Weight Loss For Men

Obesity and overweight in men is often regarded as the overlooked, acceptable results of living a life centered around the stress and responsibilities of balancing a challenging career, family responsibilities, and lack of time to dedicate to a healthy diet and a proper exercise program.  The challenges of weight control in men is often a confusing and unattainable goal that takes second place to the more important role men feel they are required to play in today's complex society.

How Prevalent is Dieting among Men?

Who is the “typical” dieter in America? How old are they, what gender, what income do they have?  Some good data comes from a company named International Demographics, a company located in Houston, TX. Data below comes from The Media Audit, an analysis of adults aged 18+, in the top 85 metro markets. Marketdata Enterprises and others estimate that there are now 71 million adult dieters, and The Media Audit estimates that 38% of them are men. That means there are about 27 million male dieters.   Another research firm, Simmons Market Research Bureau, found that about 34% of dieters are male.   So, men do, in fact diet.

However, they don't try to lose weight quite the same way as women do. Men are much less likely to join structured weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. Just attend a local Weight Watchers meeting and look at the ratio of women to men--it runs about 85-90% female.

Male dieters are more likely to use a do-it-yourself diet plan, such as Slim-Fast (meal replacements shakes and nutrition bars). In fact, Slim-Fast company research in the past has shown that it's customers represent as much s 30% men--probably twice the percentage of commercial programs like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig.

Men are also much more likely to "tough it out" and join a health club to work off the weight themselves. They don't require the same degree of psychological support services. Consequently, men that want to lose weight might join their local Bally's, 24 Hour Fitness, or other chain.

Men usually are not big users of retail diet pills or appetite suppressants, which are much more popular among women (especially young women). However, they are big consumers of diet soft drinks.

Programs such as NutriSystem, which delivers diet food directly to your door, without the need to drive to a weekly meeting with a counselor, are also popular among male dieters. There is no "embarrassment factor" involved. It's easy and anonymous. Just order the food by phone or online.