Weight&see

E verybody who has tried to lose weight knows this simple fact: It’s all about calories in and energy out. Build up enough of a deficit and the pounds start dropping.

But everybody who has tried to lose weight also knows there’s so much more to it than that. With each diet, we carry with us the experience of previous attempts, our emotional hang-ups about food, and our baggage about body image and weight.

And all of that is affected by whether we’re male or female.

Just ask Johnny Coffey.

The Spokane man, who works as a locksmith for Gonzaga University, has lost about 50 pounds on Weight Watchers and has kept it off since 2005. Most of the time, he’s the lone man at the Weight Watchers meetings he attends.

“It’s amazing as I watch, I listen to how they’re going about losing weight and all the struggles,” says Coffey, who turns 64 today. “I look at it in a whole different outlook … One of the things that amazes me to this day is the amount of pressure women have on them to lose weight as opposed to men. They put themselves down.”

That’s just one way men and women often differ when it comes to shedding pounds. There will always be exceptions, of course, but local diet and fitness experts say they have noticed some other differences between the sexes when it comes to weight loss:

• Women tend to be quick to know when they need to lose weight, men not so much.

“Women see themselves as being fat before men do,” says Shirley Wagoner, a Spokane Weight Watchers leader who has worked for the company for 30 years. “Men maybe see themselves as husky or big as opposed to being overweight.”

• Men often want to go it alone when it comes to dieting; women are quicker to seek out support.

“Men are less likely to look for help,” says Heath Wiltse, general manager and head personal trainer at World Gym in Post Falls.

Says Jenny Stemmerman, area manager for L.A. Weight Loss Center in Spokane: “The big thing is they’re afraid almost to kind of reach out for that help.”

Shawn White of Post Falls went from 220 pounds to 195 pounds and has kept it off for about a year. He lost the weight during a challenge at World Gym in Post Falls. The challenge included regular classes on nutrition and exercise.

“It was more motivating to have some of those classes, even though I like to do my own thing,” White says.

Weight Watchers is trying to bring more men into its program, with the recent launch of a Web site just for men: www.weightwatchers.com/betterformen. The site features diet and exercise tips geared specifically toward men.

Topics include nachos versus wings, hamburger recipes and gadget reviews. There are exercise videos targeting specific muscle groups.

• Men tend to lose weight more quickly than women because they typically have more muscle.

“It’s because of our genetic role in life,” Wagoner says. “We have to nurse babies and men have to slay dragons.”

Coffey noticed that when he did Weight Watchers with his wife and sisters-in-law.

“I would start to work out and I would drop two to three pounds a week, easy,” he says. “And they would be struggling to drop a half a pound, at that, … Men just seem to drop it a little bit easier.”

But that certainly doesn’t mean weight loss is effortless for guys, says Joyce Anderson, area captain for the weight-loss group Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS).

“I kind of feel bad for the men,” Anderson says. “The women say, ‘Oh, they lose weight so easily,’ and yet they have the same problems we do.”

• Men don’t take their success at weight loss quite as personally as women do, Wiltse says.

“Generally men are a little less emotional,” he says. So when those bumps in the road happen, and they will, you’ll twist your ankle, the scale won’t show the weight you lost, … Men tend to deal with it a little bit better. They’ll keep trudging through.”

Says Wagoner: “Men, when they finally make the realization they need to do something about it, for the most part, they’re dead serious. They take it on like a work project, like building a garage.”

• In many cases, men don’t have as much history with dieting as women. This can be both a positive and a negative for them, weight-loss experts say.

“Women know a whole lot more about dieting than men do because women have dieted for years and years,” Wagoner says.

On the other hand, though, it can be easier for men to drop weight because they don’t have a history of yo-yo dieting – and past failures – behind them.

“That can make a big difference,” she says.

• There’s more of a social expectation for men to be big eaters, to wolf down steaks as opposed to salads.

Coffey has noticed that when he has lunch with “the guys.”

“Sometimes when I’m out with the guys, I’ll just stop eating and say, ‘That’s just fine. This is all I want.’ “

They know he’s watching his weight, so they don’t egg him on to overindulge, he says. And he keeps making smaller notches in his belt, proving that his portion-control plan works, he says.

• Women tend to seek motivation in looking better, or fitting into a certain pant size. Men sometimes have other goals.

White, for example, has paid attention to his body fat, which has dropped considerably since he started eating better and exercising more.

“I really don’t want to lose any more (weight),” he says. “I’m just shedding the fat now.”

He works in sales and services accounts at convenience stores, where he routinely comes face-to-face with potato chips, corn dogs and pizza. But now he’s learned how to make better choices. He even dips his fork in salad dressing before each bite instead of dumping the whole cup on his greens, he says.

• Men and women often view exercise differently, too.

“Men know they’re going to have to exercise,” Wagoner says. “Lots of women do, but lots of us don’t, too.”

Coffey has found success by combining the best of both worlds – he has lost weight with his wife.

“I love to cook, and my wife loves to cook, too,” he says. “We were big meat-eaters, but we’ve changed all that.”

They eat red meat rarely and cook a lot of vegetarian Indian cuisine, he says. The couple walk together regularly, too.

His wife has lost some weight, and Coffey has seen his cholesterol and blood pressure drop.

“My doctors are really pleased,” he says.

And there’s another benefit, too, he says:

“To be able to bend over and tie my shoes without losing my breath.”