Outrunning the stigma: men and dieting

Everyone knows dieting is different for men than it is for women; for one thing, we men don’t tend to be as hung up about certain aspects of diet as women are – we think we’ve really accomplished something if we meet our protein intake and weight training goals for the week, and care little about the ratio to of fats to carbohydrates, the number of calories consumed, or the amount of sugar in our beer. This is a major improvement from days past, when is simply wasn’t considered manly for a guy to pay attention to what he ate.

Now that it’s become more socially acceptable – and expected – for men to care about their diets and nutrition, the Internet has a lot of great resources to help men get interested in diet. Some of the tools are commercial, but many are free – and nearly all of them have companion apps for smart phones.

Weight Watchers for Men

No guy wants to go to a meeting with other fat dudes and step on a scale once a week, then listen to talks about reducing flab around his waist and hips. I think most men who would try Weight Watchers are afraid it’s mainly for women – but that’s no longer true. In fact, if you Google “weight watchers for men” you will see a whole different homepage for that company than people see when they just go directly to the site. It literally is just for men. I think their online program would be good for men who want to track progress, but don’t want to mix and mingle while they’re doing it. The cost is about $17.95 per month, which won’t appeal to independent, frugal minded men.

The Atkins Diet

This diet is great for guys who love meat, can tolerate a reasonable amount of vegetables, and don’t really go in for sweets. It’s a meat and protein centered approach to optimal nutrition. But it also requires strict attention to the ratios of macronutrients consumed – those are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Atkins is a free diet program available online: just Google the word “Atkins.”

FitDay

This is a website (fitday.com) where anyone can sign up for a free account that gives them access to daily calorie tracking, those ratios of macronutrients, weight loss goals and weight actually lost, nutrition information for thousands of food items in their data base, and other tools that would be helpful in tracking progress online. The free online account seems to work for most of my friends who have tried it, but two people I know paid for a Premium Membership that ditches the ads and offers advanced reporting, plus the ability to sync the online account with FitDay PC software.

There are other great resources out there for men who decide to get serious about dieting, but these three offer plenty to help get started. Until then, fellow men, enjoy getting into your diet and nutrition – it is the manly thing to do.