As we struggle in today's life of convenience foods and high stress careers, we often find ourselves overweight and turning to specialized diets and rigorous exercise in hopes of improving our health and dropping pounds. Along the way, we may be confronted by roadblocks such as slowed weight loss, excessive hunger, muscle soreness, and ignorance of what is truly the best diet for you.

All these roadblocks aside and we can see that there is typically an underlying problem causing our weight gain and slowing potential weight loss. Many refer to this as a slow metabolism. But what does that mean? What is a "slow metabolism" and what is it's underlying cause?

Over at Fitness Spotlight, I came across this great article showing evidence that fatty liver (which is very common) causes a "malfunction with impaired enzyme production (key for thyroid, protein utilization and fat burning), bile development and maintaining hormonal balances (estrogen in control). If you are experiencing weight gain (and trouble losing weight), bloating, high blood pressure, fatigue or high cholesterol, these could just be a few indications that your liver is being overwhelmed and needs your help!our whole body metabolism to slow down, impairs enzyme production..." Specially, "A healthy liver with help you burn and discard of excess fat…a compromised one will slow down that process. Also the liver is tied into the function of the thyroid and its hormones (which regulate full body metabolism), namely in the conversion of T4 to T3."

So, yes your thyroid may be to blame, but that is most likely only secondary to your liver's state of disease health. Have your thyroid checked, but clean up your diet to exclude omega 6's, alcohol, fructose, sugars, and grains...then see where you're at in terms of weight loss. I'll bet you'll be rolling over the fat burning bridge.

Fitness Spotlight suggests:

The largest issue is the storage of too much bodyfat (aka obesity). As you gain more fat (especially around the abdominal…the old “pot belly”), you will also increase all your risks for getting a fatty liver.

 What else? How about a buildup of excess fructose in our diets (high fructose corn syrup and sugar, anyone?)…that builds up in our liver, forms fatty deposits and takes us down the road of potential long term damage.

In the past, fructose was considered beneficial to diabetics because it is absorbed only 40 percent as quickly as glucose and causes only a modest rise in blood sugar. However, research on other hormonal factors suggests that fructose actually promotes disease more readily than glucose. Glucose is metabolized in every cell in the body but all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of test animals fed large amounts of fructose develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics.

What else you may ask? How about excessive sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and omega-6 fatty acids? You can probably also add pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and environmental toxins to the list as well since anything coming into the body is handled by the liver.

Both experimental and epidemiological studies have shown that dietary linoleic acid (polyunsaturated Omega 6 fatty acid) is required for the development of alcoholic liver damage.^[75] Animals fed tallow and ethanol had no liver injury, but even 0.7% or 2.5% linoleic acid with ethanol caused fatty liver, necrosis, and inflammation.

http://raypeat.com/articles/nutrition/oils-in-context.shtml

Sadly it also seems that as childhood obesity is on the rise…so is the potential for long term liver damage with our overweight children.

In a new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat, and a handful have needed liver transplants.Many more may need a new liver by their 30s or 40s, say experts warning that pediatricians need to be more vigilant.

So did we go wrong? The largest issue is the storage of too much bodyfat (aka obesity). As you gain more fat (especially around the abdominal…the old “pot belly”), you will also increase all your risks for getting a fatty liver.

What else? How about a buildup of excess fructose in our diets (high fructose corn syrup and sugar, anyone?)…that builds up in our liver, forms fatty deposits and takes us down the road of potential long term damage.

In the past, fructose was considered beneficial to diabetics because it is absorbed only 40 percent as quickly as glucose and causes only a modest rise in blood sugar. However, research on other hormonal factors suggests that fructose actually promotes disease more readily than glucose. Glucose is metabolized in every cell in the body but all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of test animals fed large amounts of fructose develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics.

http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html

What else you may ask? How about excessive sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and omega-6 fatty acids? You can probably also add pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and environmental toxins to the list as well since anything coming into the body is handled by the liver.

Both experimental and epidemiological studies have shown that dietary linoleic acid (polyunsaturated Omega 6 fatty acid) is required for the development of alcoholic liver damage.^[75] Animals fed tallow and ethanol had no liver injury, but even 0.7% or 2.5% linoleic acid with ethanol caused fatty liver, necrosis, and inflammation.

http://raypeat.com/articles/nutrition/oils-in-context.shtml

Sadly it also seems that as childhood obesity is on the rise…so is the potential for long term liver damage with our overweight children.

In a new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat, and a handful have needed liver transplants.Many more may need a new liver by their 30s or 40s, say experts warning that pediatricians need to be more vigilant.

So did we go wrong? The largest issue is the storage of too much bodyfat (aka obesity). As you gain more fat (especially around the abdominal…the old “pot belly”), you will also increase all your risks for getting a fatty liver.

What else? How about a buildup of excess fructose in our diets (high fructose corn syrup and sugar, anyone?)…that builds up in our liver, forms fatty deposits and takes us down the road of potential long term damage.

In the past, fructose was considered beneficial to diabetics because it is absorbed only 40 percent as quickly as glucose and causes only a modest rise in blood sugar. However, research on other hormonal factors suggests that fructose actually promotes disease more readily than glucose. Glucose is metabolized in every cell in the body but all fructose must be metabolized in the liver. The livers of test animals fed large amounts of fructose develop fatty deposits and cirrhosis, similar to problems that develop in the livers of alcoholics. 

What else you may ask? How about excessive sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and omega-6 fatty acids? You can probably also add pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and environmental toxins to the list as well since anything coming into the body is handled by the liver.

Both experimental and epidemiological studies have shown that dietary linoleic acid (polyunsaturated Omega 6 fatty acid) is required for the development of alcoholic liver damage.^[75] Animals fed tallow and ethanol had no liver injury, but even 0.7% or 2.5% linoleic acid with ethanol caused fatty liver, necrosis, and inflammation.

http://raypeat.com/articles/nutrition/oils-in-context.shtml

Sadly it also seems that as childhood obesity is on the rise…so is the potential for long term liver damage with our overweight children.

In a new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat, and a handful have needed liver transplants.Many more may need a new liver by their 30s or 40s, say experts warning that pediatricians need to be more vigilant.

Excellent! Now, don't just sit there, eat some protein.