Women carry 5% more body fat then men. It is Nature's way of protecting her and her potential fetus from starvation.

As a result, women have more storing enzymes and fewer burning enzymes for fat than men. Additionally, the estrogen women have, activates this fat storing enzymes and causes fat cells to multiply.

Women experience more changes in hydration levels than men, because of their menstrual cycle, therefore retaining fluid.This phenomena causes her weight to fluctuate day-to-day during this period. Water retention is a factor during pregnancy, hormonal changes or menopause.

Changes in hydration levels can be attributed to food, caffeine, alcohol, strenuous exercise, stress, illness, or the taking of prescription drugs.

To successfully monitor progress, women should remember to compare weight and body fat percentage measurements over a period of time.

Health Risks

Women that are involved in athletics (especially high performance sports) that emphasize low body weight and extremely low percentage of body fat often experience a decrease in hormones that causes an interruption in their menstrual cycle.

The same condition can occur when a woman is anorexic and her body goes into a semi-starvation mode. Over an extended period of time, this can lead to other health risks such as the loss of bone mass.

On the other hand, obesity has become a serious health threat for women, in every stage of life.

There are conditions that attribute to being overweight that seem to be female-specific which include, increased incidences of breast cancer and endometrial cancer after menopause, particularly for women taking hormone therapy. Other factors that are associated with obesity are various birth defects, infertility, obstetric and gynecological complications. In addition, it has been documented that obesity may cause stress incontinence among women.