Most people have struggled with weight loss at one stage or another in their lifetime. If you have ever followed a strict diet and workout program yet had the feeling that you simply can't lose weight no matter what you do, you are not alone.

If you are one of those individuals, today's article will help you to pinpoint the issue. []

If you know someone who seems to try very hard with their diet but cannot shift any more weight no matter what they do, the issue is usually something known as metabolic damage. Metabolic damage is a condition associated with a growing number of people in today's society due to the every increasing pressure to find a quick fix solution. The symptoms are usually associated with individuals who do the following two things:

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.

Poor eating habits are the main cause of a damaged metabolism. Going from one extreme to the other with your food is exactly what your body does not enjoy. Usually, people will find it more difficult to lose body fat when you are following a very low calorie intake because many people don't know when they have gone too far and pushed their body into survival mode. The body begins to shut down it's metabolism, to prevent you burning fat so that it can keep you alive. This issue is often found in those who follow very low calorie, restrictive diets often associated with celebrity gossip magazines.

It also usually corresponds with a very long cardiovascular program in the gym. It's common to hear ladies talking about spending an hour or more running on the treadmill each day while following this type of diet in a bid to lose fat.

Of course, this only adds to the problems and forces the body to work even harder to slow down the metabolism and hang onto it's vital fat stores. So despite working very hard, you physically cannot lose anything. If this sounds like a situation you have been in at some point, you are not alone.

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?

Thankfully, correcting a damaged metabolism is not very hard. It is, however, a process which requires a little bit of time. Increase your daily calorie intake by around 5% over the course of the next few weeks. Once your body has been able to adjust and maintain your weight at this higher calorific intake you are ready to increase further.

Fixing metabolic damage can take a while, sometimes over a year, so be patient. But if you can't lose weight no matter what you do in the gym and you recognize these symptoms from your current lifestyle then you have no reason to carry on with your existing routine. Understanding weight loss is often turned into a form of rocket science, but the facts are simple when you clear away the nonsense. If you have damaged your metabolism, your body needs to repair it before it will allow you to diet effectively.