding for a few generations, but the genetic variation would quickly diversify and people would be normal again. This is why, in nature, there are generally more females of an animal than males. Natural selection.
And women rock. Sorry to go all pro-Darwin on ya!
Well, to play devil’s advocate: whatever the historical, evolutionary benefits, I don’t think being more energy efficient is all that much of an advantage now. Obesity is more of a health threat than starvation, at least in most parts of the world.
On the other hand, male aggressiveness and promiscuity used to come in really handy for them, evolution-wise, but not so much anymore. Instead they tend to land men in jail or messy divorces if they’re not careful.
Men and Women rock in different ways, though those ways tend to shift over time!
I have very smart babies! 😉
carrying a little extra syrup for our milkshake…. tooooo funny.
Yep, embracing who we were designed to be…the key to self love?
You all make an excellent point about the “energy expended” line – just one more way Applegate is off her rocker. Let’s say she meant “effort.”
MizFit – works the same in my fam. The men die young:( And PLEASE come visit!! I would lovelovelove to meet you!
Gilesdm – yep, you’re right! All that muscle – it has both it’s positives and negatives for men although the former outweigh the latter, I think.
Gena – thanks for the Darwin commentary!
Crabby – I love a good devil’s advocate. You make a good point about our advantages being hindrances in our modern social constructs although that makes me think we should change society to suit our bodies and not the other way around.
Really though there are many holes in my argument. This is a very complex and nuanced issue and I kinda made it into a joke (hmmm…talent? Curse?). Thanks for pointing out the other side.
do you realy add syrup to your milkshake? Weirdo 🙂
this post reminds me of that slimquick commercial where the cartoon girl complains about her husband losing 18 pounds from switching to diet sode, while she lost nothing. Powdered food substitute to the rescue! Men may burn more calories but we keep the race going!
and we smell better.
It’s always interesting to note the changes in cultural perspective. It used to be that fat was good because it showed that you were well off. As was a lack of a tan (having a tan meant you probably did manual labor, whereas no tan meant you stayed inside all day, so probably had a better job or were gentry or something). And now it’s completely reversed.
I think that there are many evolutionary adaptations that we don’t really recognize anymore. Women naturally need more fat, but lots of people forget why that is. There are lots of conditions too which adapated for evolutionary reasons (like diabetes, high blood pressure, hemochromatosis) – I read an interesting book about this called Survival of the Sickest. It’s fascinating as to why these conditions evolved, because usually we just think of the negative impact they have now.
LG, now I want to read that book, especially since EVERYBODY on one side of my family has diabetes and/or heart disease. Just added it to my Amazon shopping cart.
Charlotte, thank you for reminding me to look at my upper thighs, which certainly are a little, uh, rounder than I’d like for them to be, and remember that I do have a 2-year-old son who is still nursing, and certainly some of that extra syrup is for his milkshake.
Isn’t that the story with breastfeeding women, too? We all complain that we can’t get rid of the extra fat in our thighs? Because it’s there for a REASON!!!
And hey, the pear shape is healthier, right, and I’m totallly a pear right now.
I really like this post because it rings true with my beliefs about evolutionary advantages and disadvantages. And yes women with WHR’s of about .7 do make smarter babies, so to speak and are otherwise better off – less complications during pregnancy, more attractive, etc. The reason females conserve more energy is because they are the life line of our offspring. Without mums offspring are done! Plane and simple. Since evolution puts a premium on production of offspring (fitness maximization theory), this all makes complete sense. Males were not designed to tend to offspring. Like it or not, males (of just about every species on the planet were designed for one thing: leaving a deposit of sperm in order to grain reproductive/genetic representation in subsequent generations!
I would like to take exception with one comment you made, however, and this could be debated and I think would be fun to debate: You say:
“We can do the same stuff but require less energy to get the job done. That’s not a rip off; that’s an evolutionary advantage!”
We can’t do the same stuff! Males cannot carry babies, with the odd exception made by modern medical marvels. And quite frankly males are stronger, faster and fitter on average then females. That’s our evolutionary advantage. Evolution put a premium on males that were best able to hunt, fend off predators, and protect, which results in male dominance in most fitness related activities. This is also why females find fit males attractive.
Great post. Keep ’em coming!
I had to add that I was absolutely clueless that was any sort of racial/ethnic slur. I’ve used it all my life, from hearing it growing up, and truly honestly never had any idea where it came from or that it was a derogatory term. I’ll stop using it now.
This is not my original post, because I didn’t want to get banned for X rated material:-)
I’m with Crabby on the men were more important back in the caveman day thing. We have a harder time, hormonally speaking, being civilized.
“Pound for pound, women burn fewer calories then men do, simply by the difference in their bodies”
Isn’t this because men typically have a lower percentage of body fat than women? More muscle = more calories burned, even sitting still, not to mention during exercise.
If that’s the case, I don’t know if I would call than an efficiency.
I don’t suggest the method, but there’s nothing like gaining a WHOLE BUNCH of weight and then losing it to be enamored with yourself. Sure I’d like the fat on the inside of my thighs, under my arms by my armpits, and my spare tire gone, but if that’s all I’m worried about, I’m way better off than I was before.
And even with all the disadvantages we face as women (making less for similar work than men, burning less calories, or whatever), we still rock it hard and are taking over the world. Woohoo!
I’m trying hard to love my body with its “older woman” padding, but I would sure like to go back to wearing skirts and pants with tucked in blouses and belts.
Anyway, I have some hard goals about exercising and stuff now, because my main concern is not ending up like my mother-in-law, hardly able to move getting rounder all the time. No being a weak old lady!!!! That’s my main fear.
I am woman. Hear me roar.
When we stop obsessing over our perceived shortcomings and flaws and focus on our kick-ass-ness, we are unstoppable. And that goes for women AND men.
I have to agree with prof platek on the point that men and women can’t do the same things. A Geo Metro gets leaps and bounds better gas mileage than a Ford F350. Does that mean that the Geo Metro has a technological advantage? Absolutely not. They were built for very different purposes, as are men and women. Each have different strengths.