Women's difficulties with weight loss

[Guest guest]

My fourth grader is studying the Donner party. To refresh your memory, it

is about a group of about 100 people who set out to California in the 1800's

and took a " shortcut " that stranded them in the mountains at winter with

little food. In the end, two-thirds of the men died and two-thirds of the

women survived. Maybe that explains how our difficulties in loosing weight

were at some points in history, a benefit. I know women have more body fat,

and it appears that women hold onto that fat longer. Perhaps we need a

famine:)

[Guest guest]

We went to see the Donner Party Monument last spring. Awesome place. We listened to the park guide tell the story, it was fascinatiing. I asked him afterwards about why the women survived and the men did not. He said there are no real answers but there are theories. One is that women have more body fat to begin with, even when we are thin, men just have more muscle, which uses more energy, which means they need more food. If everyone has the same amount of food the women would naturally do better on it. Also, the men did harder, heavier work, which would require more expended energy. And they did more dangerous things, which put them in a position to die more often.

Barb