There are many people around the world who are struggling with weight loss and today we will be looking at one of the main reasons behind this. If you are in a situation where you feel like you simply cannot lose weight no matter how little you eat or how long you stay on the treadmill, you aren't by yourself in this predicament.
In fact, when you begin to understand the breakdown of the science behind this issue you will start seeing noticeable results in a very short space of time, starting with feeling better and eventually resulting in consistent fat loss. []
If we think hard, we are probably all able to name someone in our lives who has had difficulty losing weight. One of the causes could be metabolic damage, which we are going to look at today. This condition is shockingly common in today's looks driven society, thanks to the popularity of fad diets and quick fixes. The following two things are usually associated with individuals suffering from metabolic damage:
1. A very, very restrictive low calorie diet.
2. An unusually long cardiovascular exercise program.
There are more, but these two things are common in almost everybody who has damaged their metabolism in their attempts to lose body fat. Let's look at both aspects in a little bit more detail now.
The main cause of this problem is a poor diet. By following a restrictive eating plan which feels as though your are punishing yourself for wanting to drop body fat you can actually be making it even harder for yourself to succeed without realizing it. This is because your body reacts to a sudden drop in calories by shutting down your body's metabolism in a bid to hang on to what reserves it has left in it's stores, because it doesn't believe you are feeding it enough to survive.
Also, you'll usually see these individuals then following an intense workout program which involves many hours of cardiovascular exercise each week. If you are spending hours of your time in the gym each day running and cycling while following a very low calorie diet you are not helping yourself.
What they don't realize is their body has reacted to keep them alive, nothing more. It's preventing you from doing permanent damage to yourself with your dangerous dieting habits.
What generally transpires after this stage is the individual gets very frustrated at their lack of results and begins mistakenly blaming their failure on their lack of effort. They quit and binge, resulting in a drastic upturn in calories that the body cannot deal with at this stage. Remember, your metabolism has effectively been shut down so hitting it with a massive intake of calories suddenly is going to result in a big gain in unwanted body fat. This is how yo-yo dieting begins.
From this point, the person feels the need to get back on their diet except this time they want to punish themselves for slipping off the rails, so they restrict calories even further and workout for even longer than before. This causes further damage.
So how do you fix this issue?
Correcting a damaged metabolism is actually relatively easy, the main problem comes in getting somebody to recognize they have the condition in the first place. They are usually so caught up in the idea of dropping more fat that they don't want to hear the solution. Getting your metabolism back on track requires a slow, gradual increase in your daily calorie intake over the course of anything from six months to a year. Small increases of around 5% have been shown to yield the most positive results. It's simply about teaching your body how to maintain your weight despite eating more food. You can still exercise during this time, of course, but you should switch your focus away from endless cardiovascular exercise and towards high intensity interval training. It's been shown to yield far superior results as well as requiring much less time in the gym.
The worst thing you can do if you are suffering from metabolic damage is to continue dieting. You can't lose weight because your body is preventing you, so if you truly want to enjoy permanent weight loss then you need to correct this very important issue before you can move on.
In fact, when you begin to understand the breakdown of the science behind this issue you will start seeing noticeable results in a very short space of time, starting with feeling better and eventually resulting in consistent fat loss. []
If we think hard, we are probably all able to name someone in our lives who has had difficulty losing weight. One of the causes could be metabolic damage, which we are going to look at today. This condition is shockingly common in today's looks driven society, thanks to the popularity of fad diets and quick fixes. The following two things are usually associated with individuals suffering from metabolic damage:
1. A very, very restrictive low calorie diet.
2. An unusually long cardiovascular exercise program.
There are more, but these two things are common in almost everybody who has damaged their metabolism in their attempts to lose body fat. Let's look at both aspects in a little bit more detail now.
The main cause of this problem is a poor diet. By following a restrictive eating plan which feels as though your are punishing yourself for wanting to drop body fat you can actually be making it even harder for yourself to succeed without realizing it. This is because your body reacts to a sudden drop in calories by shutting down your body's metabolism in a bid to hang on to what reserves it has left in it's stores, because it doesn't believe you are feeding it enough to survive.
Also, you'll usually see these individuals then following an intense workout program which involves many hours of cardiovascular exercise each week. If you are spending hours of your time in the gym each day running and cycling while following a very low calorie diet you are not helping yourself.
What they don't realize is their body has reacted to keep them alive, nothing more. It's preventing you from doing permanent damage to yourself with your dangerous dieting habits.
What generally transpires after this stage is the individual gets very frustrated at their lack of results and begins mistakenly blaming their failure on their lack of effort. They quit and binge, resulting in a drastic upturn in calories that the body cannot deal with at this stage. Remember, your metabolism has effectively been shut down so hitting it with a massive intake of calories suddenly is going to result in a big gain in unwanted body fat. This is how yo-yo dieting begins.
From this point, the person feels the need to get back on their diet except this time they want to punish themselves for slipping off the rails, so they restrict calories even further and workout for even longer than before. This causes further damage.
So how do you fix this issue?
Correcting a damaged metabolism is actually relatively easy, the main problem comes in getting somebody to recognize they have the condition in the first place. They are usually so caught up in the idea of dropping more fat that they don't want to hear the solution. Getting your metabolism back on track requires a slow, gradual increase in your daily calorie intake over the course of anything from six months to a year. Small increases of around 5% have been shown to yield the most positive results. It's simply about teaching your body how to maintain your weight despite eating more food. You can still exercise during this time, of course, but you should switch your focus away from endless cardiovascular exercise and towards high intensity interval training. It's been shown to yield far superior results as well as requiring much less time in the gym.
The worst thing you can do if you are suffering from metabolic damage is to continue dieting. You can't lose weight because your body is preventing you, so if you truly want to enjoy permanent weight loss then you need to correct this very important issue before you can move on.
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