Do you ever wonder why is it that you can’t lose weight even after trying every diet that seems to work for other people? Metabolic syndrome could be the culprit. As you will see shortly, someone could be suffering from metabolic syndrome without even knowing for years due to no physical appearance other than not being able to lose weight as easy as other people. And surprisingly, more people suffer from this syndrome than we think.

I believe that taking care of your metabolism should be your first step to having the body of your dreams, and sometimes it is the only step necessary. As a matter of fact, you should be calculating your metabolic rate before starting any diet and workout program (stay tuned for a post on how to easily calculate your metabolic rate). For those of you who need a refresher of what metabolism is: it is the process by which the body breaks down food to be used as energy or stored as fat. It is vital to take care of any underlying problem that might affect your metabolism beforehand, that way you’re not wasting your efforts. I am a big believer that our bodies are created equal and that what works for one person should work for another. However, metabolic syndrome is one of those things where this belief does not apply. According to Dr. Yavari (2006), one of the culprits why many people have trouble losing weight is because they might be suffering from metabolic syndrome.

In his book It Must Be My Metabolism! Dr. Yavari states that there are five commonly seen features in people suffering from metabolic syndrome:

• Abdominal obesity
• High insulin levels
• High triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol
• Elevated fasting blood sugars
• Hypertension

Furthermore, he defines metabolic syndrome as having 3 or more of the above symptoms. That is not to say that having 3 or more of these symptoms automatically means that you suffer from metabolic syndrome. It would be wise to do more testing if you suffer from these symptoms to accurately be diagnosed.

One thing to keep in mind is how much fat cells can contribute to this syndrome. Fat cells secrete hormones and proteins such as resistin, adiponectin, leptin and apelin which cause insulin resistance and inflammation in the blood vessels–two main features that Dr. Yavari associates with metabolic syndrome. Moreover, remember that there are 2 types of fat–visceral and subcutaneous. Visceral fat is found inside the abdomen, subcutaneous fat is found under the skin. When it comes to combating metabolism slow downs, visceral is your bigger enemy out of the two.

After a series of processes, immediately following a meal, especially a meal high in carbohydrates, it’s when metabolic syndrome takes a bigger toll on your body. This is because of your blood’s high content of sugar, fat, and some proteins. The accumulated fatty acids can enter the muscle cells and impede muscles taking up enough glucose to use as energy, sometimes resulting in even higher glucose in the blood (diabetes). This accumulation of substances in the blood, if left in the blood vessels for hours, it will cause inflammation of the blood vessels, racking up to the problem.

The good news is that metabolic syndrome is reversible. A good starting point is to fight off the excess fatty acids circulating in the blood stream. Some of the things you can do to avoid this, is going for a walk after a meal, easing up on your carbohydrate intake by having smaller and more lean meals, and avoiding high fat meals. Dr. Yavari explains a program to combating metabolic syndrome more in detail in his book It Must Be My Metabolism.

If you are interested about learning more about metabolic syndrome and how to reverse your body from it, you can buy Dr. Yavari’s book, It Must Be My Metabolism, here, or you can contact us for more information here. I believe that this book should be one of your first reads to getting to know more about health and fitness and before starting any weight management program.

Yavari, Reza. 2006. It Must Be My Metabolism! McGraw-Hill. New York, NY