Men who want to lose weight sometimes visit the office of family and bariatric physician Scott Rigden bearing graphs and charts, multicolored productions fresh from their computer's printer.

"They love to do that," says the Chandler, Ariz., physician. "They'll say, 'Hey, doc, look at this,' and that tells me they're really motivated, really into it."

Women are more likely to describe their diet with words, not visual aids, he says.

From the way they put on pounds to the way they shed them and keep them off, men approach weight management differently than women do, Rigden has learned. Limited research on the subject confirms his observations.

And each sex could learn a thing or two from the other to enhance their dieting efforts.

Motivation, strategies and even the language men use when talking about dieting can differ, says Karen Miller-Kovach, author of "She Loses, He Loses: The Truth About Men, Women, and Weight Loss" (Wiley, 2007, $22.95, hardcover).

DIFFERENT SENSIBILITIES

Male dieters often describe themselves as big, for example, not fat or flabby as women do, she says. Men's synonyms for being overweight have positive, athletic-sounding connotations.

"Of course, at the end of the day," she says, "anyone who wants to lose weight, man or woman, needs the combination of eating fewer calories and expending more in physical activity."

But understanding how being male or female helps or hinders weight loss and applying what works for the opposite sex to your own efforts can make diets more fruitful, she says.

Jason Pawlicki, 42, of Avondale, Ariz., got serious about weight management a little more than a year ago, when his doctor told him he had high blood pressure.

Health frequently is the prime diet motivator for men, Miller-Kovach says, and appearance is the usual trigger, at least in the beginning, for women and younger men.

"I had been heavy all my life," Pawlicki says, "but had I stayed at that constant weight, it probably wouldn't have been as urgent. I gained a lot as 40 approached."

PART OF IT IS NATURE

Pawlicki, an accountant, joined Weight Watchers and lost 74 pounds, lowering his blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the process.

His hefty weight loss in a relatively short time points to what is probably the most frustrating difference for women, who tend to lose more slowly.

"We counsel couples who go on a program together that the husband probably is going to lose anywhere from 25 percent to even 50 percent faster than the wife," Rigden says. "The woman always says, 'That's wonderful. I'd be happy for him.'

"But by the second month, you sense a little strain behind her smile. By the third month, he's lost, say, 21 or 22 pounds and she's lost 15 to 16, and she's starting to get mad."

The difference has nothing to do with one being more motivated or working harder than the other, he says. Blame biology.

Men's usually greater muscle mass makes them lose weight faster than women of the same weight, Rigden says.

Mitochondria in the muscles are like "little power plants," he says. "The more muscle you have, the more power plants you have, and therefore the higher your metabolic rate. That favors men."

MORE DILIGENT THAN WOMEN

In addition, men tend to move more than women, says author Miller-Kovach, a registered dietitian and chief scientific officer for Weight Watchers International. (The organization recently launched a set of online weight-management tools for men at weightwatchers.com.)

"This is unconscious movement, not necessarily time spent in the gym," she says. "It's the pacing, the fidgeting, the tendency to stand up rather than sit down. This is one area where women can use the male advantage and be very conscientious about taking opportunities to move."

Meanwhile, "Men tend to be very slow to get to the place where they decide they need or want to lose weight," Miller-Kovach says, "but when they do, they can be very dogmatic about it. Then it's like the Battle of Normandy. It's a big invasion: 'I'm cutting out beer, I'm not eating dessert. If you tell me mayo has lots of fat, I'm switching to mustard.' "

For women, she says, "there's a negotiated settlement — 'I'll use low-fat mayonnaise instead of regular' — then the truce is broken. They make small changes, and they play around with their diet to see what might work."

Research suggests the men's strategy is more effective, she says.

Experts say, however, that "couples who choose to lose together are more successful, both in terms of the weight they lose and their ability to keep it off," Miller-Kovach says.

"They have a shared environment, so they're not going to have a lot of junky food in the house, and they're in a terrific place to provide emotional and functional support to their partner."

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