Weight and Your Mate

When it comes to weight and your mate sometimes it just isn’t fair. I finally figured out why men are from Mars and women are from Venus. It’s because Venus is bigger. Naturally, Venus is also hotter hence those hot flashes ladies. And with a core of solid iron, Mars is stronger. Figures. Which is why ours, that hour glass figure and muscle toned arms and abs that we are always working towards, is harder to achieve for women than men.

It isn’t fair but men are by their very composition pre-disposed to lose weight faster than women and to be more muscular.  Biologically men have higher amounts of lean body mass or muscle, than women. The metabolism in men is higher, even when they are resting. Which is the ultimate kick me when I’m down detail. Muscle mass requires a lot of calories to maintain which increases the metabolism in men and enables them to burn more calories and ultimately lose weight faster than women.

I was one of those women with a phobia about my size compared to that of my man. In other words, I preferred to date someone who was bigger than me. So naturally my best laid plan hit a real snag when I married my husband. Yes, he is bigger than me in height and weight. He’s the tall, dark and handsome breed with the rippling bi-ceps and washboard abs. And his metabolism? He can lose weight faster than I can say the word metabolism. And that waistline was seriously competing to be smaller than mine before I had my daughter. Once I gave birth and that beautiful 7 pounds came out, the rest of the 93 pounds that came on with my pregnancy was looking at me like, what you gonna do now? And my stomach went from a six pack to a club pack with one baby.

When my husband and I began dating every night without fail he would eat 10 cookies and a huge scoop of ice cream. He was trying to gain weight and couldn’t seem to put any on. I would simply serve him the cookies and could feel my pants getting tighter. His metabolism is crazy. He’s a recording artist and actor, when he is preparing to go on tour he focuses on getting his abs and arms just right. So he works out for like 3 days before he goes out. And there was no typo there. It wasn’t 30 days, or 3 months. Yes, 3 good days and he is ready to go.

When I put on 100 pounds with my pregnancy, even though it was caused by a health condition, my phobia went into overdrive. For a while. What got me back on track? Mr. Rippling Bi-ceps aka my hubby. He wasn’t worried about it and wanted to ensure that I wasn’t either. He was simply concerned that I get healthy again. That reassurance that I was loved plus or minus a few pounds or even a hundred pounds was just the fuel I needed to burn a few calories. In truth, I have never actually succeeded at losing weight when I went on a diet but I always succeeded when I made up my mind to make some lifestyle changes. And that’s what I did to lose 100 pounds with the support of my man.

And you know what else is not fair? A Mom on a mission. Women actually have the advantage over men when it comes to making better lifestyle choices that lead to losing weight and overall better health.

What’s your story about weight and your mate? Post a comment below! Plus, see what my co-channel leader Arianne has to say about the emotional side to losing weight.

Catch Lifetime's new eye-opening series "Love Handles: Couples In Crisis" which premieres May 31 at 10 pm/9c.