As the New Year gets into full swing and earnest dieting resolutions begin to wane, a new survey shows that though it is women who are often accused of being obsessive dieters, men are actually more likely to achieve their weight loss goals.
Nutracheck commissioned the poll which reveals that men generally take a more organised approach to losing weight.
They are more likely to commit to keeping a food and exercise diary, are two times as likely to use an online or mobile diet system rather than attend a weight loss programme, and on average, stay registered for longer than women.
And the statistics show that they are reaping the results of this display of determination: on average, men lose a greater percentage of their body weight than women, at 5.9 per cent in comparison to 4.6 per cent.
Data analysis suggests that there are several reasons behind this disparity between male and female dieting results, and, in fact, Nutracheck's nutritionist Janel Aylott says the outcome of this new research is "probably no real surprise".
"Men are less likely to have 'yo yo' dieted over the years so approach losing weight without the 'emotional baggage' that many women have," she notes, before suggesting that the pressure many women feel to have the perfect, toned and trim body may in fact contribute to difficulty in losing weight.
"Men are often very focused and quite competitive," Aylott adds, and their ability to burn calories more easily as a result of greater body muscle also helps them to reach their goals.
Despite these statistics, and those that show there are more obese men than women in the UK at 65 per cent and 59 per cent respectively, men remain less likely to diet than women. Less than half of men (44 per cent) admitted to attempting to curtail their eating habits, in comparison to a huge 75 per cent of women.
As one might expect, these figures vary according to location, however. Seventy per cent of men living in the East of the UK claimed to have tried dieting, while of Northern men, only 55 per cent have attempted to lose weight.
