The international head of the Weight Watchers organization has said that men are vastly better than women at losing weight because they view it as "a war."
Visiting Australia this week, Weight Watchers' US-based chief executive David Kirchhoff said that this fact intensely annoys women, who are also burdened by a media-led barrage of negative body image stereotypes.
Guys don't want to be seen as going on a diet, they want to be seen as getting more fit.
Kirchhoff admits to his own battle of the bulge before losing 20 kilograms using the program he now runs, and said men are typically more successful at losing weight because they approach it in a combative frame of mind.
He told the Sydney Morning Herald that men can lose weight really quickly when they put their minds to it, almost to the point where when men finally decide to deal with a weight loss issue, it's almost like they go to war.
Kirchoff said that men who are overweight face the same health issues and risks as women, but in most cases without the peer pressure and media-enforced stereotypes to which women are subjected.